What do people mean by "unlocking pipes"?

I see a lot of people talking about unlocking "pipes" and what not on
a Geforce 6800, what does this mean? Is it like overclocking or what?

"Alien" wrote in message
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I see a lot of people talking about unlocking "pipes" and what not on
a Geforce 6800, what does this mean? Is it like overclocking or what?

Here's an article explaining the whole deal
http://firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_6800_unlocking/

Guardian

Alien wrote:

I see a lot of people talking about unlocking "pipes" and what not on
a Geforce 6800, what does this mean? Is it like overclocking or what?


The firing squad article is pretty good. I don't see them mention that
there's no guarantee unlocking the pipes will work.
Main thing though, if it does work you end up with the best bang for
your buck of any card out there. I got my XFX 6800 for $180 last
spring, the pipelines unlocked fine and I've been very happy. The 6600
GTs are nice cards but an unlocked 6800 or even a locked one are
better. You can find the XFX 6800 at newegg.com for $185.

--
Steve -|Inglo/LymanAlpha|-