[Dutch Guy]

Last night I softmodded my 6800NU and it worked perfectly so now I have a 6800 with 16 pipes and 6 vertex shaders, but does that mean that the card is now bandwith limited instead of core limited?

In other words should I concentrate my overclock on the memory instead of the core?

[Dave Baumann]

Yes, you are likely to be more bandwidth limited in many cases, but you'll be gaining more shader power which doesn't really require lots of bandwidth - even without OC'ing the RAM you'll be getting better performances in shader limited situations.

[Dutch Guy]

Originally Posted by DaveBaumann

Yes, you are likely to be more bandwidth limited in many cases, but you'll be gaining more shader power which doesn't really require lots of bandwidth - even without OC'ing the RAM you'll be getting better performances in shader limited situations.

Yes, I did notice an increase in performance as I got 11099 in 3dmark'03 but with 12x1,5vp I got 10415 so the increase isn't as big as I thought :?

[Pete]

Try upping the resolution in '03. or using the more shader-intensive 3DM05.

The real Q is, where did you see the gains in '03: GT1, 2, 3, or 4? And did you see larger gains in the shader (vertex and pixel) tests?

[Dutch Guy]

At stock speed 12x1,5vp:


At stock speed 16x1,6vp:


Overclocked/tweaked 390/800 16x1,6vp:

[ChrisRay]

I noticed going from 700 memory speed to 900 made a huge difference for efficiency, 28.8 gigs of bandwith seems to be a good aim for 5,400 fillrate, I bet you could get more, Doesnt the X800 Pro have 5,700 Fillrate and 28.8 gigs of bandwith? Just for comparitive sakes.

Anyone have a stock X800 Pro multitexture they could post?

[bigz]

Originally Posted by ChrisRay

Anyone have a stock X800 Pro multitexture they could post?

3.2GHz Prescott, X800 PRO, 1GB OCZ EB

Catalyst 8.07 hotfix /w beta CCC - Catalyst AI disabled

[Martillo1]

Well, I have to say that after softmodding and raising up the frequencies of my 6800NU, the increment in performance in Doom III did not impressed me much... until I activated 4xAA. I play with com_showfps "1" and the performance did not drop at all. Moreover, the game felt as smooth as always.

AMD XP 2600+ @ 2300 MHz
6800 NU s.m. 16p 6vs 400/865 MHz

Doom III High Quality (8xAF) 4xAA 1280x1024

[Dutch Guy]

Originally Posted by Martillo1

Well, I have to say that after softmodding and raising up the frequencies of my 6800NU, the increment in performance in Doom III did not impressed me much... until I activated 4xAA. I play with com_showfps "1" and the performance did not drop at all. Moreover, the game felt as smooth as always.

I had a similar experience, I had also changed drivers and forgot to setup the Doom3 profile so it used the standard setting I use of 4xAA/8xAF and when playing Doom3 I found that it really didn't run faster, but as it turns out I was using 1280*1024 4xAA/8xAF and it runs at ~46fps in demo1, but without 4xAA it runs at ~76fps which is very impressive

[MuFu]

Originally Posted by Dutch Guy

I had a similar experience, I had also changed drivers and forgot to setup the Doom3 profile so it used the standard setting I use of 4xAA/8xAF and when playing Doom3 I found that it really didn't run faster, but as it turns out I was using 1280*1024 4xAA/8xAF and it runs at ~46fps in demo1, but without 4xAA it runs at ~76fps which is very impressive

Isn't this the opposite experience?!

[MatiasZ]

that's why he said similar...

[Dutch Guy]

Originally Posted by MuFu

Isn't this the opposite experience?!

Hehe, well, I meant to say that I had 4xAA on and the speed felt the same as before when I wasn't using AA :?

[ChrisRay]

Originally Posted by bigz

3.2GHz Prescott, X800 PRO, 1GB OCZ EB

Catalyst 8.07 hotfix /w beta CCC - Catalyst AI disabled

These fillrate results have been surprising me. @ 350/900 I have had pretty good luck reaching close to my theoretical fillrate in 3dmark03, Plus I have a much higher single texturing fillrate.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3201132

[MuFu]

Originally Posted by Dutch Guy

Hehe, well, I meant to say that I had 4xAA on and the speed felt the same as before when I wasn't using AA :?

I see what you meant now, sorry.

Well that is a pretty neat performance increase. Nice one!

[Ailuros]

Originally Posted by Dutch Guy

Hehe, well, I meant to say that I had 4xAA on and the speed felt the same as before when I wasn't using AA :?

Tried 2xAA/8xAF in 1600 yet, or is the monitor not giving you that option?

[Martillo1]

I think that I did not see a drop in performance when I activated 4xAA because my system is now CPU limited. However, before softmodding and changing freqs I used to notice a performance loss when I activated 4xAA.

[Ailuros]

Originally Posted by Martillo1

I think that I did not see a drop in performance when I activated 4xAA because my system is now CPU limited. However, before softmodding and changing freqs I used to notice a performance loss when I activated 4xAA.

It wasn't CPU limited before

[Dutch Guy]

Originally Posted by Ailuros

Tried 2xAA/8xAF in 1600 yet, or is the monitor not giving you that option?

I have a 17" TFT that has a max of 1280*1024

[Martillo1]

Originally Posted by Ailuros

It wasn't CPU limited before

Not so heavily. I also have a TFT 1280x1024.

edit:

I mean that before softmodding , applying 4XAA caused an impact in performance, hence I consider that I was primarily GPU bound. Now the impact is gone, so I think is the CPU what is limiting me most.

Maybe the system was wonderfully balanced and I destroyed that, but I do not mind

[ChrisRay]

Originally Posted by Martillo1

Not so heavily. I also have a TFT 1280x1024.

edit:

I mean that before softmodding , applying 4XAA caused an impact in performance, hence I consider that I was primarily GPU bound. Now the impact is gone, so I think is the CPU what is limiting me most.

Maybe the system was wonderfully balanced and I destroyed that, but I do not mind

Do you have more or less performance than you did before? I'm not quite following you here. Activating 16 pipes should still improve performance in AA/AF situations even when CPU bound..

[Martillo1]

In general I see more performance after activating pipelines and the vertex unit, and raising frequency helps too. Specifically in Doom3, the gain was not so clear without AA.

And what you say is what happens. Before, I could not use 4xAA. Now I can.

[Dutch Guy]

Originally Posted by Martillo1

In general I see more performance after activating pipelines and the vertex unit, and raising frequency helps too. Specifically in Doom3, the gain was not so clear without AA.

And what you say is what happens. Before, I could not use 4xAA. Now I can.

The performance hit you get by using 4xAA is much smaller after softmodding because of the extra GPU power and extra pipes

[Martillo1]

Originally Posted by Dutch Guy

The performance hit you get by using 4xAA is much smaller after softmodding because of the extra GPU power and extra pipes

That is why I did it, I could not bear beeing limited after paying a little fortune by the card 8)