Gook_Killer

I recently bought a NVIDIA Geforce 6800 GT (256mb, AGP 8x, forceware version: 71.84, GDDR3) and as you all know the price is $400 and I havent realy been impressed. Ive seen realy great things about this card so im thinking its gotta be me. Im running P4 HT (3.0 GHz) Gateway with 2GB pc3200 DDR400 ram. I have the newest drivers from nvidia.com as well. All i realy play is 1 MP first person shooter game and i gotta be as quick as possible. Any ideas on settings I should chose for this card? So far only settings ive changed is: Vertical Sync: Off and Image Settings: High Performance. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

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Nubius

Well what exactly aren't you impressed with? I have the eVGA 6800GT and it plays everything maxed out with AA and AF on and completely smooth play. I have an XP-M at 2.6GHz and 1gb of PC3200 so I don't see why you should at all be disappointed.

I have heard though that the BFG's don't want to OC as far as other brands like leadtek or eVGA, but that could perhaps be only a few BFG's out of a bundle not entirely sure.

Chances are you'll only be able to get around 420/1180 with stock cooling, of course that's just an estimate

Gook_Killer

i guess im just expecting too much. Sometimes in game with good ping while im shooting, the gun will drag and on bigger maps I cant hit anything at far distances because the guns not steady enough from card dragging but its perfectly fine on smaller maps. So im not sure whats goin on i guess ill just try some overclocking and see if it helps my problems. My video card temperature usualy stays at about 75-78 c. Would this effect its performance.

Nubius

mine idles at 74C and hits 84C on full load, it won't effect performance but of course will limit OC'ing.

What game are you playing at and with what settings? Personally I don't use the graphical settings through the cards options but just let the game itself dictate that. Last time I messed with the settings through the desktop advanced feature it gave a really simple game lag, maybe I just messed something up, but yeah, try leaving it at 'Game specific' or whatever the option is that lets the game choose the quality.

You wouldn't be the first to expect too much though, I knew people who were griping about the 6800Ultra sucking because it wouldn't play doom3 at Ultra settings with 16x AF and Vertical sync, that's just insane for even the top most graphics.

Like I said though, what game are you playing that this is happening in and with what settings?

Gook_Killer

I am playing Vietcong - Fist Alpha on the lowest graphic settings in-game I can use. Maybe increasing voltage would help me a little. I just added a Hyper light and a led 80 mm fan as u can see from the pic so maybe im taking away from its power?

$SOLID$ Necro

The card and rig are fine, you probably didnt remove the old driver before installing the new card.

Remove the driver, run driver cleaner (For video only) delete the NVIDA folder from your hard drive, run disk cleanup,and reboot.
Install new drivers, defrag hard drive.

You can OC using CoolBits (Try Major Geeks or Guru of 3-D) from the NVIDA control panel, just make sure you OC the 3-D and not 2-D

Beyind that, you can increase voltage with a modded bios, check out this thread it has links to a site that I get all my tricks from.

http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread.php?t=39513

Nubius

I've heard of quite a few people using the higher voltage for their cards and it dying within a couple months....the GT's seem to be rather picky about it.

Lowest settings and it not playing smooth definitely sounds like something else besides the card at fault here. You shouldn't need to raise your voltage at all for one thing either.

Are you coming from another nvidia card or did you previously have ATI? Because if you had ATI you should find the ATI Driver cleaners or just format if you really want to make sure it's gone, I do that, but I'm just anal like that and like my computer running smoothly

If you're coming from a previous nvidia card, you shouldn't have even needed to delete the previous drivers, I've never had to do that.

All in all your system should be playing that game max settings smoothly, if they are extremely low and still playing it horribly then I suspect something else is happening.

You make sure to plug in the molex connector into the card? And beyond that did you make sure to give the card a dedicated power line and not like running it from a split that like goes to the HD and the card? That can cause issues as well

Gook_Killer

Im coming from a Gefore 5200 FX, Actualy now that im thinking about it, I am running my power for my card off of another power supply. Would I have to open the power supply box to get a dedicated supply? also I just oced my video card with coolbits3D and wanted to get some opinions if this is a good oc or not,

Core clock frequency: 433 MHz (was 370 MHz)
Memory clock frequency: 1.12 GHz (was 1.00 GHz)

I only OCed 3D performance, is there a reason I shouldent OC 2D?

Nubius

2D is while you're in windows and I don't think your windows lags

3D is strictly for gaming. That is a pretty good core OC for stock cooling, most 6800GT's cap out in the 420 or 430ish area.......your RAM could probably go higher, but if you haven't had it very long then give it some time to burn in and chances are it'll loosen up and hit closer to 1.2GHz

Quote: Actualy now that im thinking about it, I am running my power for my card off of another power supply. Would I have to open the power supply box to get a dedicated supply?

You have a 2nd power supply you're using just for your card? Why cant you just use the PSU that powers your whole computer? By dedicated they just simply mean like, don't have a Y-splitter for a molex connector and have a hard drive and graphics card sharing the same line, it needs it's own molex connector that goes straight to the PSU or at the max a fan or something

elitelilnoyd

You're card honestly sounds like it is running hot, my 6800GT runs 60-61 idle with no case fans. Thats a pretty decent overclock, I run 440/1200 with my stock cooler. Also try the Omega Drivers for a bit of a increased performance, www.omegadrivers.net

Gook_Killer

After I Installed coolbits there was an option for fan always to run and I turned it on and now it idles at 61 c so about a 13-14 degree difference. Will try the drivers right away, I am already feeling a difference since I oced. Im not using a seperate power supply the power is Y'ed off of another device. (dont remember which source but think its my 3 1/2 Floppy which I never use.) Would it still be better for a dedicated source even know I never use that drive? Thanks for all the fast help you guys are the $^%$...lol

Also im looking at these omega drivers and I notice i have forceware: 71.84 and this is whats in these:

What's New in Omega Drivers?
v1.6693

* Based on the Forceware 66.93 Official drivers.

* Added support for new laptop chipsets and some new desktop cards.

* Updated Multires to version 1.49

* Updated Driver Cleaner Omega Edition to latest version. (thanks Ruud)

* Changed driver's readme to HTML format.

would the diffrent firmware version cause a conflict?

elitelilnoyd

How big is your PSU in your computer? It's a gateway so it can't be anything fantastic....

Gook_Killer

Quote: Originally Posted by elitelilnoyd How big is your PSU in your computer? It's a gateway so it can't be anything fantastic....

It says DC Output: 250 W ....thinkn need a upgrade lol

elitelilnoyd

Ya, that wouldn't be a good PSU to handle that card, I believe Nvidia reccomends a 300 or higher for that card. I would call gateway and ask them if you can put a bigger PSU it, because another member said in another thread that you usually can't put a bigger PSU in their systems because they have screwy voltages and it will fry the components.

Gook_Killer

Quote: Originally Posted by elitelilnoyd Ya, that wouldn't be a good PSU to handle that card, I believe Nvidia reccomends a 300 or higher for that card. I would call gateway and ask them if you can put a bigger PSU it, because another member said in another thread that you usually can't put a bigger PSU in their systems because they have screwy voltages and it will fry the components.

Thanks for the info... i probaly would have put the biggest 1 in and the whole pc would have been in flames...lol . Do you know anything about the forceware i have posted above?

elitelilnoyd

Sorry I don't have a clue about the "forceware" I only use Omega Drivers and I know they always offered a little improvement over other drivers. Just remove the regular nvidia drivers using driver cleaner and install the omega's and you should be good to go. By the way if you here , there is a bunch of drivers that people have modded for optimized performance.

Gook_Killer

Quote: Originally Posted by elitelilnoyd Sorry I don't have a clue about the "forceware" I only use Omega Drivers and I know they always offered a little improvement over other drivers. Just remove the regular nvidia drivers using driver cleaner and install the omega's and you should be good to go.

Alright appreciate the help guys.

elitelilnoyd

No problem, I always try my best to help. Good luck on killing the "Gooks"

Nubius

I'd just stick with 71.89 forceware drivers from nvidia or if you really wanted to try both omega and those to see which offer better performance.

Elite - what card do you have and what temperature is the room you're in? My eVGA idles at 74C when it's about 80F in the room, I live in the high desert of california so it's starting to get hot here =/ hits about 84C at full load Mines sitting at 64C right now because it's cold......I just enabled that 'FAN ALWAYS ON' but it isn't making a difference for me, maybe it's just cause it's really cold right now and it won't go any colder, I'll see tomorrow when it gets warmer if it made a difference.

Gook - yeah dude that 200w is extremely weak, I believe nvidia recommends 350w actually.

Thermaltake has a 480w Pure power at newegg for like $60, I have the 560w but it costs $100, but is an excellent CPU....I'm almost positive thats why your card isn't performing like it should and honestly you shouldn't overclock it if it's already underpowered.

mot19

running a 250w with that card is asking to fry something, ur ganna overdraw and mess something up. As far as i know i have never had a problem with switching out powersupplys in dells, compaqs, or gateways.