*GTX 260/280 Unofficial TPU! Thread*

[johnspack]

Yeah, I'll just keep running it at 700/1500 till it loosens up! Meanwhile I'm seeing games in a whole new way (1920x1200 widescreen) what a trip!

[waxking1]

I ran a couple of 3DMark06 tests and I was actually able to pass a test at 1566 shader. As you can see, the test with the same core speed but slower shader actually scored better. This is the point I have been trying to make.

The slower speed scored better because when I ran the tests the faster speed showed artifacts just a couple of times, but that is all it took to kill my results. If you can run your card clocks fast but you can't pass the tests, then it means nothing. Even 3DMark06 is not very demanding, at least the free version. My temps never got over 60. If I run Vantage, they get up close to 70.
http://www.techpowerup.org/uploaded....0904/3DM06.jpg
http://www.techpowerup.org/uploaded....80904/1566.jpg

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by waxking1

I ran a couple of 3DMark06 tests and I was actually able to pass a test at 1566 shader. As you can see, the test with the same core speed but slower shader actually scored better. This is the point I have been trying to make.

The slower speed scored better because when I ran the tests the faster speed showed artifacts just a couple of times, but that is all it took to kill my results. If you can run your card clocks fast but you can't pass the tests, then it means nothing. Even 3DMark06 is not very demanding, at least the free version. My temps never got over 60. If I run Vantage, they get up close to 70.
http://www.techpowerup.org/uploaded....0904/3DM06.jpg
http://www.techpowerup.org/uploaded....80904/1566.jpg

Agreed about the shaders higher and the core lower can result in worse performance but that to a certain extent is a 2006 thing, apart from that forest bench which is pretty shader intensive (hence a lot of people pushing to the max stumble on that one) the other tests are less so, I think some games would benefit from more shader slightly less core but some wouldnt....depending on the games architecture/coding.

Taking what you have said a stage further, when my Q9650 is up and running (it arrived at my work 10 minutes ago) I might do some runs in 2006 unlinked and linked to see what the margins are, for example, see if she will run at say 790 core if I drome the shaders to say 1600 and see what that would yeild against say a linked 770 core with shaders around 1650.....cause I am not sure how that would pan out.

[johnspack]

Wow, my vantage score more than doubled from my 9800gtx score! Sure do like all these shaders...

on this same system with my 9800 I got like 6.5k.... wish I had a faster cpu.

[Kursah]

At 3.3GHz though at least you're not completely choking out your VGA. That's a pretty nice score though man! I've gotten 12.5k peak, and I'm sure you can get higher, but if your games run great, who cares? Enjoy the card and make it last!

[johnspack]

I do and I agree!!

[johnspack]

Well, guess it's starting to loosen up.. I set 710/1519/1248 and got 712/1512/1242 and so far stable in furmark ect.. only got 8543 in fluidmark, guess if I get more money it's e8400 time!

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by johnspack

Well, guess it's starting to loosen up.. I set 710/1519/1248 and got 712/1512/1242 and so far stable in furmark ect.. only got 8543 in fluidmark, guess if I get more money it's e8400 time!

Because Fluidmark is a Physicx bench, and most of px is done by the shaders, it is mainly shader speed that determines how well you do, bit of false entity really in so much as it should run your shades faster than most any other apps will, try furmark by the same makers if you go to their website you can downlaod it, it's an opengl benchmark but just about better than anything to tests your temps and overclock stability.

[AddSub]

Finally did some benchmarks for scoring purposes.

Results for 3DMark06 can be found here.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpo...postcount=4854

Like it says there. Lot of tweaking to do. For some reason with new drivers on XP I get lower stability on the GPU, but on Vista with PhysX drivers I get more stability on GPU (756MHz) but my score suffers (Vista curse) and I end up with 1200 marks less.

So, for top-score benchmarking for my machine: XP + lower clocks = higher score. 3DMark06-wise at least.

I'm still working on the Vantage score. Initial scoring puts me at around 11.5K.

[waxking1]

Hey Tatty,
Did you get your 9650 in. If so how's it doing so far.

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by waxking1

Hey Tatty,
Did you get your 9650 in. If so how's it doing so far.

Lol no check the thread I made, installed the 9650 Thursday night, switched the puter on and got a "Bios Rom Checksum error"...........

Am frustratingly exchanging messages with XFX support (who incidentially seem to know less about their own hardware than my 1 year old Grandaughter).....it's going to be an RMA job no doubt which will take 4-6 weeks, as I cant go that long without a PC I may buy a Biostar T45 TPower board and some cheap DDR2 to hold me out until then and then sell the Bio and Ram on fleabay......after DDR3 I just couldnt perminently go back to 2.

[Cold Storm]

Tatty, that sucks man! I'm going to play around with the AxE ram I got from TRT then go with DDR3 in a few months... I Don't think I'll be grabbing a the new socket anytime soon. No need for me to yet...
The biostar boards are pretty nice boards. That and some cheap ram and you have your self a good start on just a storage rig if you wanted to keep...Because I wouldn't go back to DDR2 if I was yourself ether...
But, wish you good luck in trying to get XFX to do their things.

[waxking1]

Tatty,
I feel for you. I had so much trouble with my 790i board that I built a new computer with a P5E and a 9450 just so I would have something stable. I had to RMA the first 790i and had a lot of trouble with the second one, but now its rock stable. Good luck.

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by waxking1

Tatty,
I feel for you. I had so much trouble with my 790i board that I built a new computer with a P5E and a 9450 just so I would have something stable. I had to RMA the first 790i and had a lot of trouble with the second one, but now its rock stable. Good luck.

Thanks, my board was totally trouble free upto now though, I didnt even get any of the data corruption issues they had on release.

[johnspack]

Liking this card more and more, able to pick off butterflies at 25m now, 1920x1200 is a must for crysis! Can't believe I was stuck on 1280x960 on my 9800gtx. I can even enable more aa and af for games like hellgate london! I'm almost thinking that for driving this 24" wide, this card wasn't a bad idea. A bit expensive... but not bad. Oh and tatty_one, yeah, I use furmark for stability testing, only way to go.
oh and that blows about your mobo ect, expensive equipment that goes dead is always bad!!!!

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by johnspack

Liking this card more and more, able to pick off butterflies at 25m now, 1920x1200 is a must for crysis! Can't believe I was stuck on 1280x960 on my 9800gtx. I can even enable more aa and af for games like hellgate london! I'm almost thinking that for driving this 24" wide, this card wasn't a bad idea. A bit expensive... but not bad. Oh and tatty_one, yeah, I use furmark for stability testing, only way to go.
oh and that blows about your mobo ect, expensive equipment that goes dead is always bad!!!!

Mobo's seem to be my weakspot.....I blew an Gigabyte x38 DQ6 at the beggining of the year.

[Muhad]

What do the terms 'PPD' and 'fold' mean?

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by Muhad

What do the terms 'PPD' and 'fold' mean?

PPD is a dedicated Physicx card I think (cant remember what PPD actually stands for) and "fold" is running the "folding at home programme"......ie.....to fold.

[Kursah]

PPD = Points Per Day

It's calculated based off a system build for an average (usually 1000ppd iirc) rig by the FAH crew, it gives the end user a better idea of the folding efficiency and performance of their rig/WU's.

If you want more info on folding itself, what kinds of diseases and cancers it can help cure, go here:

http://folding.stanford.edu/

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by Kursah

PPD = Points Per Day

It's calculated based off a system build for an average (usually 1000ppd iirc) rig by the FAH crew, it gives the end user a better idea of the folding efficiency and performance of their rig/WU's.

If you want more info on folding itself, what kinds of diseases and cancers it can help cure, go here:

http://folding.stanford.edu/

Lol, I have PhsicX on the brain! decided to get an Anus PQ3T i45 deluxe as a stand in for my RMA's 790i Ultra so hopefully the Q9650 should be up and running sometime next week.

Yours is the same but DDR2 version? How U find it?

[Kursah]

LoL! I love my Asus P5Q Deluxe...but I've heard bad things about those deluxe Anuses! Be careful Tatty! One slip of the....oh well anyways!

Keep us posted on your results Tatty! If you need any help with your P45, Fitseries3 has that same board iirc. He helped me greatly with my P5Q Deluxe DDR2 board...Go find Ket's 1306 modded bios for your board, it works pretty well. He's got a modded version for almost all P5Q's iirc...I know Q3 Deluxe and Q Deluxe for sure! I can't recall if it was in his thread on TPU or XS tho...

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by Kursah

LoL! I love my Asus P5Q Deluxe...but I've heard bad things about those deluxe Anuses! Be careful Tatty! One slip of the....oh well anyways!

Keep us posted on your results Tatty! If you need any help with your P45, Fitseries3 has that same board iirc. He helped me greatly with my P5Q Deluxe DDR2 board...Go find Ket's 1306 modded bios for your board, it works pretty well. He's got a modded version for almost all P5Q's iirc...I know Q3 Deluxe and Q Deluxe for sure! I can't recall if it was in his thread on TPU or XS tho...

The slip was intentional.............I hate Asus but I keep going back and buying one! and thanks, whats with the modded BIOS? are there shortcomings in the generic ones?

[johnspack]

I might get a little more money yet... I was thinking an asus p45 mobo for a new e8400 or e8500, do the p45s oc pretty well?

[Cold Storm]

Well its a hit a miss so to say on the P45's... the Asus P5Q Pro is pretty sweet since Ket has made his own bios for them and it works... but if you can get the mac daddy T power Bio Star board, it will do you good...
I believe the Max II is p45... Can't go wrong with a Maximus Formula board!

[johnspack]

I think the maximus formula is waaay out of my price range, the pq5 pro sounds right!