8500gt WHAT CAN I DO TO IT?!

[hat]

I've already pushed this thing to it's safe limit. I looked for the R768 resistor for the vGPU pencil mod but I couldn't find it/it wasn't there. I've even BIOS flashed it to clocks that were good so I didn't have to fool around with software overclocking programs.

So now I ask you, is there anything I can do to it?! Any BIOS mods to possibly unlock shaders or ROPs, even any enhanced drivers, anything? :banghead:

[cdawall]

figure out your own vmod?

[GLD]

I would say start to recycle your soda/beer cans and save up $150 and get at least a HD 3850 to game on. No offense, but that card of your does not compliment the rest of your rig at all.

[jbunch07]

I would say start to recycle your soda/beer cans and save up $150 and get at least a HD 3850 to game on. No offense, but that card of your does not compliment the rest of your rig at all.

i agree that card is holding your system back!

[sneekypeet]

I say take some really clear pics of your Graphics PCB and see if someone can help find the Vmod points , if you are inclined to mod it.

I personally wont be of much help, but there are some members here that possibly have the knowledge to further your process.

Just a thought tho!!!!!

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

sell it and save towards a 8800GS

[hat]

cdawall: how? Pencil random resistors? can't see that happening
and you two... yeah it holds me back hardcore, I want to get at least a 512mb 8600gt and some memory heatsinks so I can vmod it... I'll get one compatible with the vmod... I got some AS5 here, I can put that on the GPU core.

sneeky, I don't have a camera. :/

[sneekypeet]

possibly email the maufacturer to see if they may have some quality resolution shots of it?

Google?

[jbunch07]

cdawall: how? Pencil random resistors? can't see that happening
and you two... yeah it holds me back hardcore, I want to get at least a 512mb 8600gt and some memory heatsinks so I can vmod it... I'll get one compatible with the vmod... I got some AS5 here, I can put that on the GPU core.

sneeky, I don't have a camera. :/

i have 2 8600gts 512gddr3 i like them allot they were a big step up from my single 7600gt but they are going for pretty cheap now
only 139 at tiger
its great deal http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3244224&Sku=E145-8614

[hat]

this is the best I could find
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/9751/dsc00054uy3.jpg

[snuif09]

try to make your own cooler for better temps

[hat]

That won't help performance none :/

[Solaris17]

find the crystal hat on the back of your cqard hat.....then look to the left and look at the transistor numbers....till you find the 700 range...thetransistro you want is on the left side about a CM from the crystal.....i wish you had a camera i could help you but you sdont.

[hat]

Crystal hat? mmmmm.....kay.....

Which left? Twards the DVI and CGA connectors, or twards the end where the power connector would be?

[Solaris17]

find the crystal and when you do it will be left tword the outside of the card if it was plugged i so the end with the sli conenctor on it.... the tansistor should be right on the other side of a a big squar mosfet on the left sode of the crystal...number 768.

[hat]

Well, I found c768 on the back of the PCB, penciled it, blew it off with a can of air to remove excess graphite... and no joy. Couldn't even hit 700MHz, I know 680MHz is stable.

Still never saw an r768.

[Solaris17]

da,n your sooo close...i can see the c680 range which means your oly a little off just rtry to find a high number r transistor and look around their in groups

[hat]

I've looked all over the whole card, I've seen R resistors as high as over 1000 but never R768

[novacheck]

Now, I know this isn't the same card as posted above, but I have searched everywhere for info on it. It is a PNY 8500GT 512. I just bought the card from a friend a couple of days ago. I really haven't planned on installing it, as I am saving up for the 9600. But, that could be a little while. I had a lot of financial trouble in the last couple of months. But hey, this isn't a site about personal problems. Well, maybe in a way. Any way, I thought I would post some pics of it, to see if anyone had any ideas. Thanks alot guys.

Sorry about the quality. My camera has gone to crap. And, I couldn't get enough light to not have to use the flash. But, I think they may still work. If you are interested, I can probably get better quality pics.

[wolf]

make or modify an obnoxiously large cooler for it + any vmods you seem to be looking into, with any luck you might even get it to stock 8600GT performance :P

[novacheck]

Considering this would be the first VC overclock I have done, where would I start? Can this card be overvolted through the bios? I do know how to mod bioses, but again, never worked with a video card. I know about the pencil mod, and the resistor mod, but I have never found info about this particular card. I really wouldn't know where to begin. So, we could all make this a joint effort for those of us stuck with this crappy card, who cannot afford a decent performer. Thanks again, and thanks in advance for all the help.


Sorry to be a thread stealer. I will try to make my own post. But I will probably do it in the morning.

[hat]

It's not a hijack ;)
I think my BIOS was un-vmoddable, novacheck if you use nvflash to get the BIOS off of your card (simply format a floppy to DOS by right-clicking on the A:\ drive in My Computer, download nvflash, boot into DOS with the floppy with NVFLASH on it, type nvlfash -b novacheck.rom, boot back into XP and upload it here so I can toy with it)

[wolf]

from my experience bios vmods don't work whatsoever, ive done a proper vmod to my card, and voltages were stock before i did the mod, and that was with a vmodded bios.

there has to be a physical way to volt mod the card, and its such a cool running chip, with a big cooler and some serious juice, i reckon 1ghz is not at all out of the ball park!

[novacheck]

I agree that you may not be able to vmod through bios, but if you want to toy around with it, I will upload my bios.

[novacheck]

I have fiddled around with various settings in nibitor. But I am not sure anything will set, except for your overclocking settings. Now, there is one thing that is kinda over my head, and that is the timings. Any layman's terms would be helpful. So far, all I can get out of the card is 680 gpu, 520 mem, and 918 shaders. Any more, and it will continually freeze my system. Even so much as 1 mhz on any of them. Now the guy who had the card before me, put a custom heatsink on it. It covers the ram, but not enough to actually get it to touch. Any recommendations on heatsinks?

[KieranD]

put it in an old system use omega drivers and oc it OR bit OR smash it OR sell it to some idiot

get a 3850 512mb they are going cheap or get a 8800gt if you have the extra the gs isnt as good as it

[novacheck]

Yeah, that is my ultimate goal. I really don't play too many pc games. But the ones I do play, I would like to PLAY. If you know what I mean. I really want to upgrade the rest of my system first, though. I have a crappy mobo, and a crappy processor(even though I have heard it is a good overclocker, my motherboard sucks). But for now, I need to use the one I have as I do a lot of game mapping, and it is nice to use 2 monitors, and my onboard doesn't let me do it. But that rare time when I do play a game, I would like to be able to get at least a little more performance than what I have now.

And, there is not much going around about the 8500. Everyone thinks it sucks. And because of that, it seems no one wants to take the time to do anything with it. But, I am willing to devote a little of my own time, to see what I can do, and see what kind of performer this card can be. Even if it is still going to be a crappy card.

[novacheck]

I was thinking. (oh no, that can never be good) Is it possible to flash another manufacturer's bios? I know that not all bios's may work. But, it seems to me, that if you can get a bios from a board that shares the same layout, maybe it would work.


Or, maybe I am more of a noob than I thought. I will leave that up to you to decide.

[novacheck]

And that was another question I had. What is the deal with the hacked drivers? What is different about them?

[novacheck]

Well, after trying for a few hours with different cooling options that I have, I have only managed
GPU 680
MEM 520 (1040)
Shaders 1360

I cant wait to get a new card, then see how quick this one fries. Still looking for some volt mods, though. Tried changing through the bios, but not sure if it worked or not. See my post #19 to see some pics of the board. I don't know where to start to find the read points. I would be more interested in Resistor mods than the pencil mods.

[novacheck]

Also, after modding the bios, my video driver keeps giving me errors. I will get a blank screen for about 5 minutes, then everything works fine again. I ran atitool to get the OC, then just edited the bios to make it permanent. But, does it mean my clocks are too high, or what?

[novacheck]

Well, as to my above post, I decided to reinstall my video drivers. I run Vista Home Premium 64 bit, so I tried out Omegas 169.25 drivers. Fixed all my issues!

Has anyone decided to look at the pics of the PNY 8500 to see if you could volt mod it? Again, I am looking for either the pencil mod, or the resistor mod. I don't mind either way. I do have fairly proficient skills in soldering. I am very comfortable with it. Any help would be very appreciated, probably not only by me, but by a lot of 8500 owners. Thanks again.