16pipes with bios flash

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Chaballaman

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 26, 2001
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I can't remember where I read it, I think it was in a review. (Sorry, I don't think I could be any more vague. :) ) Anyway's, It is possible to flash the bios, and enable the extra pipelines on the 6800nu but it cause serious amounts of artifacts and corruption. I the end the reviewer stated that he had to go through major feats just to get the card back to it's proper settings, since after a normal reflash back to the original bios did not disable the extra pipes. His conclusion was that these 6800nu chips are disabled for a reason, nVidia is not about to cripple perfectly good chips when it is having problems filling the demand for the higher end cards.
 
Thats cool and all but i wouldn't do it ..its perm from it sounds like and that would suck to have Constant artifacts without a way to remove them . Just wait for the new Riva Tuner to come out which comes with a software hack to release the 16 pipe .
 
yeah im waitin for rivatuner too but i think the guy is on holiday. :(
if some 6800nu is goin to work with rivatuner then it should also work with bios flash.

we know 6800nu can run with 16pipes but can some 6800nu work 100%?
 
According to the RivaTuner guy, the softmod works in 4 of the 10 cards he's tried it on. The others artifacted some.

So, indeed, it seems on MOST 6800nus, those extra pipes are disabled 'for a reason'. Still, 40% success rate ain't nothing to sneeze at, so I am eagerly awaiting the new RivaTuner to see if mine is a 'good' one!

As this is a 'Softmod', using a RivaTuner patch script, it's completely (and easily) undoable. It's just like driver-level overclocking, it happens in Windows only, no changes are made to the card at all.
 
6800nu can be softmodded to 16 pipes with the new rivatuner but odds are you will get artifacting.
 
GeniusInABottle said:
Link to that quote in particular?
Click to expand...

I remember reading that in the RivaTuner forums on guru3d, but he didn't quite say that.

...

"No problems, just collecting statistics. Currently we've seen 4 6800NU's wich can work in 16 pipeline mode, from about 10 tested boards. So success rate is rather low."

Look at the post by Unwinder in last quarter of the page

more specifically it's the second-to-last post
 
A neat thing is that he's developing this softmod on a leadtek a400 6800 non-ultra... same card as the one I have:)

heehee
 
we wont even need the new rivatuner if there is a way to go back to 12pipes after the bios flash.

just ran some benchs n it doesnt looks like 6800 needs much cpu power.
xp2500(200x11), 6800(325/700) - 8500 3dmark03
xp2500(200x11), 6800(400/900) - 10090 3dmark03
xp2500(220x11), 6800(410/910) - 10380 3dmark03
xp2500(200x11), 6800(400/900) - 66fps d3 timedemo demo1 1, 1280x1024 high
xp2500(220x11), 6800(410/910) - 69fps d3 timedemo demo1 1, 1280x1024 high
(10% extra cpu, fsb, mem, *display properties set to high performance, yet only 3% increase)
 
its oced, wat softmod? i have reference hsf, seem to oc 410/910 no prob. hopefully i can get 440/950 with 16pipes. :)
just ran 3dmark03 at 3200+, 400/900 high performance in display properties n got 10210.
 
palabared said:
is that OC of the 6800 just softmod? from 325 to 410 and 700 to 910 easily?
Click to expand...

yep, the 6800 non-ultra's overclock like crazy. 325->400 and 700->900 is pretty common. In fact NVidia autodetected my card at 390/870 and it hit 400/900 w/o artifacting (many others report the same or close or better)
 
pmennillo said:
BI have then asus v9999ge but my clock it running at 445mhz and mem at 1170mhz
Click to expand...

I also have the GE and I don't see MT fillrates anywhere near that. And yes, I'm talking about with like-clocks. What's the secret?
 
No secret all i did was hardware overclock to 445/1170 i opened the original bios with omni extreme 1.4 changed my clock to 445/1170 which is my highest stable setting and flashed it. i was getting around 9500 in 3d mark with the card out of the box now im getting over 11000.
 
pmennillo said:
No secret all i did was hardware overclock to 445/1170 i opened the original bios with omni extreme 1.4 changed my clock to 445/1170 which is my highest stable setting and flashed it. i was getting around 9500 in 3d mark with the card out of the box now im getting over 11000.
Click to expand...

Yes, I am also getting over 11000, that's not what I was talking about though. I specified the multi-texture fillrate, which is almost impossibly high. A good 1000 points or so higher than it should be, actually.

Again, let me note that I have the same card and I've clocked it at like-clocks; and also that things like fillrate have almost nothing to do with the rest of the system. Just in case that's what you're thinking it could be.
 
pmennillo said:
Im the first guy thats my system... and it is running at only 12 pipelines
Click to expand...
trust me, u do have 16pipes.. 12pipes cant get 6600 on Fill Rate (Multi-Texturing).
 
Ugly_Jim said:
there's only one way to find out :)
Click to expand...


it seems with coolbits2.0 that i can only get about 380/740...my memory seems way to low what is limiting it?
 
palabared said:
it seems with coolbits2.0 that i can only get about 380/740...my memory seems way to low what is limiting it?
Click to expand...

that is a bit low. I'm running on 390/950
 
im 100% sure im only using 12 pipelines... i have trying to get 16 for a couple of weeks...but it seems im going to have to wait for the new version of rivatuner..
 
looks like gigabyte just updated their product page with 6800nu. (looks kinda weird..) http://tw.giga-byte.com/Tree/Tree_129.htm maybe gigabyte 6800nu will have 16pipes like x800pro vivo?
anyway they have bios for 6800 cards available on their website, maybe gigabyte flash can enable/disable extra 4 pipes on 6800nu?
 
just flashed to nvidia reference 6800gt bios using nvflash but got error, wont let me flash due to diff id type. i thought reference bios might be a good bet over leadtek since i would only get one chance but it doesnt work with nvflash.. should work with leadtek, gigabyte flash utility. maybe the reason the "dude" got 16pipes enabled was due to leadtek flash utility, like ati x800pro vivo with gigabyte flash. i think it should be possible to get 12pipes back usin right flash. u might have to flash back to 6800nu then use another flash util with diff 6800nu bios, etc.

anyway heres some links for diff 6800 series bios
http://www.nvplanet.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=11 (nvidia reference bios)
http://www.nvplanet.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=10 (nvflash v4.46)
http://tw.giga-byte.com/VGA/Products/Products_NewProduct_List.htm (gigabyte, click on 6800 cards, bios)
http://www.leadtek.com.tw/support/download.asp?pronameid=341 (leadtek bios)
 
Chaballaman said:
just flashed to nvidia reference 6800gt bios using nvflash but got error, wont let me flash due to diff id type. i thought reference bios might be a good bet over leadtek since i would only get one chance but it doesnt work with nvflash.. should work with leadtek, gigabyte flash utility. maybe the reason the "dude" got 16pipes enabled was due to leadtek flash utility, like ati x800pro vivo with gigabyte flash. i think it should be possible to get 12pipes back usin right flash. u might have to flash back to 6800nu then use another flash util with diff 6800nu bios, etc.

anyway heres some links for diff 6800 series bios
http://www.nvplanet.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=11 (nvidia reference bios)
http://www.nvplanet.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=10 (nvflash v4.46)
http://tw.giga-byte.com/VGA/Products/Products_NewProduct_List.htm (gigabyte, click on 6800 cards, bios)
http://www.leadtek.com.tw/support/download.asp?pronameid=341 (leadtek bios)
Click to expand...

Some tips:
The GT bios you linked to is bad (last I checked anyway). I know because I've flashed my card with it and nearly killed it. Later I took a look at it with OmniExtreme and it couldn't read any card info. So again, the GT is bad. You're lucky you didn't get it to work the first time though, it saved you some trouble.

You can use nvflash v4.42 to get around all the different error messages. Works in a windows command prompt as well, which is a bonus.

And FYI, after numerous flashes I'm still at 12 pipes. :p
 
thanks for the tip. but are u sure the bios is fxxed cos might work on other 6800nu, maybe not on 256mb asus 6800nu. i havent find a way to change the id on 6800 series bios yet so i might just try gigabyte or leadtek flash.
so u have flashed already but couldnt enable 16pipe? have you tried diff flash util? ultra bios? were u able to check 4 16pipe while u have gt/ultra bios? maybe its cos ur card is 256mb..
 
found this bios util, OmniExtremeEdit http://www.mvktech.net/download.php?list.91 its probably best flash the card with edited ultra bios to enable 16 pipelines. u can use omniexmtreme to reduce the clock speed to 325/350 etc.. nvflash wont allow flash due to diff id but leadtek flash util (n maybe gigabyte flash util) should flash ultra bios. n also enable 16 pipes.

6800 might work with ultra bios n 16 pipes. try diff ultra bios, gt bios if it doesnt work 100%. if none works, flash back to origianl bios. flash the card with diff flash util if there are artifect(n 16pipes).
 
for sure, and i believe some brands work better than other...still waiting for the rivatuner easy 16 pipe opener..even tho its not a 100% right
 
palabared said:
for sure, and i believe some brands work better than other...still waiting for the rivatuner easy 16 pipe opener..even tho its not a 100% right
Click to expand...

my question was ;) wich brand to get ?
 
most leadtek 6800nu can reach 400/900 n some chaintech(golen sample) ones suppose to have 2.2ns mem. bfg/evga ones also oc ok. but i dont think pny 6800nu is good for o/c. 256m asus 6800nu can o/c even higher but also cost much more.
im happy with my xpertvision 6800nu, core max out about 410 but mem runs stable at 931.. which is max allowed in powerstrip, i cant o/c any higher cos riva tuner n coolbits2 cant seem to work with 61.77 n 65.73.. (heard that some xpertvision has 1.8ns mem but i doubt it cos i also heard some 6800ultra has 2.0ns)

ive tried to flash the card with reference 6800gt n nvflash but it didnt allow the flash due to id mismatch. i think 6800ultra bios might be a better bet over 6800gt bios, cos ultra bios seem to be similar to 6800nu bios.. bascially im gonna flash usin leadtek flash util(n maybe gigabyte flash util) n flash the card with reference 6800ultra bios(clocked 400/900) n if that doesnt work try leadtek 6800ultra bios(400/900), etc..
 
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