some advice please...

Ctuchik

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so my poor 6800GT is finally starting to be to old, (ok really really really REALLY old then). but having a low budget when it comes to new stuff for my PC kinda limits what i can and can't do when it comes to getting a new one.

so heres my question. would overclocking it make it be a somewhat viable option for atleast a few more months (starving me here to save up for a new one).

the card is starting to get to a point where on the new games, even the most crappy of crap grafic settings ingame seem to be to much for it.

and if overclocking WOULD spark some new life into it, how exactly would i go about to do this :)

have to remember that i have absolutly no knowledge what so ever about this stuff. i can build my own PC's np. but anything above that is way out of my legue.

been trying to search the net for guides and stuff but i'm not that good at "googeling" :(

so if anyone have a "how to" for dummies (with a capitol D) or could explain it i'd be very greatful :)
 

Kryten

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The 6800GT is still a very capable card, assuming you have the 256mb version. I was running one myself on a 32bit AMD Barton 3200 until recently and it still ran even the newest game at full detail perfectly playable.
I did have it overclocked, but not by much.

Easiest way to do it, grab the latest drivers from Nvidia's site, and at the same time download "Ntune" - nVidia's own overclocking and tweaking utility. This adds a few more pages to the normal graphics card control panel, the 2 useful ones you'll be wanting are the "Overclocking" page and the "NVMonitor" utility. The latter will help you keep an eye on temperatures - the 6800GT's do get very warm, and if it's going over 70 degrees already, I'd avoid stressing it more.

The overclocking page is quite simple - 2 radio buttons and 2 sliders.
The radio buttons indicate whether you want to use the factory default (normal) clock settings, or custom clock settings - select this one. This will un-grey out the sliders, one is the graphics card's memory, the other is it's processor.
The RAM will normally be 400mhz iirc - this can safely be taken up to around 500mhz normally. The graphics processor will be at 350mhz stock - take it up to around 425mhz. Before you can go playing games and burning it out, there's a "test settings" button - hit that, it will briefly test the settings and if they're too high, it'll tell you and you can lower the sliders to suit and test again.
Once it's satisfied, hit apply, save the profile in the nVidia control panel so you dont lose the settings, then go about testing it in game.

It won't be a super overclock - how much you get depends on the make and model of the card, how well cooled it is etc. A lot of folks have lots of heatsinks and fans attached to things to keep it all under control. As a rough idea, the above overclock would probably get you around a 300 point increase in 3DPenisMeasurer06 (3dmark).

Hope thats of some help, but please remember as always, overclocking can murder your hardware. You might find if you have a PCI Express computer you can pick up a new card (7900) very cheaply (around 80 new, 50 second hand)
 

Ctuchik

FH is my second home
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i do have the 256Mb card, and the temp its running on in wondows only is around 60 degrees.

and i see 2 values in ntune, and that is Core Bus at 350 Mhz and Memory Bus at 900 Mhz, its Core Bus i should change right?

/edit: just did a test at 428 Mhz and it failed, and the GPU temp rocketed up to 74 degrees.

400Mhz passed tho

and about the PCI-e.. the only thing i have thats PCI-E ready is my power module :)
 

WPKenny

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Are you sure it's your graphics card that's the problem? It could just be the more intensive games these days are using more system RAM so games run slower as they access the hard drive more frequently.

How much ram have you got installed?
 

smurkin

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I'm on similar turf with a Barton 3200 & 6800 AGP. I dont game much these days, but I do want to play QW:ET when it surfaces. I've also got a bloody huge flat monitor - if you dont drive it in native res it looks awful.
 

TdC

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tbh I've got an AMD FX-57 cpu I'm willing to part with for a few bob if that will help you out :)
 

Ctuchik

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Are you sure it's your graphics card that's the problem? It could just be the more intensive games these days are using more system RAM so games run slower as they access the hard drive more frequently.

How much ram have you got installed?

system i have is a AMD 3200+ with 1 gig ram.
 

Kryten

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As I originally said, it's no monster system but still perfectly able for everything on the market currently.
A lot will depend on the motherboard - for instance a Barton 3200 on a decent nForce2 motherboard like the abit NF7/AN7's or Asus's deluxe boards will be far, far quicker than their VIA equivelents.

60ºC is rather warm idle, but those cards generally are. I'd look at cooling it a bit better really before trying to push it harder. About 3 months before upgrading my entire system, I bought an Arctic Silencer NV5 for my Leadtek 6800GT, dropped the temperatures to 40 degrees in Windows and let me push it quite far.
You can up both of those sliders in the overclocking panel, just experiment.

Out of interest is there any particular game(s) you are struggling with? A lot of performance issues are down to the game itself (for instance anything coded or even related to EA Games/Sports is going to run like shit on anything but the best systems due to being so poorly made) - whereas some of the more established engined' games (Quake4/Doom3 engine and other openGL stuff) will run like shit off a freshly greased shovel.
 

WPKenny

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You need more RAM.

My 7800 gs AGP on a Athlon 3000+ XP with 1gb ram runs Stalker just fine when the scenery's loaded but chugs like a biatch most of the rest of the time cos it's so memory hungry.

Some more recent games that don't chug the HDD do run a little on the slow side but with careful tweaking it's easy to find the right balance.

TBH more ram at this stage isn't all that worth it. You're better off coping with what you've got till you can afford a whole new rig.
 

Ctuchik

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Out of interest is there any particular game(s) you are struggling with?



oblivion for one. everytime a monster aggro the screen freezes for 3 sec, and everytime a mob dies the screen freezes for 3 sec :)

city of heroes can be quite a pain with a few ppl on the screen at once casting spells and stuff. and that game isnt exactly new either

basically any game where it's much going on on the screen at once.

now i know its happening for almost everyone when theres TO much going on at once, i just get the feeling something isnt quite right here :)


i mean. most new games with everything at the top will studder one way or another.

guess i'l try with getting more ram and better cooling first.


/edit: oh right, my motherboard... gigabyte K8 Triton something or other.... *cough*
 

WPKenny

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I wasn't contradicting myself. The best/most cost effective upgrade he could do right now would be to upgrade the ram. BUT I don't think it's really worth upgrading the ram at all, rather save the money and spend it all on a newer rig.

Was I clear that time?
 

Ctuchik

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yeah i guess i do need a new one. been upgrading this one for so long that nothing is really "compatible" (read: its working, but some components are "bottlenecks").

i keep salvaging stuff that still "works" just to save a penny or two :)

owell, time to dig around for a new PC kit then that wont make me personally bankrupt for the rest of my life :).

anyone have any ideas? it doesent need to be the best of the best thats costing a fortune, like if i'm losing 5 frames and stuff on a cheaper gfx card i probably wont cry myself to bed every night aslong as i can get rid of the studdering.

and dont get to technical on me hehe, i can *build* my computers, i know where and how the components should fit. but i am a utter looser when it comes to spec technicalities :)
 

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