Gainward 6800GT GS XP2400 safe to flash?

[Tek]

Hi,

I have a Gainward 6800GT GS XP2400 and I would like to get more speed out of it. I run it 24/7 at 400/1100 but it would be cool with more speed for benchmarks.

Would there be a risk of the card dying or other ill fated stuff, if I modded the stock BIOS by +0.1v or +0.2v(it should be 1.3v stock I think)?

Is there a general succes with flashing 6800GT to 6800U BIOS voltage or has there been some ugly results. I figure the 6800GT GS has a good chance, as 6800GT go, because of Gainward handpicking stuff or something. Is GS cards generally better OCers than the usual stock 6800GT or are they just blowing smoke. It should have 1.6ns RAM or something.

With stock everything on the card(I have not changed or modded anything) I get instabiliy around 430mhz on the core. Sometimes I can bench succesfully at 430mhz, but usually not. I know it could be the chips and all itself that just can't go higher, but isn't there a high chance it is simply because of too little voltage?

Gonna get my OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev2 next week and it could be cool if I could get more out the GPU, as I think that would make me break 30k in 3DMark01 and 14k in 3DMark03. Currently, I only get 29.2k and 13.1k respectively at 400/1100mhz.

I have zero experience modding gfx cards, so a little is much appreciated.

Thanks all :)

[jjcom]

Yeah there always a risk, even more so when you try to flash a GT --> Ultra. It may work or you may end up with a paper weight, or you make end up with a slightly damaged but still usable 6800GT. Its up to you

jjcom

[Tek]

Hmm, not what I wanted to read, but nice to know. I will not do the flash, as I think, I can't RMA a card with a different BIOS than the stock one on it. I just figured since some of the parts of the GS XP2400 are Ultra stuff(at least the 1.6ns RAM is), then it would be somewhat riskless(?), but thanks for the answer :)

[Tek]

Did some research and found out the risk of upping the 3D voltage is quite low. Especially since Gainward guarentees changing BIOS will work.

Just upped voltage to 1.4v 3D with stock Gainward 6800GT GS BIOS. Kept 2D voltage at 1.1v, but I have heard that upping this as well increases OC potential. No problems at all. Have run RTHDRIBL for 2 hours windowed at 1260x776 with 4xAA and LOD Bias at -3.0(0 didn't stress enough IMO), and temps never got above 67C. I hangs around 65C, only spiking to 67C a few times. Ambient temps never got above 37C. Card was OCed to 420/1100mhz. I am going to give it 1.5v at see what happens.

AFAIK the temps are quite alright for this level of OC.

Anyone who knows if there is any truth to upping the 2D voltage to what the 3D voltage is, and thus increasing OC potential?

[Tek]

Tried 1.5v and it didn't help any to get higher OC. Switched to 1.4v 2D/3D and will keep it there for now. No faults or problems at all for now.

[stealthbomber]

My 6800LE card with a hacked GT bios with all the 16:6 pipelines unlocked by default @1.5v manages 430/860 running 24/7, temps with the modded NV5 is around 44C idle and <70C at full load.

I think most cards voltage is constant, not sure if any of them really use the 2D/3D voltage/speed throttle feature that is available on these cards...