Sparkle 8800gt Voltmod - no reference design?!

[largon]

vMEM would be pin#4 on APW7067N to ground through a VR rated 20x higher than the resistance between pin#4 and ground.

micheskillz,
50kΩ works for you too.

[micheskillz]

Great Big thanks to you largon!

Edit:
vMEM: 2.05v !? wtf
vGPU: 1.10v idle / 1.07 load



EDIT2: vMEM mod

[Heinzkopf]

Nice to hear from another owner of a sparkle 8800gt

As i see u also have a vGPU drop while running under LOAD. I still ask myself why our Sparkle Cards have this issue.

btw what are u going to set ur max. vGPU at? Here i have 1.18v idle and 1.15V load right now

[micheskillz]

Nice to hear from another owner of a sparkle 8800gt

As i see u also have a vGPU drop while running under LOAD. I still ask myself why our Sparkle Cards have this issue.

btw what are u going to set ur max. vGPU at? Here i have 1.18v idle and 1.15V load right now

Hehe, indeed
Same revision too
Thou i got a different "stock" HSF on my newest sparkle-card.. (this is my second sparkle 8800GT as the other one crapped out and only ran in 8x PCI-E mode)
Check this out


There is heatpipes going throught it and ALOT of fins under the cover.
Looks like an Accelero S1, doesn't it? Great temps with it, but i changed it to
a HR-03 GT anyways, because of the vGPU-mod i'm going to do asap. And first of all because of the noise that fan made even on 25%.

Shouldn't it always be some kind of drop between idle and load? Like CPU's, it's a built in "function" and that it should be that way? Maybe not as much as 0.03v, but i don't see it as a problem really As i don't want the voltage going up when i don't want it too

Btw, Is there any special about the hynix memory that these cards use? Usualy there is Qimonda and Samsung, but what about Hynix?


I'm going to use between 1.25 to 1.30v for vGPU and 2.15v for vMEM (for 24/7) if that'll be enough for me to reach my first goal of an OC up to 800Mhz core and 2000 shader 2200+ memory.
Also gonna try up to 1.4v when doing benchmarks later on, if that will help the OC even more

What's youre max OC on stock-voltage btw? Got any pics of your mod?


My max OC was 748 / 1728 / 2206 on my first sparkle-card, this new card craps out at wimpy 100mhz less on everything So that's another reason why i'm doing a vGPU/vMEM mod, because that previous OC gave me alot.


EDIT: My mod so far, for vGPU and vMEM reading, waiting for my VR's.




Easy access for vGPU/vMEM-reading

[Heinzkopf]

Hi,
yes i also don't care about that load drop because i also had this on my p35 board before mod.
before doing this mod i just could reach about 650mhz clock with default voltage (1.05v--- with 1,1 I could set the clock to 680)
that was the reason for asking for a voltmod here.

ram i always can set to 1030 without voltage increase.

I'm still not sure whether I should do a RAM voltage mod too.. Because I dont wanna create more heat on my card :p it's still hot enough. And i think a higher ramclock doesnt have that much effect on performance..

Yea i could take some pics but there is nothing special to see. i just soldered the VR between those points and put it on my card with some glue :p

[micheskillz]

Hi,
yes i also don't care about that load drop because i also had this on my p35 board before mod.
before doing this mod i just could reach about 650mhz clock with default voltage (1.05v--- with 1,1 I could set the clock to 680)
that was the reason for asking for a voltmod here.

ram i always can set to 1030 without voltage increase.

I'm still not sure whether I should do a RAM voltage mod too.. Because I dont wanna create more heat on my card :p it's still hot enough. And i think a higher ramclock doesnt have that much effect on performance..

Yea i could take some pics but there is nothing special to see. i just soldered the VR between those points and put it on my card with some glue :p

Ok!

I don't think memory will increase performance that much either. But fun to have both.

Between those points!? You mean that you soldered it onto both of those spots?

[Heinzkopf]

Ok!

I don't think memory will increase performance that much either. But fun to have both.

Between those points!? You mean that you soldered it onto both of those spots?

No i just soldered one cable from the upper spot to VR and then to ground
U're right, i think ill do the ram mod today in the evening and see what freq i can reach then.

[Heinzkopf]

micheskillz, what VR did u use for vMem mod?


I measure between this point and ground 650 Ohms and so i used a 13K Ohms VR.

But unfortunately i can't change my vMem.. Even if i put the Vr to nearly 0 Ohms it doesnt has an effect of the vMem Voltage.
The 2 Measurement Points for vMem always display 1,86V and 1,89V/1,91V (under Load).

The 2 Points I used are these:



What am i doing wrong? wrong VR value? bad measurement points?

thanks

[micheskillz]

micheskillz, what VR did u use for vMem mod?


I measure between this point and ground 650 Ohms and so i used a 13K Ohms VR.

But unfortunately i can't change my vMem.. Even if i put the Vr to nearly 0 Ohms it doesnt has an effect of the vMem Voltage.
The 2 Measurement Points for vMem always display 1,86V and 1,89V/1,91V (under Load).

The 2 Points I used are these:



What am i doing wrong? wrong VR value? bad measurement points?

thanks

You are meassurig correctly on the 1R5M thingy. So yeah your only meassuring vMEM.
Must be the wrong points for vMEM-mod if so, thou largon said Pin #4, and usualy the #1 is the one besides the dot on the chip. I could be wrong :S I haven't done the vMEM mod yet, as i've said, waiting for my VR's.

I got 618 Ohms between pin #4 and ground, compared to your 650. So i'd guess that it should be the correct pin!? As i have 2.05v as standard vMEM and you only have 1.89.

EDIT: It should be teh correct dot on my pic.
EDIT2: i was tired when i wrote this, so i edited it now.

[largon]

Just to clarify:
The red dot in pic below is pin#4 so that's where the VR is supposed to be soldered.

[Heinzkopf]

Hmm yes that was the pic that micheskillz posted first.
I chose that marked pin and soldered the VR between it and ground.

But something is still wrong- measuring points of vMem and VR value seem to be right- where is the mistake then?

edit:
i'm sorry it's working now :p
i found the mistake- a bad soldering spot at screwhole (for ground).

thank you both again.

Now im trying to find a good 24/7 value for vMem.
Right now im at 2V (risen from 1.9V) and can set 1080mhz vmem

But i'm not sure what i can set for a max vdimm for safe usage

[micheskillz]

Hmm yes that was the pic that micheskillz posted first.
I chose that marked pin and soldered the VR between it and ground.

But something is still wrong- measuring points of vMem and VR value seem to be right- where is the mistake then?

edit:
i'm sorry it's working now :p
i found the mistake- a bad soldering spot at screwhole (for ground).

thank you both again.

Now im trying to find a good 24/7 value for vMem.
Right now im at 2V (risen from 1.9V) and can set 1080mhz vmem

But i'm not sure what i can set for a max vdimm for safe usage

Nice

I think you could use 2.05v without any problems on vMEM. As i got 2.05v stock @ vMEM without any vMEM-mod.

Thou i wonder what's a safe max vGPU-voltage. Running at 1.25v atm. No heatproblems at all, stays under 50C load.

Here's how it looks like after i did the vGPU-mod. If someone wants to see.


Didn't solder the GND, used a nut + screw into one of the stock mounting holes for the HSF.

[Heinzkopf]

Hi,
yes I think 1.25V gpu idle (here ~1.21V load) is a good setting for our cards.
I can reach 760mhz GPU with that.
Will also go to 2.05V vMem, because when this is default at ur card should be okay for me too.

Here a pic of my card, but as i said nothing special. Didn't wire the measurement points cause i can easily access them with my multimeter.
Used the VR i had to stock here.

[micheskillz]

I get 1.238V at load, when using 1.250v. Gonna try ~1.3v in an hour or so to see if i can reach 800 / 2000.

Yeah, you should be fine with 2.05v vMem. I think if you'd have my BIOS you'd get 2.05v without doing any hardmod.


Always fun to see pics How hot is your heatsink to the right(on the mosfets) on the pic?
"Ouch i can't hardly touch it hot" or more like bodytemperature? hehe


EDIT: It took me 1.35v to reach 800Mhz & 2000Mhz, and it was all fine. All componentes stayed cool too! The Core-temperature @ load went up to 49C. 1C more than in sign.

[Heinzkopf]

Hmm the Heatsink gets pretty hot. U can still touch it but after a few seconds (unter load) u want to release ur fingers off the sink.
So i think it's between 70 and 100 degree?
What about ur heatsinks, do they get that hot too?

My coretemp is also no problem stays around 50°C.

[micheskillz]

My mosfet-HS don't get as hot as yours :/ It feels like it's about 45°, i glued my sinks onto the card thou, superglue+thermalright paste.

[Heinzkopf]

hmm i used a special 2 components heat conductance glue.
I mean the sign that my heatsinks get hot is on the one hand a good one because it shows me that the heat conductance works between mosfet and heatsink but on the other hand the temperature seems to be to high anyway.

For a test i set all voltages to standard and looked what temperature do the mosfets have then in load.
And i must say they are nearly as hot as without voltmods.
Regarding this I think these temperatures are normal and no danger for my card.

I set the vDimm now to 2.05V and I could improve my clock by a huge amount- 1115 mhz right now and still no errors.

[micheskillz]

Aha That's great!

I got alot of fans in my case so i'm pretty sure that helps alot for me to keep the card cooled, (7x120mm casefans) hehe.

And no, i don't think it's dangerous for your card with that temp, thou it shouldn't be too hot either. Normally the mosfets gets cooled by the stock-HSF. Thou they can't be that with our layout on the PCB.

Nice OC on the mems! That's 115 more than me :p

[Heinzkopf]

Reached 785mhz gpu and 1962mhz shader now with 1,325V idle and 1,28v load now.
but im not sure if i should keep this settings since the power consumption and heat generation have increased a lot.

what programs do u use for testing the stability?

[micheskillz]

That's what i reach with 1.325 too. So we seem to have exactly the same initial at different vGPU-voltages.

I use ATI-tool at first to see that i won't get any yellow dots or pink thingys at all and then i use 3Dmark06, not really hardcore-stresstesting any with like aquamark or such, as i am a 3dmark06-point-hunter mostly


Gonna test my cpu @ 3.3GHz and GPU @ 800+ 2000+ and 2100+ now to see if i can brake my old max-score.

12489p

CPU 3.3Ghz
Mem 1033Mhz 4-4-412

GPU
Core 800
Shader 2000
Memory 2106

*Note to self*

[Heinzkopf]

Hi,
yes seems like we have very equal settings.
I also have a C2D running at 3,3Ghz.

For comparison, i get 13100 3dmarks with 174.74 and vista 32 with my last graphics card settings.

edit:
system is e6320@3.3Ghz, 4x1GB A-Data @944mhz, asus p5k @fsb 472

But for me I'm off now, i'll return to lower voltages.
It was exciting to see what clockrates you can reach but now it's enough for me

Reason is simple: if u draw a chart with 2 curves, one is the overall performance of the system and the second is the power consumption and heat then you will see that at a certain point the second one rises exponential.
E.g. this means when u want to gain 1% more performance u must pay 5% more power consumption & heat.

And so it's not a good idea to let the system run with these high voltages 24 hours a day.. especially because i hate the big noise level.

[micheskillz]

Hehe, i see i only had around 12300 before vmod, i'm only getting 12500 now with vista 32bits too and 174.74 drivers. So yeah, very equal, except score win XP won't give me higher score either, i get lower score in XP actually..


Ey, what the heck, power consumption is not that important for me, i can use as much as i want for a specific price per month.

I wanna brake the 13k 3dmark06-limit with my 60$ CPU


EDIT: 12520p is highest so far http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=6239919

GPU-Z link: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/8vndc/ ( Core 820 Shader 2043 Mem 2106 )

[Heinzkopf]

hehe
with 3mb more l2 cache u would have definitly broken trough the 13k barrier

Well my problem n1 is the noise level. I wanna have a silent system that is really quite. On the other side I also want to be able to play the latest games.
It's hard to find a good compromise between high performance and silence.

Higher voltages mean more heat, and my power supply unit gets really hot then. My load wattage is 300W. Then the fan has to turn up and generates a damn loud noise.


So my goal is now to find the compromise

For CPU ive already found it. Running now at 429FSB which results in 3Ghz CPU. still a good push from 1,86 to 3Ghz. and the big advantage is it runs stable with only 1,27Vcore. 3,3Ghz needed 1,41v. In numbers that means my Core Temp sank to max 57°C from 70°C.

Now i have to find the max core of my graphics card with 1,1V gpu and 1,95v ram. should be around 680 , 1040

And then ill run 3dmark again and see what score I still have.. I suggest not much less then 11000.


Edit:
I found the max. stock clock for my graphics card now too: 700mhz gpu-1750 shader- 1055 ram

I did some power consumption measuring before and after voltage decreasing:

1,41Vcore - 2,15Vdimm | 1,325Vgpu - 2,05Vmem
IDLE: 110W
LOAD: 306W

1,27Vcore - 1,85Vdimm | 1,1Vgpu - 1,95Vmem
IDLE: 80W
LOAD: 200W

And->I still get 12012 3dMarks with these new settings...

Isnt that quite impressive?
My computer needed more than 34% more energy for gaining 8% more performance....

Now with only 200W the power supply's fan is much more silent as before.

Now i'm really happy

[micheskillz]

Hehe probably

Well with soundcompromise i know what you mean, i bought myself the perfect case, since i've been buying alot of cases in the last 2 years, Cooler Master Stacker 832 seems to be the perfect choise for me.

Running all my fans at low voltage wich results in low noise even thou the case is like a swiss cheese i have as much as 9x120mm fans when playing with these OC's to drop temps with about 5C, but i cut down to 6x120mm fans when i'm done playing. It gets so quiet that i can barely hear the system, and it usualy stays in a reasonable temperature-limit. And i've also switched out the PSU-fan to a very quiet one


Wow, that's alot of change in power consumption i must say Cool to see. What are you meassuring with?

12k with the lill OC? i get 11k with stock @ GPU and CPU @ 3.2.
But yeah, impressive

[Heinzkopf]

Hi,
i took a small digital device from our local power station.

I have an old chase that came with small air openings. So i had to make an blowhole into the bottom of the chase.

The only noise I hear now is the sound of my harddisk (wich is decoupled though) and of my PSU.
I also replaced the ADDA 120mm fan of the Seasonic S12II 380 with a Slipstream 1200.
The 800er doenst run with 4,2Volts so i couldn't choose it.
Maybe another fan would be better with less noise?