My new Sparkle 6800 (Yay, 16 pipes :))

[DeNs]

Well it was hard enough to find any 6800 at the moment, so I bit the bullet and bought a different branded one (was going to but the Leadtek originally).

Had to make some mods to my WC loop, as the 9500 Pro that was in there before it was watercooled. I didn't want to add an ever hotter-running card, as my C0 prescott was already sweating.

More to the point, this card is fucking huge. I had a damn hard time getting it into the case to start off with! Once installed, I booted it up... No increased noise level (which is nice).

Anyway, after reformatting while downloading some nVidia drivers on my other system (last time I downloaded some they were up to 40.XX or something), I got it all up and running. I was blown away by it, but that wasn't the best yet.

Decided 'What the hell', and went and opened Rivatuner one more time. Within 2 minutes I was opening 3DMark05 for artifact testing

Anyway, long story short - Vertex shader is stuffed, but the extra 4 pipes are in perfect working order

Very happy. I don't even feel bad for going back to nVidia. No bias here.

---dens

[technophiliac]

excellent stuff... yeah i got the 4 extra pipelines enabled on my 6800... except i also got the extra shader working as well

[DeNs]

Thanks That makes me wonder though - the GE cards are almost GT's in the sense that they use GDDR3 ram, but still have 12/5. I wonder if the chips they use on them are ones that aren't damaged in some respect, in the sense of damaged Pixel pipes or Vertex shaders, good enough to be able to go on a GT card. They almost cost as much as them at least

---dens

[technophiliac]

well im not sure if all of the chips produced are purposely damaged but mine certainly wasnt
converted it into a GT with no worries

maybe some of the newer ones are permanently damaged or something

[DeNs]

Heh, I just had a mental image of someone going along a line of 6800 cores with a hammer and chisel and carefully damaging the pipelines... until I realised you said permenantly.

Anyway, that's good news

Now I can't wait to go down and pick up a NV5 Silencer this week. Should run very well.

---dens

[Hom3br3w]

Originally Posted by DeNs

Heh, I just had a mental image of someone going along a line of 6800 cores with a hammer and chisel and carefully damaging the pipelines... until I realised you said permenantly.

Anyway, that's good news

Now I can't wait to go down and pick up a NV5 Silencer this week. Should run very well.

---dens

ROFL

I've unlocked two 6800's - One became 16/6 and the other became 16/5

[$tealthFiga]

congrats Dens, I bought the exact same card a few months back, and just recently put an NV5 on it.

Think I'll actually give unlocking another go, maybe the pipes or shader alone will work (get artifacts with both unlocked).

[DeNs]

Oh, really? Nice!

I've only had experience with waterblocks and Zalman Heatsinks for my GPUs, so the silencer will be something new for me.

What exactly does the NV5 cover? I'm guessing the ram as well as the memory.

One other thing though, the screen has blanked out twice recently. I'm now suspecting it's the extra pipelines. After about half an hour of playing heavily in HL2 or in it's 5th or so run in 3DMark03, my screen blanked out. This was when it was at stock speeds, but when it was at 16p/5vp.

I've disabled the extra pipes, but haven't had a chance to see if it has worked. I get about as much of an increase from the pipes as I do with a mild overclock (380/800 - Still stock cooling), so it wouldn't be a massive loss if I either had to clock it down when they're enabled, or just plain OC with 12 pipes.

---dens

[chisholm]

the cores used in the vanilla 6800's are most likely ones that failed to past criteria to be a GT or Ultra..i.e faulty pipelines or shader units.

[DeNs]

You're exactly right, but it might only be one of them (i.e. The Vertex shader might be stuffed, but the pipes might be ok, or vice versa.) Quite a few people surprisingly have managed to unlock both of these, so you begin to wonder what's really wrong with them. They might not be able to run the pipes at GT/Ultra frequencies, or with the vertex shader.

---dens

[technophiliac]

mine is a vanilla (says so on the GPU) and im running it at 425mhz core and 1100mhz memory... along with 16 pipes and 6 shaders

[DeNs]

Well once I get my NV5 silencer i'll start OCing this thing properly. There didn't however seem to be an increase in temps with either enabling the extra pipes, or OCing (or both at the same time). The card maxed out at about 68C. That GDDR3 would be quite nice to have, but it comes at a premium. Maybe my next card

Any ideas about the problem with the blanking screen?

---dens

[technophiliac]

so does youre screen blank out when you run the card at the default clock frequencies or does it only do it after you've overclocked it?

another thing to note... the throttle voltage on vanilla's is 1.2V instead of 1.3V unlike on the others so maybe its got something to do with your overclocking which is causing that screen blank.


.... also, by how much are you overclocking the board?

[mrturkey]

Well I have had my Sparkle 6800 a bit over about a week now. Nice enough card, but I got 12/6 instead of 16/5 or 16/6. Oh well, something is better than nothing...

[SnooP-WiggleS]

my bfg 6800 OC is stuck on 12/5 (sob). Rivatuner 15.2 won't/can't unlock the pipelines. hopefully the next version bypasses the new hardware protections....