The 2600Pro - Abusing her to the max

[lism]

Hello guys

Maybe some of you seen it already, but we're doing a contest based up the Ati Radeon 2600Pro, with 256MB of DDR3 Memory, PCI-Express from the brand 'peak'. I've almost finished a few mods , but i'm here to kindly ask what can be done more.

First of all i would like to show you guys what i've did in the past time with the card.

The card comes with a default voltage of 1.3V for the GPU, and 1.80 for the memory. The memory is from the brand samgsung and locked at 1.1ns and runs at 700MHz. In theory this should be a maximum of 900MHz, but with even a voltmod it's hard to bypass the 850MHz. The Core is clocked at 600Mhz.

The cooling is a default heatsink with a solid base, from peak.



This is the actuall card. The whitemarked spots are the capacitors that are changed with ones with bigger values. The original values are:

5X Sacon FZ 1500uF 6.3Volt ESR=0.022 Ripple=1800
3X Sacon FZ 470uF 16Volt ESR=0.036 Ripple=1150

and replaced with

5X Samxon GC 2200uF 6.3Volt ESR=0.010Ω Ripple=2900 mA
3X Samxon GC 1000uF 16Volt ESR=0.012Ω Ripple=2220 mA

At higher voltages it should be some little more stable for the card itself, so it might help at higher clock-speeds. After that i was done with soldering the caps, here's the result:


I made a mistake cause i needed to put the on the other side of the card.. This position won't let me use my VF1000CU cooler cause the caps are too high. I'm going to resolder these caps again but then on the other side of the card

Since the 2600Pro does'nt come along with a PCI-express Powerconnector, and only takes power from the PCI-express slot which is technically capable of 75watts, we thought making our own boostermod would help:


I have'nt done this yet, but i'm surely going to solder this part. My motherboard does have an seperate Molex-connector on the board itself for PCI-express cards. I'm not sure if the boostermod would work. Again, if i'm changing the caps towards the other side, i might get in trouble with the boostermod.

For the voltmod we use a 250K'ohms resistor that will allow us to raise the core voltage up. There's no way you can adjust any of this by bios, neither does memory timings do, so we're locked at hardmodding. After applying this GPU voltmod some people encountered an "OVP" that will shut down the card if it's higher then 1.4Volts (overvoltage protection). At first sight there was a sollution to bypass this, by also tricking the OVP-thing by a resistor:


However this is kinda clumsy considering you have to increase the voltage in order to let the mod 'think' its at the correct voltage. Since i had'nt any resistors left i removed the SMD just for fun.. to see what happend. The card did exactly the same as it would do with a voltage higher then 1.4v, then i bridged the SMD making the OVP completely go away, and crank the voltage up to 1.6V lol



This is an example-picture , not the actuall. But basicly it shows on the left the VGPU-mod with the resistor, and the second SMD onto the right needs to be bridged in order to completly vanish Some say it's dangerous consindering it would shortcut but hey my card is still running for 2 straight days now since that i applied the 'bridge'-mod.

My current cooling due to the capacitors being too high, is a modded VF900. The original fan is removed and a 6000rpm fan has taken place.


This is just the test-setup yet, in order to test out the temperature and all. The actuall benching has'nt begun yet.

So.. The basic rules are for this contest

3dmark 2001, Nature scene only, standard settings, 1024x768 etc etc, Lod-tweaks are allowed, any type of system is allowed, modding of the crystal is not allowed, as long as you post a clear screenshot of GPU-z, CPU-z, 3dMark, and some extra it's alright.

I'm going to use my own rig for this setup. Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ at 2.6GHz (i'm going to push it up towards 2.9GHz)
4x512MB A/vdata PC6400 @ 580MHz (super-memory! )
Western Digital Raptor 36GB , 10.000RPM, A Nforce 550 based motherboard (Gigabyte M55S3) and ofcourse a stripped windows XP installation.

Do you guys have tips left after reading this for the videocard with overclocking? I know watercooling or Dryice is a sollution but i did all that stuff away a while ago. I found myself a little more safe with plain aircooling. I might use the cold days in my barn , to get the lowest temperatures. Is there anything that i can do yet?

I know i have'nt mentioned Vmodding the memory, but for some reason increasing the voltage of the memory it only gets worse, and we don't know why. It supposed to be 1.1NS (900MHz) but we can't even get it up that fast

Tips? Some guy already had 1005MHz core with these cards .. We ordered a batch of 22 cards from my work.

[cc-tuner]

Well well
What have we got here...

I think your best shot with aircooling is just getting in you barn and get a pair of 12cm fans... Get the plastic of the cooler (or if your using the cooler on the last pic you wont have to do that) and let those 2 fans pump the air at the copper base

That together with the cold air we have in Holland should do fine.! so go over there and start getting 1100Mhz on the damn core

[lism]

Well i'm trying to gather some last final tips from the big guys over here.. I'm pretty sure i've done alot .. All that requires left is for me to change the location of the capacitors so that i can install the VF1000 from zalman, together with a huge-fan, install the boostermod while i'm at it lol and last but not least try to keep the core as cool as possible and raise up the voltage at highest lol.

[Mod_Aap]

VDDR, VGPU and OVP are orginaly created by me.
So if you have any questions or thougts about them you can ask them here.

[lism]

Yes, thanks Snot_aap for making these mods avaible for everyone in the contest. The second Bypass was made by me lol.

I'm pretty sure this will stay in the database for a long time for anyone who holds a 2600x card and trying to oc it.

[Jochenp]

Could you link me to the contest? Is it on tweakers.net?

[lism]

The link towards the contest (topic, in dutch) is here.

So far i've managed to switch the caps, and use my vf1000 (modded one lol). I have'nt done the booster-mod, well i did but it failed for 3 times. it made somehow shortcut all the time and it did not boot up.



That is, my partial aircooler lol. I really needed it, cause i've bin pusing the card up to 1100MHz core right now at 2.0V. The card really gets warm, the capacitors get heated up and also the transistor really work hard. If i had'nt a full cover card-cooling i woud'nt be able to get so far yet. So far i'm highest clocker on the contest, but i lack score lol (point is is to get a highest as possible Nature-FPS).

I'm still looking for tweaks, nothing really works here at my side.

the card temperature stays at 40 stressed (degrees) with Air, i'm trying to go for the 1200MHz record, which would be a 100% overclock, on air

To be continued. And i'll post pics of my rig soon

[ownage]

Could you link me to the contest? Is it on tweakers.net?

They also have a contest @ hardware.info, but you can't subscribe anymore.
92 Dutch overclockers abusing a XFX 8400GS

[lism]

Well i made it partially.

I've voltmodded the card up to 2.15V with a Corespeed of 1140MHz... Almost 60MHz more and a 100% OC + WR lol. Too bad the card does'nt stay stable at benches.. any higher voltage gives akward sounds on the back of the card so i'm not going to take that risk to destroy her (yet) lol.

The temperature was idle at 22 degrees and 40 degrees stressed. With that amount of volts going trough the core-chip the card itself really warmed up to it's max... The capacitors where getting hot and also the transistors...

So far i have the number 1 spot now unless the guy comes out with a new score, which i surely think he will. I've showed that it's possible to run a 2.15V Vcore with a 2600Pro, and now it's up the rest lol.

[brandinb]

I think you need one of these

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/arcoacs1.html

and two of these on the front of the card and one on the back of the card

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/de12ff.html

try to oc the pci-e frequency it may help a little
if the new caps are still getting hot i guess remove and try larger ones :P
also try to lower the vmem voltage you may be able to clock higher than stock volts. maybe try playing with the timings. oh and good luck to 1200mhz core.

[quake6]

Can you show how you vmod your card? I'm interesting in it...

[lism]

Mweh.. I've spended 40 euro's for the VF1000, and it's pure copper instead of the Accelero... I've placed 2 of my own fans on the card like this:


Here's the card in detail:


As you can see right near the Crossfire-bridge, there's a variable resistor making me able to crank the voltage up from 1.3 to highest value possible. Also the OVP as you can see on the mod, is bridged. There was an ic making it impossible to bypass 1.4v, but i soldered her out

The red wire is used to measure the VGpu voltage, put it on a multimeter and the Ground on the system or PSU or whereever you wish to put the ground cable on

A failed boostermod:


Even tho i soldered the correct way, it still did not start at all with these wires on 'm / without being attached. I removed 'm and the card worked fine. The PCI bus was maxed out at 112MHz with a voltage of 0.150v extra.

This was the setup itself:


Pretty huge tho. The card leaned towards the right since the weight of the heatsink + fans, there was another fan to cool down the capacitors and the back of the card. I had a 1140MHz stable, but any higher voltage there where sparks n stuff as i said before

I'm quitting this task. I need my system and i can't run on a half win2k installation lol. I'm selling my card towards someone else in the contest who blew his own card up for a unknown reason. I know now i'm the number one in the contest lol



realtime stats.

[nosboost300]

very nice mod! keep on going i needa find me 2 vf1000's for my gtx's

[cc-tuner]

Lucky me.! i'am the one buying his card and with some subzero it should be possible to get 1200MHz at the core.. which should be a WR? Anyways i hope i'll get the 1200MHz with a stable run :P i beleve it would be +- 2.3V on the core or so to do it

In 1 or 2 weeks i hope i'll have the card and then will see if 1200MHz on the core is possible!!! wish me luck

[quake6]

Could you maybe post some bigger image? I cant see what did you soldered...

[lism]

Could you maybe post some bigger image? I cant see what did you soldered...

I soldered a 250Kohm resistor onto a SMD tricking to crank up the voltage.

As i said i would stop doing the card and sell it towards someone else on the contest, i'm resuming my oc.

I got in touch with a old buddy who holds a Phasechange-device which is going to be used on the card, to get the 1200MHz speed with a full bench.



Sorry no better pics yet, but we're going to meet up and do this stuff in my house very soon. The card btw is removed from its cooler, and already 'stinks' like something had it too hot for a long time lol.

[-Acid-]

very good thread

cannot wait to see whats going to happen the card now with phase strapped onto it!!!!

keep it coming

[cc-tuner]

Well Lism have to tell you, if you reach the 1200Mhz i wont buy the card
No need to crunch it any further then that cuz i think it should be an instant death
And if you wont reach the 1200Mhz i wont buy it 2 cuz then it aint possible...

Anyways i wish u goodluck

[lism]

I'm pretty much curious myself too. A 100% OC + WR is pretty much the fastest 2600Pro card your getting lol. This is my first 'extreme' video-card mod, we did buy original a X1650XT for 43 euro's a piece but by fault of Peak itself, i managed to trade back all the x1650XT cards for 22 2600Pro cards. (they putted a 1600Pro chip on a x1650XT card...)

But yes. I'll keep you guys posted. CC-Tuner, no hard feelings. Who knows if the card does more or less then 1200MHz. We can't tell, but i can tell the clockspeed is being held down due to it's heat.

[lism]

*Kick.

The phase-change is a no-go anymore. The guy does'nt have avaible time considering he is in his exams and works and all that stuff. I've bin thinking, but the only high-cooling-device that i have is my own fridge lol. I think it's a little too dangerous leaving a computer in a fridge considering the PSU-cables are less then 20CM.

What i'm going todo is finish the Boostermod, try to find the Max avaible OC on my system, and find a way to get even more cooler stuff with air-cooling. A friend of mine has bought once a device in the summer that you need to fill with frozen blocks in order to make it cool. My idea was to put this thing full with such blocks (the same thing you put in a mobile-beer-carrier ) and set it to the max pointed towards the videocard.

it's too bad i can't do anything with Phasechange, or anything with minus 0 degrees, but i'll try to reach the 1200MHz stable OC, and increase the leading position. Right now i'm second and the contest ends somewhere half februari.

To be continued.

Update

Upcoming saturday i'll have a Phasechange device that does minus 50 degrees! Some guy was able to lend it out towards me since he bought something from me in the past!

[lism]

Like i said i was going todo before, i've did it today!

Thanks to a guy what bought something from me a while ago he loaned his Vapochill out from Asetek. It's a Full-tower ATX-case which is designed only to cool the CPU. With some clever sollutions i'll be able to cool the 2600Pro down with hopefully at least minus 10



Only problem is is that there are 2 brackets which are menth for Sockets only, and not a videocard. I've measured the distance and it should fit with the smaller one:



So right now i'm going to make the block fit first, then isolate the whole stuff and do a pretest.

[[XC] gomeler]

Wish you the best of luck with that Vapo XE, it should hold your 2600Pro rather well. Let us know if you crack 1200MHz with it!

[lism]

Sure i will



Pre-test of the vapochill and card. So far it goes down at minus 40 degrees. I've used toe-nail-polish of my ex gf lol.. i knew saving it somewhere would come in handy some day The white stuff that you see is not ice but White-silicon. I'm doing precautions on everything and making sure everything is sealed tight.

My gf is coming tomorrow, so there will be no playing yet I'll get todo this upcoming monday or so.

Stay tuned.

[lism]

Too bad.

I destroyed the laddy. Last night i've setted everything up, and when i launched up i had no image. I've double checked everything, it took me a while to discover but the problem was was 1 capacitor that was half loose for some reason. Took the iron and soldered it on again.

This was the setup:


After i managed to get her running all i saw was this:



The green cursor on the bottom was the Windows Setup lol. Too bad. This experiment misserabley failed lol.