nF4 Ultra-D: PCIe 8x is plenty for 6800 GT

[ilh]

I finally got my eVGA 6800 GT and was able to run some 3DMarks on my DFI nF4 Ultra-D. As others have mentioned, it is feasible to run the video card in the secondary slot at 8x and get good performance and figured I'd run my own tests.

 

In the primary PCIe slot at 16x (jumpers on non-SLI):

3DMark01 - 22791

3DMark03 - 11335

3DMark05 - 4581

In the secondary PCIe slot at 8x (jumpers on SLI):

3DMark01 - 22794 (1.000x)

3DMark03 - 11326 (0.999x)

3DMark05 - 4561 (0.996x)

My worst degradation going from 16x to 8x was only 0.4%. Clearly 8x is plenty for a 6800GT, and this really opens up some chipset cooling options. I hate my loud chipset fan.

 

This was with a 3500+ at stock speed and 2x512MB at 2-2-2-7@200MHz.

 

--Lee

[red930]

Good work! How many times did you run each benchmark?

 

Looks like the difference is well within the margin of error.

[FutureDFI]

Nice.

 

Is something i m going to do in the near future.

Some ppl mention on OCforums that they cannot run 3D bench on the second 16X PCI-e.

What chipset and video drivers u using? Also what bios?

 

I assume u dont mod the chip and this is not with an SLI bridge!!

 

thanks in advance

[Freezer26]

I have also heard this news...thanks I will be doing this in the next few minutes!!

 

And I don't think there is any mod or bridge in use here!!

[ilh]

Yes, this is likely within the margin of error for the 3DMarks. That's good news.

 

No chipset SLI mod. No SLI bridge. The drivers were the 66.93 that came on the CD from eVGA.

[rhiridflaidd]

I am running my graphics card in the other PCI-e slot without having moved the jumpers.

 

Si-soft sandra tells me that the slot is running at x16.

[FutureDFI]

Yes, this is likely within the margin of error for the 3DMarks. That's good news.

 

No chipset SLI mod. No SLI bridge. The drivers were the 66.93 that came on the CD from eVGA.

 

 

OK. I think that later drivers like 71.81 for example, not allow this.

Try it , but get ready to go back to one u have now.

[rhiridflaidd]

When I ran 3dmak05, I could only run the "game" tests, and not the other tests.

 

I thought that it was due to me running it with the default windows drivers - because I had not installed drivers onto the graphics card after installing it in the second slot.

 

I'm planning to run it again once I get home. On initial boot, the card's parameters (default clock, etc. were all wrong in atiTool, but that seemed to fix itself on rebbooting

 

 

Ps my 3dmark 05 is 4541 - with very old drivers. -in the second slot, jumpers unmoved.

[Prospector]

On my Leadtek 6800GT AGP I just tried some benches

 

3DMark01-22805

3DMark03-12783

3DMark05-5242

 

Interesting.

[Tedy]

71.90 much better drivers.

[rhiridflaidd]

Silly me - The other tests are disabled in the free version of 3dmark 05 -so there's nowt wrong with the slot.

 

2001 gave me 23945.

Different drivers had no '05 benefit.

 

So the question is - will ilh's benches improve by moving the sli jumpers back to non sli mode?

 

(it's difficult for me to move the jumpers because my watercooling pipes are in the way.)

[ilh]

71.84 works fine for me at 8x in the bottom slot.

 

Why would my benches improve moving the jumper? 8x is the best you can get in the bottom slot. If I move the jumpers to non-SLI, I'll only get 2x.