RavingNutsack

Hey, guys, I'm back...with problems! I recently ordered an eVGA GeForce 6800 128mb from Newegg, and methinks that there are some issues with it. Originally, when I tried running it with 4x AA and 8x AF on 1280x1024, performance in HL2, CS:S, and BF2 was atrocious. At first, I thought "OMGWTFHAX" and started turning things down, with no avail. After a morning of that, I thought that it might be because of the limited amount of RAM on the card bringing everything down with AA and AF enabled, so I turned those off. Performance jumped significantly, but i'm still worried. At all high settings, with HDR enabled, CS:S gets an average of 60-70 FPS at 1152x864 (barely any increase at 1024x768), with brief peaks in the hundreds and valleys in the low 30s/high 20s.

Is this abnormal? I want to think so, as I know people with single 6800s who get in low low 100s with 0x AA 8x AF in the same game. Could it be a power issue, perhaps? My systems specs are a 2.8ghz Pentium 4 (s478, 400FSB), an Intel D850EMV2 mobo, 768mb PC800 RDRAM, two optical and one hard drive (Lite-On LTD163 DVDROM, NEC ND-3540A DVDRW, Western Digital WD2000JB HDD), a Creative Sound Blaster Live! Value, CNet PRO200WL NIC, 3 case fans, and a few USB devices, with everything powered by a 420W Thermaltake PSU. Any ideas, and/or ways to improve this?

P.S.: The main reason I bought this card was to try the 12-to-16 pipe softmod, but my attempt to do so failed. Would increased cooling fix this, or would it be better to simply RMA the card? Also, could the failed attempt have damaged the card severely?

Jager

Well I have the same thermaltake psu and as much as I enjoy it, It does not put out the power well to my 6600gt card. It may be that your card is slowing its speeds down (downclocking) due to not enough power. if a loaner psu isnt around you might wanna rma it and grab another nv40 chipset 6800 and try the softmod on it.

never really heard of the softmod breaking a card as it is reversable. some ppl cannot unlock the pipes or some pipes are broken resulting in artifacts or other issues, but if you were not able to unlock them then RMA the card if the psu thing doesnt work

RavingNutsack

Damn. I was hoping it wouldn't be the PSU...grph. Any ideas for a good one that's $60 or under? I'm trying to find some Antecs with rebates or a Sparkle/Fortron Source 400-500W unit...any other suggestions?

Jager

well thermaltake makes a 480 watt psu for like 60 something and that should be enough to over come the cards neess, thoughi think a antec tru power is only 90 or so as is that modular xconnect psu....

not the best by far, however the really good ones for usage with 6 series cards are over 100. some around 200

mot19

Its not your psu, its the vanilla 6800. Your running only 12 pipes, and 5 shaders. And low clocks. If you havnt tried already try and unlock the pipes and shaders. Follow the guide in my sig

Jager

mot i believe he said he tried that and failed already.......

it may be the psu as mine has trouble running the 6600gt card i have and an overclocked barton at the same time....

thermaltakes at the 420 watt level dont seem to have the best 12v rails... or they were not made for the power needs of a serious computer user. mine cant run fans, chip, basic water pump, and the 6600gt if i try to oc the barton above 2.3ghz......

Raving do read mots oc guide and how to unlock the pipes just to make sure. would be rather a pain to buy all new crap and realize you missed a step or two...

RavingNutsack

I read his guide, and it's identical in terms of content (not writing, mot's too awesome for plagiarism) as the one I found on DriverHeaven. I want to say the card is buggy, but the PSU argument is too convincing to ignore. Ah well, i'll survive the weekend. I don't need much for word processing.

Fire Hawk

Hey, I have the same card. I too had some PSU issues (try one dead 6800NU and one sad Fire Hawk). I got a new card (RMA, it was still under waranty) and a new Antec TP2 550W PSU and it seems my luck improved then. I was able to unlock the extra quad of pipes and the 6th vertex engine and overclock it. Altough it's only slightly OCed, it's because I haven't yet tried for higher.

Well, good luck. I hope you get this fixed and fragging real soon.