eVGA 6600GT AGP Volt mod?

Aright...every thread I've seen regarding volt mods is either insanely confusing, or is for PCI-E.....does anyone know of ANY freaking sites out there that has a volt mod specifically for this card or atleast one thats supposed to work with all 6600GT AGP cards? Is there a pencil mod at all for it?

Also...I have a socket A system as you can see in the sig below...AGP voltage in the BIOS is of course set to 1.5, stock...now does increasing that voltage just boost more voltage to the AGP slot and this is generally not recommended, or does this in anyway act upon the GPU's Vcore and would allow for higher core overclock? Thanks for any assistance

not 100% sure about this but AGP voltage in bios has nothing to do with AGP...it's more like the voltage going to stuff like a northbride on a pentium 4 board...doesn't actually give anymore voltage to the graphics card itself...


answers are all in the BFG card topic

http://www.bentinck-cleeves.demon.co...20voltages.JPG

it's the 0.5565 kohm one..(i think...well...the one which has a empty resistor thing underneath...that controls Vmem and you can just shade that in,..

for vcore you have to look at page 3....you've got to solder on the point on the very side of the board as indicated in the picture then solder the otherend to ground with a VR in between...

I checked that one out, but that wasn't as helpful as I thought. I was hoping there would be a definitive article somewhere with a Vmod for this thing, all I can find anywhere is PCI-E :(

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Originally Posted by Nubius

I checked that one out, but that wasn't as helpful as I thought. I was hoping there would be a definitive article somewhere with a Vmod for this thing, all I can find anywhere is PCI-E :(

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Check my post.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=54641

You can use a pencil to mod this as well.
shade the resistor marked but covered up by the cap here:

http://www.vr-zone.com.sg/Shamino/ino62/inolend1.JPG
Dropping to ~ 360 ohms give u +0.1v
Or solder a 10K VR, with 1 end to ground.

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Originally Posted by LardArse

You can use a pencil to mod this as well.
shade the resistor marked but covered up by the cap here:
Dropping to ~ 360 ohms give u +0.1v
Or solder a 10K VR, with 1 end to ground.

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The mod I posted helps everything with just one 10K Rheostat. The GPU and the memory. I'm not sure why it helps the memory, but it does.

Crull - checking out that link now.

LardArse - I can't even tell what resistor it's pointing to in that photo :( the capacitor is in the way

EDIT: Already crull looking at this image:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...chmentid=26865

I would need a 10K rheostat, and solder it to the little silver solder point the white arrow is pointing at in the blown up section, and then just ground it and badda bing badda boom that's it?

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Originally Posted by Nubius

Crull - checking out that link now.

LardArse - I can't even tell what resistor it's pointing to in that photo :( the capacitor is in the way

EDIT: Already crull looking at this image:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...chmentid=26865

I would need a 10K rheostat, and solder it to the little silver solder point the white arrow is pointing at in the blown up section, and then just ground it and badda bing badda boom that's it?

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Yes that is all you have to do. It increases the voltage for the GPU in 2D mode and 3D mode. For some reason it also helps with the memory. Before I did it to my card my voltages were.

1.45 3D
1.34 2D

The highest my memory would pass the optimal test was 1.03.

After I raised the voltage to

1.65 3D
1.54 2D

The memory would pass the optimal test at 1.09.

If I tested the memory manually the highest I could get before mod was 1.13 after mod it was 1.19.

This is the same mod that is in one of the other threads. I just tried to make it clearer for you.

Raising the voltage gave me a better optimal GPU test from 560 before mod to 579 after mod.

I couldn't keep it like that though because I got green artifacts in 3DMark2003. If your gonna do this you really should have better cooling then the stock heatsink.

******Warning*******

Play it very safe and go very slow turning the rheostat. If you go too low with the resistance on the rheostat you will kill your video card from too much voltage. Make sure before you turn the computer on you measure the resistance at the place with the white arrow to ground. It should be fairly close to 500 Ohms. Mine measured 418 Ohms before the mod, yours might be slightly less then 500 also.
Once you start up the computer, measure the voltage at one of the places I marked on the picture. It doesn't matter which one you measure at. It should be around 1.2-1.3 volts in 2D mode and then it should rise to around 1.45 in 3D mode.

DONT USE A FREAKING RHEOSTAT. Use a 10K trimmer, jjust like every other mod. WTF is this rheostat stuff, you need at least a 15 turn cermet trimmer for this mod....

-CaT

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If your gonna do this you really should have better cooling then the stock heatsink.

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yeah I only plan on doing this after I get water cooling for the card...won't be for another 3 weeks probably, but I want to have my info down long before then.

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DONT USE A FREAKING RHEOSTAT. Use a 10K trimmer, jjust like every other mod. WTF is this rheostat stuff, you need at least a 15 turn cermet trimmer for this mod....

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I was under the impression we were just talking about a 10k ohm variable resistor...which I hardly know anything about honestly.

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Make sure before you turn the computer on you measure the resistance at the place with the white arrow to ground.

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How do you measure it without power going through the card? I thought it had to have power going to it? I'm assuming when you say this I can put the hot lead from the multimeter on that solder point the white arrow is pointing at, and the black at a ground point and it'll read it even with no power or something?

Also in that blown up pic, are you just pointing out with the red arrow that that's where that solder point to the left leads to?

Just making sure I got it clear, I need to solder the wire to that solder point with the white arrow pointing to it, and not that tiny ass leg of that chip that has the red arrow pointing?

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Originally Posted by CaTalyst.X

DONT USE A FREAKING RHEOSTAT. Use a 10K trimmer, jjust like every other mod. WTF is this rheostat stuff, you need at least a 15 turn cermet trimmer for this mod....

-CaT

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A rheostat and a trimmer do the same exact thing electrically. It is a variable resistor just like a trimmer. I used the term rheostat because that is the term I see a lot of people use even though they really use trimmers. I also posted this in the other thread he should have looked at to see. ---> "***Try to only use a 20-25 turn rheostat and make sure you have it set at 10K ohms before you turn the computer on or you will destroy the card.***"


The trimmer I used was 5K at 25 turns. A 5K will work, but 10K is better. If you use a 5K you start off with slightly more voltage then default.

In this case you should use a trimmer because it will be more precise with less chance of setting it too low. If you only have a rheostat or potentiometer then those will work, because they do the same exact thing, but your taking a big chance. You could even use a fixed resistor if you know ohms law to figure out the value.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nubius

yeah I only plan on doing this after I get water cooling for the card...won't be for another 3 weeks probably, but I want to have my info down long before then.

I was under the impression we were just talking about a 10k ohm variable resistor...which I hardly know anything about honestly.

How do you measure it without power going through the card? I thought it had to have power going to it? I'm assuming when you say this I can put the hot lead from the multimeter on that solder point the white arrow is pointing at, and the black at a ground point and it'll read it even with no power or something?


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You don't measure resistance with power on. You measure the resistance with an Ohm meter before you turn the power on to get a reading of the starting resistance. This is for safety, in case you connected something wrong or have the rheostat or trimmer set too low. Once your sure you have the correct resistance then you can turn the power on.

Change the setting on the meter to DC volts and you measure the voltage. Then you turn the rheostat, dimmer, trimmer, variable resistor whatever you want to call it down. They all do the same exact thing. While you are measuring the voltage you lower the resistance on the rheostat or trimmer... until the voltage you want is shown on the meter display.

************************************************** *****
Also in that blown up pic, are you just pointing out with the red arrow that that's where that solder point to the left leads to?

************************************************** *****
Yes, if you mean the small red arrow that is on the square chip. The white arrow and red arrow are technically the same place. They are connected by a circuit trace on the video card. It is easier to solder where the white arrow is though. If you try soldering to the chip you might damaged the chip, get solder on the other pins..etc etc. So solder at the white arrow.

************************************************** *****
Just making sure I got it clear, I need to solder the wire to that solder point with the white arrow pointing to it, and not that tiny ass leg of that chip that has the red arrow pointing?

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************************************************** ******

You could solder to the leg on that chip, but your better off using the white arrow location instead. Less chance of having any problems.


**CaTalyst.X is right about using a trimmer if you can find one easy enough.**

It makes the mod safer because you have 20-25 turns of the dial to work with. This makes it harder to set the resistance down too low which would ruin the video card.

Trimmer - Very precise and usually small variable resistor -2 connections

Rheostat - A variable resistor, not very precise - 2 connections

Potentiometer - A variable resistor, not very precise - 3 connections. If you only use two of the connections on it then it is considered a rheostat

Those are all considered variable resistors.

See if you can find a trimmer, I don't want to see you have any trouble.

yeah rheostat is gonna be a single turn card killer imho.

-CaT

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yeah rheostat is gonna be a single turn card killer imho.

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lol cool deal. I thought that the 'variable resister' and 'potentiometer' were the same thing, or so said 1 article I read regarding the things, but yeah I'm a newb with getting down to volt mods besides penciling a resistor lol...but this one seems a bit easier than the vdd mod I've tried on my ABit previously..

I asked for a variable resistor at my local radioshack and the guy didn't even know what the hell I was talking about, so we'll see if I can even find a specific 'trimmer'

Also I couldn't solder if my life depended on it, so theres no way in hell I'd try and solder to that tiny leg, I was just making sure that that solder point with the white arrow going to it was indeed the right place to solder the lead to from the resistor

Thanks for the info guys. I'm feeling much more educated about doing this volt mod in the future :D :toast:

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Originally Posted by CaTalyst.X

yeah rheostat is gonna be a single turn card killer imho.

-CaT

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lol...I thought he would realize it by the information I posted about the turns.
To play it even safer he should use a fixed resistor in series, but I didn't want to confuse him with even more details.

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Originally Posted by Nubius

lol cool deal. I thought that the 'variable resister' and 'potentiometer' were the same thing, or so said 1 article I read regarding the things, but yeah I'm a newb with getting down to volt mods besides penciling a resistor lol...but this one seems a bit easier than the vdd mod I've tried on my ABit previously..

I asked for a variable resistor at my local radioshack and the guy didn't even know what the hell I was talking about, so we'll see if I can even find a specific 'trimmer'

Also I couldn't solder if my life depended on it, so theres no way in hell I'd try and solder to that tiny leg, I was just making sure that that solder point with the white arrow going to it was indeed the right place to solder the lead to from the resistor

Thanks for the info guys. I'm feeling much more educated about doing this volt mod in the future :D :toast:

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You can do a pencil mod for the memory on your card. I have done that on my card also. I don't think it is a good idea to mix it with the mod I have been posting about though. If you want to try it let me know, just don't mix it with another mod. If you do this mod also check the voltage on the memory. I never had a chance to check it. I disconnected the mod until I have better cooling. I would really like to know why this mod is helping the memory so much. The trimmer does not even touch the memory circuits AFAIK.


That doesn't say too much about the guy working at Radio Shack. Seems like he was using trimmer in a general way, like I was using Rheostat. Everything is rheostat to me now.

This will work and they should have it in your local store.

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...t%5Fid=271-343

That trimmer has three connections so I guess you could call it a trimmer poteniometer. If you only use two connections then I guess you could call it a trimmer rheostat. You only need to use two connections for the mod. In that case your supposed to solder two of the legs together so they are a pair. When your dealing with circuits like this your not supposed to leave empty connections. They can act like an antenna and pick up interference which could interfer with the circuit. I doubt it would hapopen in this case, but why take the chance?

Turn the dial all the way in one direction. Measure the resistance on the legs. I assume you know the symbol Omega, which is the symbol for resistance. The last symbol down on this page denotes Ohms.

http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/do.../iso-grk3.html


The two legs that measure 0 Ohms are the two legs you solder together. In this case it is most likely the center and one of the side connections.

I used one almost the same but is only 5K. I used two part epoxy to glue it to the back side of the video card. Almost in the same place like in the picture. That makes it easier to turn it with the computer on. Just remember don't measure resistance with the power on. I don't think anything bad will happen though if you do. Only measure voltage with the power on.

Solder to the spot with the white arrow. If your feeling bold then go for the tiny leg on that IC chip. :banana:


I have made my own word called Trimmostat.

Yeah, I'm familiar with my multimeter enough and measuring resistance and whatnot. Out of those 3 legs, which two would you wire together? The two on the left in that pic that are closest to each other? Does that knob that you turn 'click' or anything, or is it basically you just gotta know how much you turn it? I wont' be trying a pencil mod at all knowing this mod.

Also, You can measure the resistance of your card without it being turned on? When you said to check it before turning on the comp? I could measure off the leg that is then soldered though to check for the Ohms right making sure it's near 500, and obviously if it's like at 200 then I've turned the thing the wrong way haha. Grr this electrical stuff makes me nervous. Seems simple enough but in my experience 'what can go wrong..will' is very predominate in computer terms lol

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If your feeling bold then go for the tiny leg on that IC chip

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lol not gonna happen.... not bold at all haha

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I have made my own word called Trimmostat.

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There we go...now I can really confuse the guy 'Yeah do you have a 10k potentiotrimmostat?' hehe

:brick: <---- radioshack guy

[QUOTE=Nubius]Yeah, I'm familiar with my multimeter enough and measuring resistance and whatnot. Out of those 3 legs, which two would you wire together?


They call the center position of a potentiometer a "wiper". Because it slides over a resistor inside to get a different value resistance between the two other connections. It is usually always the middle(slider) to one side it doesn't matter which side you use in this case. If you use a different side the only thing that changes is the direction of the dial to raise or lower the resistance. In some rare cases you have to measure because they don't put the wiper in the middle. So just take your Ohm meter and measure between the legs. Find the two legs that measure 0 Ohms and solder them together. Then if you measure what is left you should have 10K (10,000) Ohms on what is left.
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The two on the left in that pic that are closest to each other? Does that knob that you turn 'click' or anything, or is it basically you just gotta know how much you turn it?

The knob or dial on those trimmers doesn't stop it just keeps turning. Once you get it set to 10K it just keeps turning without doing anything unless you start turning it in the other direction then the resistance changes.

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Also, You can measure the resistance of your card without it being turned on?

Yes, you can measure it before you do anything at all. Take the card out to measure it. Be very careful with static electricity. Take the probes on your meter and touch them together. The meter should read 0 Ohms. Put one probe on the leg or that solder point with the white arrow and the other probe goes to a ground on the card. You can use the slot cover on the card as a ground or you can even use the two tabs that are soldered to the back of the card to hold on the molex connector. You can also find all the other grounds by putting one probe on the slot cover and then testing other places with the probe. If you measure 0 Ohms then its connected to the place your touching with the other probe.

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When you said to check it before turning on the comp? I could measure off the leg that is then soldered though to check for the Ohms right making sure it's near 500, and obviously if it's like at 200 then I've turned the thing the wrong way haha.

Yes, with the card out of the computer. You should measure around 500 Ohms. With the 10K trimmer attached and it is set at 10K you should measure slightly under 500 Ohms. It all depends what you have with no trimmer attached. So measure it first with nothing attached then I can tell around what it should be with the trimmer attached. No matter what though it should always be around 400-500 Ohms.

If you set it to 200 Ohms you might ruin the card.

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Grr this electrical stuff makes me nervous. Seems simple enough but in my experience 'what can go wrong..will' is very predominate in computer terms lol

lol not gonna happen.... not bold at all haha

The worse mistake you can make is not testing the resistance before you turn the computer on. After you attach the trimmer and if it is set to 10K and you don't measure anything close to 500 something is wrong.

Take your meter and connect the probes to the trimmer to measure the resistance. You don't need any power for this. Turn the dial and watch the resistance change on the meter. It should go from 0-10,000 (10K) Ohms. Solder any two legs that measure 0 Ohms between them.

well, apart from shading resistors...a couple of things i need before i set out on these mods...A non broken soldering iron tip....
These 10k 25 turn "things" (Best not try and get too technical by the look of this thread)
but....how actually do you tell which way to turn a trimmer/potentiometer?

oh yeah..last and not least...a multimeter ^^

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Originally Posted by DeltZ

well, apart from shading resistors...a couple of things i need before i set out on these mods...A non broken soldering iron tip....
These 10k 25 turn "things" (Best not try and get too technical by the look of this thread)
but....how actually do you tell which way to turn a trimmer/potentiometer?

oh yeah..last and not least...a multimeter ^^

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There might be a standard direction to turn the dial, but I don't think so. Such as clockwise increases resistance. With most cases it doesn't really matter because it wouldn't ruin anything like with a fan, but this is different.

The only way to know you can know for sure is by measuring it which I would surely do in this case to play it safe.

Connect up the probes, and turn the dial while you watch the meter. When it reads 10K connect it to the board. Then double check after it is connected and now it should measure around 500 Ohms.

Radio Shack usually has some cheap meters on sale for this kind of stuff. I have one that cost $15 if I remember right that works pretty well and is accurate.

Yeah I got mine(multimeter), was like a $20 one with 29 ranges on it. Works fairly good and to my knowledge is accurate because I've used it to read batteries and when I first got it, my wall outlet and it seems right on.

Thanks for the help and info crull, much appreciated

yeah cheers crull...properly spelt out diagrams for us volt mod noobs :P (well me anyway)

I'm a complete volt mod noob too Deltz...I was vdd modding my last ABit board, and the tip of the multimeter connected two tiny ass legs of a MOSFET....ZZZZAP! Chipset dead :(

I don't have the steady hands for that kind of stuff, but this one I think i can handle

Your welcome.

Just be very careful. I don't want to see anyone ruin a new video card.

Make sure to double check the resistance before you turn the computer on. Also turn the dial on the trimmer very slowly to raise the voltage as your watching the voltage on the meter going up in value.

Good Luck guys!

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Also turn the dial on the trimmer very slowly to raise the voltage as your watching the voltage on the meter going up in value.

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Turn the dial while the computer is still on? I figured I'd just turn it a tad, power up, check it, power down, turn it a tad more...is it safe to turn it while the thing is on?

MSI in the future will have software adjust the VGPU and Vmem....wish eVGA would bust out a program like that, would be nice and helpful right about now.

Those voltage spots to read the 3D voltage and whatnot, look like silver rings...do they dip down into the board at all? Can't tell if I'm supposed to measure the outside edge or the innards, inwhich if it's the innard part it'd make me worried of the multimeter hitting the edge of the metal ring and sparking :/

ha ul with past dead chipset...worst i've done? touched a 3.3 volt connection bare wire with the hard drive casing...instant power off...massive spark...metal melted :P
....man i was scared...

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Originally Posted by Nubius

Turn the dial while the computer is still on? I figured I'd just turn it a tad, power up, check it, power down, turn it a tad more...is it safe to turn it while the thing is on?

MSI in the future will have software adjust the VGPU and Vmem....wish eVGA would bust out a program like that, would be nice and helpful right about now.

Those voltage spots to read the 3D voltage and whatnot, look like silver rings...do they dip down into the board at all? Can't tell if I'm supposed to measure the outside edge or the innards, inwhich if it's the innard part it'd make me worried of the multimeter hitting the edge of the metal ring and sparking :/

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If your testing the "voltage" not resistance, it is actually safer to do it while the computer is on because you can see what is happening on the meter. If you set the dial when the power is off you have no way to know for sure how much voltage your adding...which can be very....very....very bad!

Those two test points on the picture I posted go through the board and connect to capacitors on the other side. Those are the exact spots to measure the voltage. Each circle is connected to a different capacitor for 2D and 3D voltage. They both supply voltage for 2D and 3D so it doesn't matter which circle you measure the voltage at. If you measure the voltage at one circle, the voltage should be very close or the same at the other circle. There is not an inner circle or outer circle for this -------> O, the whole O can be measured at.

Here is how I test. I bought some alligator clips at Radio Shack. I connect one alligator clip to the black test probe on the meter. Make sure you cover the connection well with rubber cover on the alligator clip. Then I connect the alligator clip to the case of the computer some place out of the way. Because the case of the computer should be grounded.

Then I take small piece of shrink tubing and cover the red test probe, and shrink it so that only the very tip of the probe is left showing. That way you have less of a chance of shorting something out by accident with the probe.

In this case it really doesn't matter because your only touching a circle with nothing else close to it. I only covered my probe because sometimes I take measurements at other places which there is a risk of shorting something out.

Once I got the black probe connected I only have to hold the red test probe on the circle. I use my other hand to turn the dial with small screwdriver while I watch the DC voltage on the meter display going up.

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Originally Posted by DeltZ

answers are all in the BFG card topic

http://www.bentinck-cleeves.demon.co...20voltages.JPG

it's the 0.5565 kohm one..(i think...well...the one which has a empty resistor thing underneath...that controls Vmem and you can just shade that in,..

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is it possible to solder a pot onto either end of that resistor? as a more permanent vmem mod?

and if so what value? 10k?

cheers