BFG 6800 GT OC

This card came overclocked to 370 out of the box (from stock 350).

I'm curious about some things.

A buddy of mine tells me the only difference between the GT and the Ultra is
clock speeds, two power inputs vs. one, and the cooling solution.

I'm wondering, then, what would happen if I overclocked my GT OC to same
speeds as a stock Ultra?

I'm assuming BFG put a beefier cooling solution on this card than a typical
GT has.

Three questions:

(a) Is this cooling solution at least equal to the one one a stock Ultra?

(b) How does the extra power connector come into play? To obtain
400/1100mhz, do I NEED that extra power connector the GTOC does not come
with?

(c) Finally, have any of you out there pushed your GTOC (with the cooling
solution it comes with) to 400/1100? To what effect?

Thanks!
--
Scotter

I have a 6800GT from another vendor. It's been running at 420/1160 for
weeks without a hiccup. Just try it. Take it up slowly until you notice
problems and then back off a little. It's not rocket science.


"Scotter" wrote in message
...
This card came overclocked to 370 out of the box (from stock 350).

I'm curious about some things.

A buddy of mine tells me the only difference between the GT and the Ultra
is clock speeds, two power inputs vs. one, and the cooling solution.

I'm wondering, then, what would happen if I overclocked my GT OC to same
speeds as a stock Ultra?

I'm assuming BFG put a beefier cooling solution on this card than a
typical GT has.

Three questions:

(a) Is this cooling solution at least equal to the one one a stock Ultra?

(b) How does the extra power connector come into play? To obtain
400/1100mhz, do I NEED that extra power connector the GTOC does not come
with?

(c) Finally, have any of you out there pushed your GTOC (with the cooling
solution it comes with) to 400/1100? To what effect?

Thanks!
--
Scotter

"Scotter" wrote in message
...
....
(b) How does the extra power connector come into play? To obtain
400/1100mhz, do I NEED that extra power connector the GTOC does not come
with?
....
Scotter

I also was wondering the answer to this question. Hmmm, let's see whether
anyone really knows.

GT

Here is what my buddy said on this one:
(b) To hit Ultra speeds, our one connector is fine. The extra Molex
plug is for overclocks over 430 on the core.* As you approach
that speed it draws more power than one molex can deliver.


"GT-Force" wrote in message
...
"Scotter" wrote in message
...
...
(b) How does the extra power connector come into play? To obtain
400/1100mhz, do I NEED that extra power connector the GTOC does not come
with?
...
Scotter

I also was wondering the answer to this question. Hmmm, let's see whether
anyone really knows.

GT

"Scotter" wrote in message
...

This card came overclocked to 370 out of the box (from stock 350).

I'm curious about some things.

Blimey Scotter. No offense, but you are really new to this stuff aren't
you. All the questions you ask come from the overclockers 101 handbook. ;-)

Anyway, I will happily answer them for you.


A buddy of mine tells me the only difference between the GT and the Ultra
is clock speeds, two power inputs vs. one, and the cooling solution.

He's nearly right. The Ultra has faster ram chips and different ram timings
(1.6ns Ultra vs 2.0ns GT). And the Ultra has the GPU core voltage set to
1.4v - on a GT its set to 1.3v.

I'm wondering, then, what would happen if I overclocked my GT OC to same
speeds as a stock Ultra?

It will often work. Not always, but you can usually get 400/1100 or more
out of a GT.


I'm assuming BFG put a beefier cooling solution on this card than a
typical GT has.

That's an incorrect assumption, unfortunately. There are two types of BFG
6800GT's on the market. One has the nvidia GT reference cooler. And the
other is a proprietary BFG twin fan design. Unfortunately the BFG
proprietary design is in fact less efficient than the stock design. So
neither of them are any better than standard.

Three questions:

(a) Is this cooling solution at least equal to the one one a stock Ultra?

No, see above.

(b) How does the extra power connector come into play? To obtain
400/1100mhz, do I NEED that extra power connector the GTOC does not come
with?

Its really a safety net for nVidia, I think. So that they don't get too
many RMA's. It helps to provide the card with enough power if you have a
less-than-perfect power supply. If you have a good PSU, its not really
required.

(c) Finally, have any of you out there pushed your GTOC (with the cooling
solution it comes with) to 400/1100? To what effect?

My BFG6800GT (reference cooler) would do 420/1100 without problem. But I
wanted more, so I re-flashed the bios with a version I edited to set the
core voltage to 1.4v. It will now do 453/1120. The temperatures with the
stock cooler were not bad, but to be safe I replaced it with an Arctic
Cooling VGA Silencer, to keep the temps nice and low. I run at 430/1100 to
be doubly safe. At these speeds, the idle temp is 49C and the full load
68C. Thats using RTHDRIBL as a test. Running Doom3 or Far Cry, the temp
stays just over 60C.

Thanks!

No probs.

Chip

"Chip" wrote in message
...
My BFG6800GT (reference cooler) would do 420/1100 without problem. But I
wanted more, so I re-flashed the bios with a version I edited to set the
core voltage to 1.4v. It will now do 453/1120. The temperatures with the
stock cooler were not bad, but to be safe I replaced it with an Arctic
Cooling VGA Silencer, to keep the temps nice and low. I run at 430/1100
to be doubly safe. At these speeds, the idle temp is 49C and the full
load 68C. Thats using RTHDRIBL as a test. Running Doom3 or Far Cry, the
temp stays just over 60C.
Chip

And, after all this hassle, how much you gained? 5%, 7%? Is it really worth
it all? I see O/C as a game one just plays to satisfy self. I do not see any
REAL gains from it. If your game is at 10 FPS, the 10% (and that is max, I
guess you can get from O/C), whould make it 11, so what?
If your game is running at 60 FPS already, then making it 66 does not really
mean anything, either.
I'd say, do not bother with O/C, at all. We are not in the days of
Pentium-300 days in which you could O/C it to 450 and gain a whopping more
than 60% gain. Those days are looong gone, but the O/C hype is still here
for some reason that I really do not understand.

My two cents...

GT

I'm pretty much with you on this stuff BUT the fact remains that people love
to tinker.
Don't discount the FUN factor of seeing how far you can push something.

"GT-Force" wrote in message
. ..
"Chip" wrote in message
...
My BFG6800GT (reference cooler) would do 420/1100 without problem. But I
wanted more, so I re-flashed the bios with a version I edited to set the
core voltage to 1.4v. It will now do 453/1120. The temperatures with
the stock cooler were not bad, but to be safe I replaced it with an
Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer, to keep the temps nice and low. I run at
430/1100 to be doubly safe. At these speeds, the idle temp is 49C and
the full load 68C. Thats using RTHDRIBL as a test. Running Doom3 or Far
Cry, the temp stays just over 60C.
Chip

And, after all this hassle, how much you gained? 5%, 7%? Is it really
worth it all? I see O/C as a game one just plays to satisfy self. I do not
see any REAL gains from it. If your game is at 10 FPS, the 10% (and that
is max, I guess you can get from O/C), whould make it 11, so what?
If your game is running at 60 FPS already, then making it 66 does not
really mean anything, either.
I'd say, do not bother with O/C, at all. We are not in the days of
Pentium-300 days in which you could O/C it to 450 and gain a whopping more
than 60% gain. Those days are looong gone, but the O/C hype is still here
for some reason that I really do not understand.

My two cents...

GT

If your card have multi-molex, I suggest to connect all that available on
that card.

CapFusion,...


"Scotter" wrote in message
...
Here is what my buddy said on this one:
(b) To hit Ultra speeds, our one connector is fine. The extra Molex
plug is for overclocks over 430 on the core.* As you approach
that speed it draws more power than one molex can deliver.


"GT-Force" wrote in message
...
"Scotter" wrote in message
...
...
(b) How does the extra power connector come into play? To obtain
400/1100mhz, do I NEED that extra power connector the GTOC does not come
with?
...
Scotter

I also was wondering the answer to this question. Hmmm, let's see whether
anyone really knows.

GT

Thanks, Cap. The BFG 6800 GT OC has only one molex connector.

"CapFusion" wrote in message
...
If your card have multi-molex, I suggest to connect all that available on
that card.

CapFusion,...