OC 8800GT Voltages

TheModDoctor · Post by **TheModDoctor** » 25 May 2008, 15:50

Hi, I have the XFX 8800GT 512 Alpha dog edition (pv-t88p-yde4)
Is it possible to fiddle with the voltages? Because i'm unhappy with how it OC as it is now:
Core-690mhz
Shader-1720mhz
Memory-1030mhz
I have a utility (NiBiTor 4.0) that can edit the card's BIOS, but i'm a bit jumpy to do that as i don't know how... I only want to play with the voltages from within windows.
Anybody ever done this before?

Animal · Post by **Animal** » 25 May 2008, 15:58

Personally, I wouldn't fiddle with the voltages. You could end up frying your card. Those clocks are good. Why do you want to go higher?

TheModDoctor · Post by **TheModDoctor** » 25 May 2008, 16:02

Animal wrote:Why do you want to go higher?

LOL, I think its called the OC sickness - see how much you can squeeze out of something

Anyway my friend's card gets a lot better
Core-710mhz
Shader-1775mhz
Memory-1050mhz

And I only want to bump the voltages a LITTLE bit, because frying my card won't be a good thing..

DarkStar · Post by **DarkStar** » 25 May 2008, 16:06

Even a little bit can fry your card.

The first thing volt-modding does is increase the temp of the card by a significant amount, so 3rd party cooling is highly recommended.

I think it's best to stay safe, and keep it as it is.

I34z1k · Post by **I34z1k** » 25 May 2008, 16:27

Yep, you'll need FAR better cooling. I got my 8800gt up to like 860/1850/9x0 after modding but yea, dangerous business bud. If a card is clocking that badly, not much use in vmodding it. Sell the dam thing and get a G92 gts

Hex_Rated · Post by **Hex_Rated** » 25 May 2008, 16:37

Mine gets close to 800 core but I leave it at 700 24/7. You can get a 0.05V overvolt if you play with the BIOS. It gives about 30-40Mhz extra.

MadMike · Post by **MadMike** » 25 May 2008, 18:59

I have played with the BIOS. You wont be able to set it more than 1.1v and the throttle is 1,05v. So as Hex says you get 0.05v more but doesnt make so much difference. You want real clocks then you gotta volt mod the card.

Hex_Rated · Post by **Hex_Rated** » 25 May 2008, 20:09

Volt modding isn't worth it unless you got much better cooling and are willing to write off your hardware. It's more for going for records than 24/7 operation. Besides, between 690Mhz and 800Mhz you're not going to get a huge increase in game FPS. Maybe 10% boost, nothing you'll notice. If you're 100pts off a 3dmark record then it's definitely worth it but for the average gamer it's not.

The exceptions to the rule were cards like the FX5900XT and 7900GT. They were actually undervolted versions of the flagships so if you pushed the volts up slightly you could get big gains without compromising the hardware. IIRC the 7900GT went from 450Mhz to 700Mhz with a small increase in voltage (conductive paint mod). That's over a 50% increase in clock speed.

Cards like the 8800GT are already balls to the wall, you're gonna break something if you start messing with the regulators.

TheModDoctor · Post by **TheModDoctor** » 25 May 2008, 22:37

OK I hear what you guys are saying. Need better cooling for voltmod, but not really worth it for 24/7 use. And like I said, I'm a bit jumpy for a voltmod, but my friend said that he'll try it. I'll just tell him about the cooling bit, coz he had problems with his card overheating in the past. Thanks guys.
BTW, how is this cooler for this card? I assume it would be compatible, because the only thing they say is Nvidia SLI all series. And its not that expensive...

MadMike · Post by **MadMike** » 26 May 2008, 09:08

That aquagate is a waste of time, rather get a high end air cooler like the Thermaltake DuoOrb. Or if you want water get a good kit with GPu water blocks. My cards dont exceed 30'C with the swifttech.

douglash · Post by **douglash** » 26 May 2008, 13:21

while the Thermaltake DuOrb and the Swiftech are high-end cooling kits, the Aquagate Duo Viva is fine for that card at those clocks...

just take the cpu waterblock off and use the cooler only for the card as the cpu heat is too much for the system, but it handles the temps of the 8800GT nicely... i have one, i know...

TheModDoctor · Post by **TheModDoctor** » 26 May 2008, 16:00

I34z1k wrote:I got my 8800gt up to like 860/1850/9x0 after modding but yea, dangerous business bud.

My friend said that he really wants to try it. What did you do? Any other sites with voltmods for the 8800gt?

douglash · Post by **douglash** » 26 May 2008, 16:11

read here for advice on how to use Nibitor to voltmod the bios of the cards...

TheModDoctor · Post by **TheModDoctor** » 01 Jun 2008, 19:44

OK, so I got together the courage to do the volt mod, and..... IT WORKED!!!

If I tune my card for 1.20v, I can reach core 800mhz and shader 2000mhz. But I still can't get the memory much above 1000mhz. I tried a voltmod on the memory too, but my card was just too unstable after that. I think it is because my OLD mobo only has pci-e v1.0, and it bottleneck or something if the frequencies are too high for the low speed pci-e v1 port. But I don't really care, because I'm not going to keep the card voltmodded and super clocked for long, I just wanted to have the kick of tuning my card to ultra standards

EDIT: Oh, and the tempratures never got any higher that 60*C on my stock cooler...