Graphics 7900gt Volt Mod - need conductive pen!

Hi guys,

I've decided to take the plunge and volt mod the hell outta my 7900gt

I need a cheap multimeter and a conductive pen for writing the new traces on the pcb.

Maplins are selling a £4.99 mulitmeter at the mo, which looks like it'll do the job nicely (after all, I'm an electronics n00b and this is probably one of very few times that it'll get used).

However, the conductive pens seem grossly expensive. Maplins has one for £21.99. Does anybody have one they wanna sell, or recommend anywhere that you can get them at a reasonable price?

£30 seems a lot to voltmod one card. If I had two cards in SLI then obviously, the gains would be more impressive (making it more worthwhile). Hmm, maybe I should just buy another 7900gt and then it wouldn't seem so bad

 

Well I am not sure just how much that is but, I just bought one here in the states today and worked over my E-VGA 7900GT and I believe it was well worth it!! I went from 6348 on 3D06 to 7152 and from 51000 on 3D01se to 54800 Aquamark graphics score is right at 30,000!! I am able to run my card at 708/918 so far with no artifacts at all! It has turned it into a firebreather. Hey I broke 28000 on 3D03. I am running on stock cooling but, I have an overall exceptional cooling system that introduces extremely cold air into my case through the radiator. And keeps the case and everything in it extremely cold. I an running 1.55V to the GPU and mem is at 2.211V
My idle temp sits right at 36C But remember I have way beyond just good cooling and I am using the stock cooler. Here are a couple examples of the difference the mod makes. Oh and remember you use a pencil on the mem mod.


Hard to believe it is a single card... But it is!!

Over here at radio shack it cost me less than $7 including sales tax.
Good luck with your system

WZ

 

Mappers have a phile of conductive paint that you apply yourself for just short of £8, well worth it imho (bought it myself to vMod this one).

[edit]May as well give you linkage

 

Hi Krikkit,

Yeah, I posted pretty much the same question on the electronics forum and they all said that it wasn't worth it unless I was prepared to sodler, because the conductive paint became too resistive as it hardened/dried.

However, I've heard so many success stories from using conductive paint (core) and a pencil (mem) that I think I'm gonna do what I normally do and ignore those that know better and find out for myself

Glad it worked out for you mate and cheers for the linky

I'll post my results once I get round to modding it

Oh, and one last thing, obviously, when you do the conductive paint bit, you do it with the system off and then test the voltage when it's back in the rig and running. With the memory mod (pencil) do you do the same?

i.e. I assume it's quite dangerous to be waiving a pencil around the card whilst it's running but how do you know if you've lowered the resistance enough? Is it a case of just doing it little by little and keep taking the card in/out and checking it?

 

Pull the card out of the system and get into some good light I use a magnifier for all I do but, I have old eyes. I never bother with the multimeter. you are only gong to get so much voltage out of this mod GPU max of 1.55 mem around 2.23 if you do the mod and don't get the clocks then you need to do it some more. I applied plenty of pencil and a couple nice trails with the circuit writer and it was a perfect success. Clocks went form 622/918 to GPU anywhere from 717 to 726 and mem from 980 to 1000
some tests respond different to different settings. Because of this mod I now hold the world record for a single 7900GT card on Aquamark3. now I have only been running this mode for a week but, so far so good. I say give it a shot!!

WZ

 

Mods, whether they be pencil or hard mods should ALWAYS be checked with a DMM. Whether or not the max vGPU/mem are acceptable the actual voltages should ALWAYS be checked.
Nice work on AM3, got a link to score?

 

Why certainly I do Here is the HWBOT page

http://www.hwbot.org/hallOfFame.do?type=result&applicationId=10
Scroll to the third page of scores for single cards. you will find me there. hi-lite me and you will see my #1 gold trophy.
Scrrenshot.


My card was at 726/980 for this run

I also made the Hall of fame in 5th place for 3D03 where I hit 29,281

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=5026573
3D01se did not make the hall of fame but damn it is still a great score!!

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=9078878
I will be happy to show off my 05 and 06 scores too, but, I think you get the point. This Mod works.
Now the most you can get from theis mod is 1.55 to the gpu and about 2.23 to the memory. If you could give it significantly more unless you were real careful with your application then I would use a meter. In this case for me I saw no need the only meter I needed to see was good clocks. Clocks told me I got it right. If you feel that you always should use a meter then by all means use one. As I say if there were a chance of really high voaltages occurring as a result of this mod then I would too.
If you can keep your card adequately cooled then do this MOD!! I anm using stock cooler but i have an exceptional overall cooling system.

WZ