BFG 7600GT OC

[Bill Kunert]

Just got one of the BFG 7600GT OC cards from New Egg. Initially it wouldn't go much beond it's stock setting of 580/1450. I put a Zalman copper cooler on it(can't hear the fan even on full speed) and did a volt mod pencil style. I upped the GPU voltage by about .25volts and the memory by about.15 volts. Card is running at 690/1660 at a max temp of 62degrees at load. My 3DMark 05 scores went from 6100 to 7050 and Aquamark3 from 75000 to 78800. I'm sure with a little more tweaking I can get more out of it. I'm very pleased with the card now, especially considering you can pick it up at the Egg for $79 after a $65 MIR.

 

[evolucion8]

Damn, that's a great overclocking result. Which one do you have, AGP or PCI-E Will the results be the same on both versions? Or

 

[MonkeyFaces]

Is it absolutely necessary to use a multimeter when vmodding w/ a pencil?

 

[Stumps]

what CPU are you using?

I get 7560 from my A64 3000+@2.87ghz and 7800GS@550/1350.

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: MonkeyFaces
Is it absolutely necessary to use a multimeter when vmodding w/ a pencil?

definitely, otherwise you might lower the resistance too much

 

[Bill Kunert]

You need a volt meter because you want to measure the resistance before you power up. Reducing resistance by 25 ohms will increase voltage approx. .1 volt. I have an A64 3500+ @ 2.5GHz. If you go to www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/print/geforce7600gt-voltmodding.html you will find a good illustrated article on voltmodding the 7600gt's that are based on the Nvidia reference cards. My card is a PCI-e. I also put a piece of scotch tape over the resistor after modding to keep the graphite from flaking off.

 

[Gautama2]

XFX 7600GT XXX model, stock volts, stock cooler, 650/1700 (and theres no hatsink on the ram chips either )

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: Gautama2
XFX 7600GT XXX model, stock volts, stock cooler, 650/1700 (and theres no hatsink on the ram chips either )

you should do the pencil-mod on that, you could probably reach 750 easily.

 

[Gautama2]

Meh, Im comfortable where I'm at. And I couldnt find the spot on the card to do the pencil mod. <_<

 

[Tates]

I just picked up an XFX 7600GT XXX from buy.com, it came with 1.1ns GDDR3, runs 695/1800 w/stock cooling, no volt mods.

 

[Bill Kunert]

Originally posted by: Tates
I just picked up an XFX 7600GT XXX from buy.com, it came with 1.1ns GDDR3, runs 695/1800 w/stock cooling, no volt mods.

You're fortunate. The BFG cards come with 1.4ns memory and that will limit me. All processors are not created equal and 700MHz will about be my limit. I don't want to go much higher than the 1.6 volts I'm currently at. Temps, though, are not a problem. The highest I've seen under load is 62 degrees.

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: Tates
I just picked up an XFX 7600GT XXX from buy.com, it came with 1.1ns GDDR3, runs 695/1800 w/stock cooling, no volt mods.

that is beautiful...you should definitely v-mod it though, you could reach the equivalent of a 7900GS pretty easily (IIRC a 750MHz 7600GT is the equivalent of a 450MHZ 7900GS and your RAM at 900MHZ should be able to make up for the 128-bit bus)

 

[avi85]

oops, double post

 

[Bill Kunert]

Just upped the memory voltage to 2.25, left GPU at 1.53. Anybody know max safe voltages on these components. Running at 700/1720. 3DMark 05 is 7140 and Aquamark 3 is 79200. Not too bad considering they were 6100/75000 at stock 580/1450

 

[all4spl]

wow! i just bought 2 of these 7600gt oc's

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Stumps
what CPU are you using?

I get 7560 from my A64 3000+@2.87ghz and 7800GS@550/1350.

3d 05 scores are higher if you have a fast cpu. My 7800gs clocked 502, 1,455 with my weak ass pent 4 scores 6330 in 3d 05 and 3300 in 3d 06

 

[Vario]

Ok.

Got a question. I am running a BFG 7600 GT with clocks 621 core 757 memory, which seems okay in 3dmark6, which I am using both to bench and to test for stability.

Anything over 757 memory will cause artifacting. Is that 757 max I can get on this card or are there any ways to get it higher?

If the computer runs 3dmark6 okay and doesnt artifact and the temperature does not go over 50* C, should I consider that my optimum clock for gaming? Or should I reduce it slightly from that point?

From what I can tell I can definitely get more core than I have tested so far but the memory seems to be at its limit. Also, are you guys setting your fan speed for 3D mode at 100% in riva tuner?

 

[Bill Kunert]

Mine would barely over clock till I did a pencil volt mod on both memory and processor. I do have a Zalman VF700 fan. Running at 700/1650(825) my max temp is around 63 degrees under heavy sutained load. I only raised the memory by a shade over .1 volt and the core by about .22 volt. I have had the memory as high as 1750 but get lockups and video problems. 700/1650 runs without any lockups. gpu is at 1.53 and memory at 1.15 volts

 

[Vario]

Im going to try and get my core up to 650 today, hopefully.

The memory seems to be stuck at a safe 753, and by raising it one notch to 757 it frustratingly gives me another 50 points on 3dmark6. Too bad I dont trust it to run at that.

Im still running the stock voltages and stock gpu cooler.

With 640 core, 757 Memory, Im only getting a 3dmark05 of 5966. Any tips? Is it the memory that is holding me back? I hoped to hit 6000 on stock volt and fan but so far no luck.

 

[Bonesdad]

On a related note...what Zalman cooler did you use? What are some great QUIET coolers to replace the nasty one BFG has on this card? Any mods to cooler or mod required to fit?

 

[Vario]

He said a Zalman vf700. I ordered one a couple days ago, hopefully I will get similar results.

I got my core up to 650, but my memory really isnt stable at all. Best 3dmark5 I can get is 6010, but I have a 1.8ghz A64, so thats part of it.

The VF700 should fit fine, but be careful as it voids the warrenty.

The vf900 and the thermalright v1-ultra are supposed to be good as well.

 

[joshuah82]

What did you use to do the overclocking? I just bought the exact same card from NewEgg and I can't seem to get it to overclock for anything. I've tried CoolBits and RivaTuner. It doesn't matter how much I bump up the speeds, or if I even bump them up at all, they always fail the test phase and won't save the adjustments I make. I was going to buy a Zalman VF900, but i hate to do that if there's something preventing me from overclocking. It even fails the tests at the "stock" overclocked speeds of 580/1450 but it runs just fine at those speeds.

 

[Vario]

Originally posted by: joshuah82
What did you use to do the overclocking? I just bought the exact same card from NewEgg and I can't seem to get it to overclock for anything. I've tried CoolBits and RivaTuner. It doesn't matter how much I bump up the speeds, or if I even bump them up at all, they always fail the test phase and won't save the adjustments I make. I was going to buy a Zalman VF900, but i hate to do that if there's something preventing me from overclocking. It even fails the tests at the "stock" overclocked speeds of 580/1450 but it runs just fine at those speeds.

How are you testing stability? I used riva tuner and I got my score up to 6100 with some work, still with stock fan and stock volt.
Best I could get was 650 core, 757 memory, but its not stable for much beyond 3dmark5.

Pretty much any overclock I do beyond stock I will get artifacting after about an hour of gaming.

Are there any stress testing and burn in type programs that I can use similar to burning in a CPU (like prime 95) that are not annoying like 3dmark?

 

[joshuah82]

RivaTuner makes me use the Test button before I can apply any changes. No matter what speeds I run the Test button at, it tells me the test fails and resets the parameters. I've never had trouble overclocking my ATI cards so I wondered if there was something special about nVidia cards or BFG.

 

[Bill Kunert]

Originally posted by: Bonesdad
On a related note...what Zalman cooler did you use? What are some great QUIET coolers to replace the nasty one BFG has on this card? Any mods to cooler or mod required to fit?

Zalman VF700Cu. It was on sale at New Egg for about $32 when I bought it. With the fan running at full speed I can't hear it. I'm very satisfied with it's performance.