GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) flashing BIOS of GeForce 9800 GTX? - 2008/04/02 06:49Hey, this is my first time on here, and I have spent some time looking into this, on your forums as well as several others. I have had differently people answer my questions with different and sometimes misleading answers, so hopefully this works better... I have two EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS being G92 based with 512MB memory, which I have running at 776/2214MHz and shader at 1954MHz on stock voltages. At this voltage and these clocks it idles at 45°C and max load around 57°C.
From those statistics I gather I can push some more out of the cards by modifying the voltage. I have heard many people say that this cannot be done by modifying the BIOS, but what if one were to flash it with the GeForce 9800 GTX BIOS? Would that work seeing as they're virtually identical, just different voltage levels and clock speeds? If not, is physically modifying the cards the only way that it is possible to modify these cards? Thanks.
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) flashing BIOS of GeForce 9800 GTX? - 2008/04/02 20:59jdigiov2 wrote: From those statistics I gather I can push some more out of the cards by modifying the voltage. I have heard many people say that this cannot be done by modifying the BIOS, but what if one were to flash it with the GeForce 9800 GTX BIOS? That should work as far as I can see, as I don't have a GeForce 8800 GTS nor GeForce 9800 GTX, but having checked the BIOS's it should work as these are very similar. Though it will not change much as the default clock speeds are lower as your current overclocking and the GPU is also running at 1.15V like the the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB version. So you won't really gain much by doing so...
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jdigiov2
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Re:GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) flashing BIOS of GeForce 9800 GTX? - 2008/04/03 00:53I was under the impression that the GeForce 9800 GTX operated on a slightly higher voltage, by maybe 0.06V and that by utilizing its BIOS over the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB's, I'd have it regulated at the higher voltage and it would in turn be more overclockable. Basically, I have them fairly well overclocked as it stands, but I'd like to push a little bit more out of them if possible. I'd prefer not to voltage modify it, so a BIOS flash would be better and easier.
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shinichi
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Re:GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) flashing BIOS of GeForce 9800 GTX? - 2008/04/03 03:34Mavke wrote: Though it will not change much as the default clock speeds are lower as your current overclocking and the GPU is also running at 1.15V like the the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB version. So you won't really gain much by doing so... At least I think this will be helpful on installing new drivers since NVIDIA didn't put G92 based GeForce 8800 series into it's official newest WHQL drivers.
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jdigiov2
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Re:GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) flashing BIOS of GeForce 9800 GTX? - 2008/04/03 03:58Okay, so even if there is minor benefit from it, I'm just making sure its possible. Assuming thats so, will those cards come up as GeForce 9800 GTX's in the GPU-Z and other applications? Also, since I have the two cards in SLI, should I be flashing them separately? Like take one out, flash one, replace it with the other one, flash that one, and then put them together in SLI? Or is it okay to just go for it with both of them at once? Last question is assuming I do get those BIOS on there, I'll be able to overclock from those higher base frequencies right? Thanks guys...
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) flashing BIOS of GeForce 9800 GTX? - 2008/04/03 19:26jdigiov2 wrote: I was under the impression that the GeForce 9800 GTX operated on a slightly higher voltage, by maybe 0.06V and that by utilizing its BIOS over the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB's, I'd have it regulated at the higher voltage and it would in turn be more overclockable. Sorry to say but even if the GeForce 9800 GTX would hava efor example a voltage of 1.20V it will not make any difference if you would flash your GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB with it as the voltage will stay at 1.15V. We have explained it now over and over again the voltage in the GeForce series is controlled by the VID level and the highest VID level is for both the GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB version is the VID 03.
On the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB edition the VID 03 corresponds to 1.15V so we added some coding in NiBiTor to show the actual voltage rather than the VID level as than you would not know what it means. Now the GeForce 9800 GTX highest VID level is also VID 03 and also on this card it is 1.15V as actual measured voltage. So it will not make any difference on the voltage, and the only option that you have is really doing a hardware modification to get a higher voltage.
Now if in this case the VBID 03 would have been 1.20V voltage, and you would flash the GTX BIOS it will still work at 1.15V, cause the voltage circuitry sees VID 03 and on the GTS that means for the voltage circuitry to give 1.15V... That is just how it works and there is nothing you can do about that via any BIOS tweaks on the VID levels or voltages.
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) flashing BIOS of GeForce 9800 GTX? - 2008/04/03 19:30jdigiov2 wrote: Okay, so even if there is minor benefit from it, I'm just making sure its possible. Assuming thats so, will those cards come up as GeForce 9800 GTX's in the GPU-Z and other applications? Also, since I have the two cards in SLI, should I be flashing them separately? Since you are trying something like this the card will become a semi to full identified as GeForce 9800 GTX, depending if all identifiers get updates with the BIOS flash. And I wouldn't do both but just one as we haven't tried it yet and are not certain if it will work for 100%... And I don't want that you would end up with two cards messed up to be fixed, when it is a lot easier to fix one only if the other was not changed.
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jdigiov2
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Re:GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) flashing BIOS of GeForce 9800 GTX? - 2008/04/04 02:24Okay, thanks much for the info, and its kinda what I thought. I did do quite a bit of research on this topic before posting. The only reason that I wasn't sure was that I kept finding someone posting that they were able to do it or something on that order and I figured maybe the GTX released something new that I wasn't familiar with. Just out of blatant curiousity, is the GeForce 9800 GTX actually a higher voltage? Also, what is a safe voltage to up these cards to and is it worth doing it? So risk versus performance in your personal opinion?
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) flashing BIOS of GeForce 9800 GTX? - 2008/04/04 15:49jdigiov2 wrote: The only reason that I wasn't sure was that I kept finding someone posting that they were able to do it or something on that order and I figured maybe the GTX released something new that I wasn't familiar with. The new GeForce 9800 GTX is not working at a higher voltage as the GeForce 8800 GTS, it just seems that NVIDIA held back soem of their best G92 cores and is using those for making the GeForce 9800 GTX cards. This means they can work at higher clock and offer better stability, at the same voltage. You can normally still do some hardware modification but I would not go about 1.25V to 1.30V as the standard voltage of the GTX is 1.15V. So never go too high as it will shorten the life of the chip.
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mRYellow
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Re:GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) flashing BIOS of GeForce 9800 GTX? - 2008/04/07 13:33Okay, so just wondering as this has been the topic about it, has anyone tried flashing a GeForce 9800 GTX BIOS onto their GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB yet?
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