Graphics Flashing a Gigabyte 6800 GT to Ultra???

Hi,

Its been sometime since I last posted on the forum, but its time to return. Anyways on to the question:

I have a Gigabyte 6800 GT card PCIE, Now I have done some research and I begin to believe that I can flash my GT to Ultra without problems, its just that I would like to have a lite experinced feedback on this idea.

here is a pic on the card: http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/Vonpo/331_3191.jpg

Domo arrigato

 

As far as i know the only difference between the gt and the ultra is the clock speed, so if you setup an overclocking program like rivatuner to overclock your card on startup then you won't need to fiddle around and risk flashing your card. Also not all GT's reach ultra speeds, this way you can slowely increase the clock speeds until you find the limit, then set it just below that.

 

yea I know about the difference, I have used Rivatuner and well I can do 416/1100 easy but later on it seams as if the card needs more power. Now the card is set to 1.3 volts 3D and 1.2 2D, while on Ultra its 1.4 and 1.3 .... :/ But shouldn't clocks go higher the more volt they get?

 

Yes increased voltage should allow for higher clocks but will give off a lot more heat and require more power, rem the 6800Ultra used two power plugs (although that probably was overkill). You may also find an Ultra BIOS relaxes the memory timings allowing the RAM to go even higher, speed is much more important than latency to gfx cards.

Flashing is a risk though, wouldn't you be gutted if you killed your 6800GT (esp as it can do 6800U speed)? You could try editing your BIOS (eg NiBitor) to alter things such as voltages but again things get risky for what's likely to be small gains. BTW do you have a 3rd party cooler fitted?

 

Yes I know its a risk ... yes I do have a Zalman VF700-CU fitted.

Well I did a littel of playing around and I got this with coolbits :

 

can't you just get rivatuner or the driver control panel to apply the freqs at startup? if thats the only difference between the GT and Ultra, then it would save you having to flash the bios or anything risky.

 

Hmmm after looking closer at my card it seams its after all sort of a Ultra, since I inspected my original BIOS further and I was able to push the card to 425 / 1150 without any problems. Well see for your self

Pic : http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/Vonpo/mybios.jpg



So what do you think?

 

I would still avoid flashing the bios. Just get the driver software or rivatuner to apply those settings at startup, its far less risky.
Make sure you applied the settings on rivatuner to the "Standard 2D" and "Low Power 3D" profiles too, because it uses these most often. "Performance 3D" is very rarely used in my experience, not sure why.

 

yea the card runs very well with just Riva tuner, changed 2D to 400/1100 and 3D to a smashing 430 / 1176 and well games run like hell

 

'Performance 3D' should be invoked while you're gaming unless the card becomes too hot at which point it will apply the 'Low Power 3D' settings (unless that's to do with laptops). 'Standard 2D' is used while you're in Windows, the speed should be generous enough at default as it's gaming where the speed counts.

 

Yea Austin your right 2D is mainly used in Windows, did some reading on it. So 2D clocks are not supposed to be that high. I actuly lowerd the clocks down to 370 / 1100 after reading about it since it just produces alot of useless heat.

Maybe I should get some benchmark scores?

 

GT clocked to ultra is faster than a stock ultra...

 

have you done it? I have and the card was faster and able to clock higher. Search the internet for "Flash 6800gt to ultra" I did it a while ago so I dont remember where I got the information. It's fairly simple you just need to locate a 6800 ultra bios (any will do) then get some kind of dos program (You should find this too somewhere try searching flashing program)

As well as increaseing the clocks it also increases the voltage, so with good cooling (like your zalman) you should be able too clock it farther than you have already. For 100% stability I also reccomend a volt mod.

 

but ultra oced is faster than gt overclocked... (naturally)
iv got mine to 465/1200...

 

i heard that you shouldnt flash gt to ultra, becoz of the voltage regulator can not handle the voltage @ultra level, if you run it for a few hours, it should be fine