Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - GeForce 6800 Non-Ultra 12-16 pipe softmod?

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GeForce 6800 Non-Ultra 12-16 pipe softmod?

Check this out... Apparently the new version of RivaTuner will have an option to set the 6800 NU from 12 to 16 pipes--and its a softmod, meaning if something goes wrong, reboot, and its back to normal. Looks pretty good to me! Unfortunately, the new version of RivaTuner isnt out yet, but Ill be looking for it when it is...

HardOCP Forum Posts:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=788442&page=1

Demonstration:
http://www.digit-life.com/news.html?107374#107374

Oh ...... my........GOD!!!

Because of the many succesful soft mods to turn x800 Pro's into XT's, I was curious if there was any mods to change 6800's into 6800GT's/Ultras. I guess there is !!!

ATI really needs to get their shit together. If most 6800's are modable to 6800GT speeds and pipe amounts, no one in their right mind would waste their money on an x800 pro.

I dont think a lot of people would do the mod. Most would think its dangerous.

Well, that demo shows that it works with an MSI GeForce 6800, but may not work on any others. On top of that, even other MSI GeForce 6800's may not work with this softmod. It's damn cool, but it'd sure suck to buy one for this purpose and have it not work.

-Lasereth

Quote:

From x-bit labs
The conversion of the GeForce 6800 into a “full-fledged” chip, i.e. turning on its all 16 pipelines, does work, but to no practical effect: the disabled pipelines are really defective. The most unpleasant fact is that the conversion procedure is not revocable in home conditions: you can flash a BIOS from the full-featured card and get the visual artifacts in games, but you cannot bring the card back to the norm by simply flashing the old BIOS back.

Quote:

So, the question sounds like this: Is it possible to turn on all of the 16 pipelines on the NVIDIA GeForce 6800?

Yes, it is! This is easy: just flash the BIOS from the GeForce 6800 Ultra. After the BIOS re-flash, the graphics processor enables all 16 pixel pipelines and the card becomes… NON-OPERATIONAL!

Why? Because those four missing pipelines hadn’t been disabled just for nothing – they have certain defects, which show themselves as artifacts in 3D applications after you enable those pipelines. You won’t have the opportunity of returning things back easily: after flashing back the BIOS from the 12-pipelined GeForce 6800 you’ll see that the situation remains the same – the card still has 16 pipelines and also has those 3D artifacts. In order to disable the defective pipe-work and restore the card’s operability you will need special software and a specially modified version of the BIOS.

Thus, although it is possible to transform a GeForce 6800 into a GeForce 6800 Ultra/GT by turning on all 16 pipelines, there’s no practical gain from that so far: the disabled pipelines are 100% sure to have defects and their turning on results in various visual artifacts.

There’s no sense to hope that some of NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800 chips have 16 “healthy” pipelines and some of them are just disabled for no particular reason – NVIDIA is not in a position to make such gifts today. The chips are tested back at the factory and are immediately sorted. Fully operational chips are transformed into the GeForce 6800 Ultra/GT, and those that have certain defects – defects that that can be avoided by disabling a few pipelines – become the 12-pipelined GeForce 6800.

It is of course possible that the NV40 manufacturing process will be improved after a while. In this case, there will be an insufficient amount of defective chips to produce the GeForce 6800 in mass quantities, and NVIDIA will have to turn pipelines off in fully operational chips. By that time, however, NVIDIA will certainly have introduced various protection techniques, and it will be less easy to make any kind of conversion to the GeForce 6800.

That stuff is true to a certain extent -- some cards are defective while others are simply disabled. NVIDIA would ship a card with 4 defective pipelines, but I'm sure some of them are simply disabled so you don't get what the $500 customers get. It's a 50/50 chance basically.

-Lasereth

Quote:

Originally posted by Xepidemic
[BSo, the question sounds like this: Is it possible to turn on all of the 16 pipelines on the NVIDIA GeForce 6800?

Yes, it is! This is easy: just flash the BIOS from the GeForce 6800 Ultra. After the BIOS re-flash, the graphics processor enables all 16 pixel pipelines and the card becomes… NON-OPERATIONAL!

Why? Because those four missing pipelines hadn’t been disabled just for nothing – they have certain defects, which show themselves as artifacts in 3D applications after you enable those pipelines. You won’t have the opportunity of returning things back easily: after flashing back the BIOS from the 12-pipelined GeForce 6800 you’ll see that the situation remains the same – the card still has 16 pipelines and also has those 3D artifacts. In order to disable the defective pipe-work and restore the card’s operability you will need special software and a specially modified version of the BIOS.

Thus, although it is possible to transform a GeForce 6800 into a GeForce 6800 Ultra/GT by turning on all 16 pipelines, there’s no practical gain from that so far: the disabled pipelines are 100% sure to have defects and their turning on results in various visual artifacts.

There’s no sense to hope that some of NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800 chips have 16 “healthy” pipelines and some of them are just disabled for no particular reason – NVIDIA is not in a position to make such gifts today. The chips are tested back at the factory and are immediately sorted. Fully operational chips are transformed into the GeForce 6800 Ultra/GT, and those that have certain defects – defects that that can be avoided by disabling a few pipelines – become the 12-pipelined GeForce 6800.

It is of course possible that the NV40 manufacturing process will be improved after a while. In this case, there will be an insufficient amount of defective chips to produce the GeForce 6800 in mass quantities, and NVIDIA will have to turn pipelines off in fully operational chips. By that time, however, NVIDIA will certainly have introduced various protection techniques, and it will be less easy to make any kind of conversion to the GeForce 6800.] [/B]

At this time, that's speculation. In all reality we won't know if this softmod works until the Rivatuner creator gets back from vacation at the end of August and realeases the latest version.

But, there are some problems with the above quotes. First of all, there's no way that nvidia card tests every single 6800 core they make. What I find more realistic is that they take a quality sample of every batch of cores they make, and if the quality of a certain batch of cores is on the low side, maybe those get put into the regular 6800's. These cores wouldn't be as high performers or overclockers as the ones that go to the ultra's, but I wouldn't be "100% sure" that every one of these cores has 4 DEFECTIVE pipes.

Also, the statement "NVIDIA is not in a position to make such gifts today" is misleading. This wouldn't so much be a gift from Nvidia as it would be the Rivatuner guy discovering a hole in their drivers. This EXACT thing is happening with X800 Pro VIVO editions. Someone discovered that pretty much all VIVO editions have the 16 pipes working, they just require a flash to XT BIOS.

Also, it isnt a BIOS flash. Its a total softmod--you install the software, and it does it. No screwing up cards, no irrevocable flashes... If it doesnt work, turn it off.

Not something I would buy a card for, but I had already bought a 6800NU when I read this, so Ill be sure to try it out.

If that mod works for you Sailor I think I already know what I want for Xmas. :D