Asus 6800XT AGP

[TrunKKs]

Hello all. I just wanted to send along my 6800xt unlocking/overclocking triumphs. So basically I couldn't take waiting on the 6800GS anymore so I ordered the Asus 6800XT AGP from newegg. Now let me be the first to say that with the stock specs this card blows a big one, not that much better than my 9800pro. However with some minor adjusting this card can be awesome.

Stock it is 300core/700mem with 8 pipes and 4 shaders. Overclocked I easily got it too 400core/875mem 16 pipes and 5 shaders. Took me some trial and error but the 6th shader unit seems to not work properly.

I would have to say that as I was going through trial and error to weed out that bad shader I found that one change affected the card more than any. And that was getting the core up to 400. Even with 16x5 this card is crap at 300mhz. Something about the nv40 core really starts to take shape when you get over 350.

I would highly recommend this card to anyone who cant wait on a 6800gs. It is currently going for $142 on newegg so you really cant beat the price/performance ratio. CoD2 screams now as do all other games.

 

[Nextman916]

Ive seen cheaper 6800's that are cheaper and have a better unlock/oc rate. It also comes stock with 12 pipes.......

 

[Wolfshanze]

Ive seen cheaper 6800's that are cheaper and have a better unlock/oc rate. It also comes stock with 12 pipes.......

Which chipset are you refering to? The 6800XT has 8-pipes only out of the box... I haven't heard one way or the other if any more can be unlocked.

The 6800NU has 12-pipes out of the box... it can DEFINATELY be unlocked to 16-pipes.

The 6800XT is a broken-down, poor man's version of the 6800NU... which in itself, is the poor-man's version of the 6800GT.

The 6800NU I believe is still the better card to get, but it has been discontinued. The 6800XT seems to mimick the 6600GT in specs and performance (at least out of the box)... not sure what the deal is with this card being released at a nearly identical price and performance point as the 6600GT.

 

[Nextman916]

to get rid of N40 cores, and seeing as the 6600gt is selling so well they may be able to sell this card just as fast. And its advertised as a 6800xt so people with very simply knowledge of the maket might buy this over the 6600gt. And i think trunnks might have just unlocked it accidentaly, if its stable then this card may potentially be unlockable and should be noted. Trunks are you sure the card you bought is the 6800xt? if so how did you go about unlocking it(in more detail)?

 

[rubberneck]

I would like to know how to do it too as I'm thinking about this card as an AGP upgrade to my rig. Did you simply overclock and then unlock it through Rivatuner?

 

[Zap]

Sounds like a 6800LE. I've had two of them (Chaintech and some other brand, forgot...) and both can unlock pipes, but neither had "good" pipes. On both cards one set of pipes would cause drastic problems when unlocked. The second set would "work" fine, but the overclock testing will automatically say failed, plus occasional visual glitches.

 

[Eureka]

Wait... which is better, the 6800XT or 6600GT?

Norm

 

[Wolfshanze]

Specs-wise, I think the 6600GT looks better on paper then the 6800XT. Another factor about unlocking pipes on the N40 core is that most N40s that are sold as NU's, LE's or XT's failed a quality test to use all 16-pipes without problems on the GT or U.

These N40's sold on non-GT or U cards are basically "failed" N40s... some worse then others... I would imagine the ones with the worst "flunking" scores are sold as LEs or XTs. So while you may be technically able to unlock the extra pipes, that is surely no garauntee you'll be happy with what you get.

Bottom line, the NU has proven to be a fairly successful unlocker and overclocker... much less so with the lesser 6800 chipsets like LE and XT. If they are selling XTs with only 8-pipes for the same price as a 6600GT, there has to be a reason.

Personally, I think I'd stay away from the 6800XT if I was shopping at this price point... I'd either settle on the 6600GT or spend a few bucks more for something else.

That's my take on it anyways. I haven't heard any success stories with unlocking the 6800XT (or like has been said, it would be a hot-cake and everyone would be talking about it).

 

[TrunKKs]

Sorry didn't mean for the confusion. I should have made myself more clear. The fact that this card is such a good overclocker is news to me also, but it is. Ok here are the details.


First the card.
ASUS 6800XT AGP 128mb

Second the unlock/overclock method (RivaTuner).
FiringSquad's Guid to Unlocking 6800


So as I stated before my results are as follows.

Stock specs - 300core/700mem 8pipes and 4shaders
Overclocked - 400core/875mem 16pipes and 5shaders


Basically it all boils down to another alternative for us overclockers. By my estimation the success rate for overclocking this card is probably identical to that of the LE's. It is nothing more than a NV40 core with DDR ram and 8 pipes and 2 shaders hardware masked. Why they were masked is up in the air. Could be broke, not up to spec, or it could be like mine where one shader is bad so they toss it in with the lower quality cores. This card lacks the 256mb of the upcoming GS's and doesnt have the super fast 1000mhz+ ram. But all in all for $142 it is at the bare minimum an awesome price/perform ratio and blows the crap out of my 9800pro.


Does that answer all your questions? If not ask away.

 

[Nextman916]

Dang nice job u did unlock a 6800xt. Did you ever run into any problems in the FS guide where you felt kind of lost?

 

[TrunKKs]

Only thing in the FS guide that had me scratching my head was the very beginning on what to do first in RivaTuner. Page 2 under modding the card is where to start. Getting to the overclock and unlock screens for the first time was the hardest part. Once you get on the right track though it is pretty easy. All in all I am an extremely happy camper over this card. It has shaped up to be more than I expected.

 

[Nextman916]

If all 6800xt's are unlockable then it would be a better deal than any current 6800nu.

 

[videoclone]

trunKKs for $40 more people can get the Sapphire X800GTO-256MB DDR3

I went from

Stock specs - 400core/980mem 12pipes and 6shaders
Overclocked - 625core/1250mem 12pipes and 6shaders

3Dmark2005 score! 6100

with this card overclocked its as fast as a 6800Ultra or X850XT.

But lucky you got a good XT core... All pipes unlocking without a problem is great news.

 

[TrunKKs]

Well sure you can, but then again the x800's dont support pixel shaders 3.0. I'm sorry but games like Age of Empires III look MUCH better in 3.0. I guess what I am saying is when upgrading my 9800pro I was looking for something with ps 3.0 for around $150. The x8xx line is really nothing more than a super clocked 9800pro. The 6800xt agp card is definitely the card I was looking for. It is basically holding me over for about 6 months until I take the full plunge into a new system. When I first saw AoEIII last night in ps 3.0 my jaw hit the floor and I thought to myself, "Now that is what the screenshots looked like!!!"

 

[Nextman916]

videoclone are you referring to the pci-e gto? or the agp. The agp is alot more expensive than its pci-e counterpart, and cannot be unlocked(im doubting its oc capabilited though). And yah trunks i think you made the right decision in going with 6800xt if you plan to use it in AOE3 and for only 6 months youll probably be extremely happy with it. You are also the very first person i have ever heard of unlocking this card so you made history!!!!!

 

[Leper Messiah]

hm. Anyone maybe think that nVidia has a huge ammount of NV40 cores out there, and that not all are nessiarly bad? Granted, most of the "good" ones will probably go on the GS, but this seems to be pretty insteresting. Meh. 7800GT needs to get here (hopefully UPS delievers on sat.)

 

[Instagib]

Is this card as fast stock as a 6600gt?

 

[CKXP]

Originally posted by: Instagib
Is this card as fast stock as a 6600gt?

according to GURU3D review of the card, it's slightly faster, especially with aa/af turned on.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/286/1/

 

[TrunKKs]

Originally posted by: Nextman916
You are also the very first person i have ever heard of unlocking this card so you made history!!!!!

Well thanks, but as much as I would like to take the credit on this I really can't. Once I realized that this card was on the NV40 core I got to thinking, hmmm I bet this card can be unlocked/overclocked being on that core. So I did a google search and came across the following forums post from the UK. Forum Link So this guy beat me to it by a few days but his info was/is correct so I can't complain.

 

[Nextman916]

darn oh well you were one of the first.

 

[badideaguy]

I just wanted to post some follow up to this. I just got an ASUS n6800xt agp for Christmas.
I followed the guide and used RivaTuner to unlock some features. Looks like my core had a defective pixel pipeline.

I was able to unlock 12 pipelines and 5 shaders.
I'm running an socket 754 Athlon 64 2800+, 1 GB RAM.
The video card is running on stock timings.

I ran Aquamark 03, simply because it's a quick benchmark, and I didn't feel like waiting through 3dmark. (I'll run it later and compare to the stock score)
My scores went from:
42,189 - stock
42,972 - unlocked 1 extra shader
47,461 - extra quad of pipes & 1 shader

I haven't tried the last shader yet...it may still be good.
I know the last quad of pipelines was defective, when I ran it, I immediately saw heavy flicker artifacts on the aquamark title menu.

 

[imported_thefonz]

Is the 6800xt only apg? seems like a good card for ocing/unlocking especially if its the same price as a 6600gt.

 

[CKXP]

Originally posted by: thefonz
Is the 6800xt only apg? seems like a good card for ocing/unlocking especially if its the same price as a 6600gt.

PCI-e & AGP, looks like the 6800le with 128ddr3, i guess only the AGP will unlock(good ol' NV40 core)

edit: some of PCI-e 6800xt comes with 256ddr3
edit again: seems the Asus 6800xt comes with 128ddr, so wouldn't that make it a 6800le

 

[badideaguy]

Ok, I finished a 3dMark03 benchmark of the card.

My score went from 6760 stock to 8217 with the unlocked shader & pipes.

Heck, I was happy with the 6760.

 

[Mavke]

Well the GeForce 6800 XT AGP can be unlocked just like the GeForce 6800 Standard or LE could be unlocked. And also a voltage mod can be done to increase the overclocking of the GPU.