Have completed the conductive pen volt mod to take my core clock speed from 520 to 660! My 3d mark 06 score was 5493 and after the mod it is 6007! I fitted a Zalman v900 to replace my xfx 7900gt supplied heatsink which to be honest was quite poor. Just thought I would share this info to anyone who was thinking about it. It is really easy and can be done with just a conductive pen and connecting two point on your GPU board. Easy peasy.
The link is here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.as...MVIEWTMP=Linear

It is brilliantly written. I would recommend it to anyone. I have yet to do the memory mod as I have read there can be issues and to be honest I don't think it would make much of a diference.

Was wondering if anyone else had done this too?

So you've only done the VGPU MOD and not the memory mod? How much of a FPS are you getting in those EYE CANDY intense games at high resolutions with AA/AF on? Good for you man, i'm happy for you.

NOTE: Dude the ram volt mod looks so much easier then the VGPU MOD. Have you tried that one yet?

I've done the conductive pen mod and have gotten 650/1680 clocks. I've picked up 5-10FPS (depending on where I am) in CoD2 1600x1200 res and all the goodies turned on.

The ram looks easy... if you've got a DMM laying around to check with otherwise... NO.

You don't think you can reach 650 frequencies on the core only giving it the 1.4v VGPU Mod? 1.5V is pushing the buck type VRM and may require more extensive rework, that's what i've heard. Good stuff, i'll give it a shot when i get my XFX 7900GT E back, hehehe.

i wanna do mine too when i can get myself a conductive pen or windshield defogger kit (which is a discontinued product here in canada becoz apparently all cars has embedded defogger wiring)

Why settle for the defogger kit when you can get yourself the conductive pen? You just have to be very firm since it will spill all over. Hold it gentle and squeeze, hehehehe!

man i WISH i can get those stupid pen... ive been looking allover here and the only place i can found that ships to canada (happens to be in canada too) is in westcoast, and im in westcoast, and the pen costs about $35......... i mean....... plus shipping...... for a stupid pen??

Mate they cost £20 here so I feel for ya but the results are definitely worth it!

Im confused.

Why not re-write the BIOS using NiBiTor v2.9a, which can be found here :-

http://www.mvktech.net/index.php?option=co...&filecatid=1680

You can volt mod what ever you want. I know there are risks, but there are risks when making physical modifications just as much as their is with software modifications (ie BIOS) In addition, NiBiTor allows you to set the default Clock Speeds of the BIOS, which provided you have tested them before hand using the usual Driver overclocking tools (or RIvaTuner etc) then you'll be ok.

On wednesday last week i upgraded from an ATI X800XT to a BFG GF 7900GT OC. Using bog standard cooling im up to 530Mhz Core and 1500Mhz Memory.

Im now just hunting for mods/improvements, hence why ive found this thread, because i want to push it further.

I do agree tho, new cooler needed !! Bit-tech also agree So where can i get the cooler which was mentioned in the start of this Thread? (In the UK)

volt mod using nibitor works for most cards.. i used it for my 7800GT...easy peasy

but, its NOT going to help 7900GT volt......tested

Just OCed my eVGA 7900 GT CO SC from 550/790 to 591/932



I will be doing the 1.5 mod, and even with my vf700 and its ram sinks, I dont think the ram volt mod is worth it...besides 1864 Memory clock is nice



Il post back with results later:)

Brave people lol, I've seen some of the ZOMG WTF VOLT MOD MELTED MY CARD pics. Wouldn't catch me doing the hardware mod. uh uh.

I suspect those are the ones who expect it for free -- without any cooling mods...

I'm more worried about what I'm reading about the voltage converter issues, the flaky memory, and the poor OC headroom. I bit before those came to light. I'm in the RMA cycle now waiting for my 2nd board to try. This time I RMAed to NewEgg. Next time it'll be to eVGA directly (assuming that I get another one of the bad boards that're still in the pipeline). I've heard that they're taking this very seriously now.

Let's say with the stock voltage my 7900GT artifacts/locksup when i try to overclock it to about 560/1650. Do you think it's worth the 1.4/1.5 Vgpu mod to stabilize and even go further with stability? The ram is now taking a dump at 800MHz, do you think it can also matter for the ram mod? I think i should just get my refund back to be honest with you. I just wanted to know if anyone has tried this with a stock 7900GT already artifacting/flickering/locking up when tried to overclock with stock 1.2v.

My card would artifact/lock up at about 550/840 on 1.2v but now with the 1.5 volt mod I can hit 651/830 artifact free, completely stable. I haven't done the mem mod as my CPU heatsink gets in the way and I haven't got round to it. I may try it eventually but don't get your money back do the volt mod. Sounds like my card is the same as yours. Do the mod. It's well worth it.

It may, but I've read that some of the problems are caused by the poor board cleaning after soldering which causes a poor waveform to the onboard voltage converter so that it can't keep up. The voltage mod may just make that worse. I'd try cleaning that area (or the whold board) with alcohol 1st. (Actually, I'd RMA the board if that's an option -- make 'em clean up their acts!).

Just got a XFX 7900GT 520M that does 571/1714 stock (coolbits), this is with the stock cooler and no V-mod.

I`m going to do the 1,4V mod and will come back with results later this week

core 596 ; mem 828 ; (Rivatuner) stock volt.. stock cooling
XFX 7900gt
how can i imporve my memory?? anyway...need a better cooling...

My 520 xfx goes up to 590 with stock everything but i wont run it for long like that until I get a better cooler(prob zalman xf900).

This mod sounds awesome, but I might hold off for a long bit and see how these moded cards last.
If it ok in the long run it really is amazing , that for the price of the cooler($50) you will get 7900GTX speeds(saving 100's)
Prob a GREAT idea to do it 6 months/1 yrs time---instead of upgrading...

after reading his 3dmarks06 changing:
Stock (450/660) : 4695
OC (532/784 ): 5411
to
Volt Mod OC (685/885): 6559
!!!!!!!!
damn, Ive got a electronics hardware catalogue out and buying myself a conductive pen.

www.caig.com is the site for the pen manufacturer. not sure how far they'll ship to. if you really need to i'll help just pm. i can send you a pen if need be.

as far as the volt mod- 1.55 is as high as you can go- without extensive cooling and preventative modification. mine does 700/1800 np VF900CU on 1.55 vgpu and 2.15 vmem, and has been so since the first week i got it. I've flashed the bios to run 675/1750 just to stay on the safe side. I don't use coolbits or anything for oc, just the flash. I'm one of the lucky few(thus far knock on wood) who got an ok card, serial # is only like 2400-ish.

there's also the switching frequency pencil mod, which I highly reccommend. before i did that i was experiencing problems when i would alt-tab to desktop and back(don't ask me why it did that, but the mod seemed to straighten it out). it's just as easy as the vmem mod- just don't attempt either without your DMM.

I'm gonna try to mod it next weekend. Waiting on gettign a Zalman vf900 and it happens Zalman hq in California is next to my job and I'm gonna drop by and see if I can get a deal for it. Literally 1 minute walk from my warehouse to theirs. Gonna try to get 1.55 and maybe do the vmem penicil also.

Well I have increased my volt mod to 1.55v and I have added the pencil mod to increase the memory. I'm currently artifact free at 670 core and 1840 on the memory. WOW. I love these cards. The pencil mod was quite tricky. Definitley need a digital meter.

I'm currently testing 700/850 right now. Had it running 725/850 but California heat is making it unstable.