[Paul442]

I used >>NiBiTor<< to edit the bios and >>nVFlash<< to flash the bios. Only have tried one card so far, no sli yet.
Here are the results. First column is original 8800 gtx bios, second original 8800 ultra sc, third is the 8800 gtx modified:

...... ......

The only difference is I upped the voltage on the gtx from the 8800 ultra's 1.35v original volts to 1.4v.
Only showing the memory settings so show that they are the same for the gtx and the ultra. No modification needed.

All stock settings, non sli:


3d05 Original gtx bios http://service.futur...e?3dm05=3398459 16366 3DMarks ......

3d05 8800 ultra sc 1.4v http://service.futur...e?3dm05=3398384 17084 3DMarks

I did have some very slight antialiasing. I will bring the memory down some and see if it clears up.

[Luis_GT]

I may try that butr leaving the memory stock since my card won't run past 1050mhz on the memory.

[Bigchrome]

Didn't know you could run 1.4v with a bios change? My friend would love to know this....Too bad I won't tell him!


That should let you pull some NICE scores too!

[Paul442]

Yes, you can set the voltage up to as high as 1.8v. I have no idea what is safe:

...... ......

After following the procedure above, save the new modified bios and flash the card with it. I'm having trouble judging how well it is benifiting me on benches cause I had to send in my pc8500 memory rma, now my pc6400 cannot run in dual channel mode. Had to pull out one of the modules and run in single channel cause I kept getting BSOD's. Took me a while to figure out why. It appears I have alot of war wounds. Just did not show up until later.

[Raymo]

Very nice find Paul

[Luis_GT]

After following the procedure above, save the new modified bios and flash the card with it. I'm having trouble judging how well it is benifiting me on benches cause I had to send in my pc8500 memory rma, now my pc6400 cannot run in dual channel mode. Had to pull out one of the modules and run in single channel cause I kept getting BSOD's. Took me a while to figure out why. It appears I have alot of war wounds. Just did not show up until later.

Lol... you and me both... my card now freezes my whole computer @ 666/1050 when I did 675/1070 for the war

[Tarawa]

Did the same thing with the 7950 GT ko to ko sc. Big difference on how high you can clock 'em.

[flewpastu]

great info Paul .. thx for sharing ............ i'm just not sure i could be so brave to try it

[Luis_GT]

I'm gonna prolly try it tommorow, already edited the bios.

[flewpastu]

i'll probably try it but i havent flashed a video card since my old 9500pro flashed to a 9700 pro ...... still working fine to this day and that was years ago

i may need some clear step by step details if thats OK

[Paul442]

Sorry guys, lost my internet connection for a few hours, still BSOD's with both memory modules installed, I'm like the walking wounded here right now. So far, up to this point, I'm not seeing what you might expect to see when raising the voltage on your gpu as much as what is available with this software. I now have raised the gpu voltage up to the max at 1.8v, and the temps I've seen have only been about 54c on the gpu with a koolance waterblock. That is about a 5c increase. Now I can run 3d05 with 650mhz core and 1060mhz memory which is higher, especialy memory (980mhz max prev) than before, but seems I can run that at 1.45v or 1.8v, no real increase at anything in between. Not sure of the accuracy of the voltage increase. Here's a run with 3d03 at 1.8v http://service.futur...are?2k3=5501914. Now I've gone to my e6600 due to all of the problems I've had not wanting to jeperdize my quad, but on 3d03 I don't think that matters too much.

i may need some clear step by step details if thats OK

1) You need to edit the bios of your card first, then flash the card with the new bios. Edit the bios with NiBiTor, changing the clock speeds and voltage.
2) Then flash the bios with nVFlash.

When you download and run NiBiTor, click "tools" and "read bios" then "select device". Once you have selected the only device there save it to a file called "original" (do not type in original.rom, will not work), shows as original.rom. Then click "file" then "open bios" and select "original.rom". Change what you like and save it to a different "*.rom file". I called mine new1, new2, new3.rom ...... and tweaked with each one. Be sure to save the original bios to a file. Also be sure to have a back up graphics card just in case something goes wrong. They say to set up an autoexec.bat to reflash to an original bios with nVFlash on a floppy, but I have not done that.
Cool thing other than the voltage increase capability with NiBiTor, is you can overclock the shader .... .... highlighted in blue. Can't do that with any other software I've seen. Do be carefull here though, there is alot of room for disaster with this software.

[Bigchrome]

My guess is the voltage adjustment isn't working...But don't try to run 1.8v!!! 1.65v the card apparently shuts down from OVP and that was only found by people on LN2

[Tarawa]

If it's like the 7950 bios flash you can TELL it to do 1.8v but if doesn't have a setting on the hardware for that it'll just do the highest it's can to. On the 7950 it was only an increase of .1v from 1.4v to 1.5v. More than likely what's happening is that all the 8800GTX cards can do the same voltages they just need the bios to tell them what to run. The highest an 8800 is supposed to run is, say, 1.6v on an Ultra sc. All cards will do 1.6v if the bios tells them to but tell it to do more than what the highest it can do without a volt mod and you only get 1.6v.

I'd see what a Ultra SC voltage is and I bet that's as high as it will go without a physical volt mod.

[MeltDown]

Now I can run 3d05 with 650mhz core and 1060mhz memory which is higher, especialy memory (980mhz max prev) than before, but seems I can run that at 1.45v or 1.8v, no real increase at anything in between. Not sure of the accuracy of the voltage increase. Here's a run with 3d03 at 1.8v http://service.futur...are?2k3=5501914.

That's cool stuff you've got going on there. It doesn't look like this really turns a GTX into an Ultra though (maybe equivalent to a stock Ultra). Just for comparison, I was able to run my bottom of the line (if such can be said about a GF Ultra) non-factory-OC Ultra at 700 core /2400 memory on the crappy stock air cooler for the Forum War, and I'm sure the memory could have clocked higher if I tried but the core was about tapped out on temperature. It definitely goes higher on the core now that I put water cooling on the card. (How high? We'll see in the PC Pitstop Open - I haven't maxed it yet.) I think the Ultra uses a newer stepping of the core and better actual memory chips than the GTX in addition to the different BIOS but I wouldn't swear to it. Of course if it improves performance of the card you've already got that's clearly a good thing, but I'd still buy an Ultra over a GTX if I had to buy one today (not so back when the Ultra was >$800).

[Luis_GT]

Tried it, didn't help at all, hell, I artifacyted @ 655/1000 with the flash... when I can still make 660/1040 with the stock bios.

[beast-usa]

Great job Paul!

I haven't flashed one in awhile .............. only move the voltage the bare minimum it needs.
I killed a couple different cards giving them to much for to long

I wouldn't go up more then .1v

Keep us posted ......... wish I could do these ATI's

[flewpastu]

I may pass on this then ....... mine will run 655core and 1070 mem all day long .......... havent tried going further yet

the Ultras do have better cores and also use better memory chips as well

but again this is some great info Paul

[rtyrie1]

AgentSmith used to be a freak about video card bioses, whatever happened to that guy?

[m3phisto]

a question: i have an Asus EN8800 ULTRA, and i received a XFX 8800GTX. I can flash the 8800ultra bios (after modify) on the 8800 gtx?

[Paul442]

a question: i have an Asus EN8800 ULTRA, and i received a XFX 8800GTX. I can flash the 8800ultra bios (after modify) on the 8800 gtx?

There are no guarantees when trying to flash a card with a different bios. It could end up useless. It is always a gamble. I did this a while ago and don't remember all of the particulars, but it worked out just fine, gave me the option of raising the voltage a little higher. It gave me minimal gains, certainly not as much as the overclocked edition.