Convert a XFX 8600GT to XFX 8600GTS

[assasin]

hi guys!

i just converted my XFX 8600GT to a XFX 8600GTS.the process is damn easy.
here r the steps:
1-> extract ur 8600GT bios thru nibitor.
2->after extracting the bios,in the 1st page cahge core to 700,shader to 1600 and memory to 850.
3->click bootup clocks and enter the same above values.
4->in the 2nd page (Voltages) set the field 3D to 1.32V.
dont tough anything else.just save the bios.
5->create a MS-DOS boot floppy.load nvflash into that floppy,the original bios and the modified bios.
6->boot from the floppy and at the prompt enter 'nvflash -4 -5 -6 'name of the biosfile with the .rom extension''.
aftre flashing boot into windows and check device manager.it'll show 8600GTS.

[/URL]

[URL="http://www.freeimagehosting.net/"] (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)
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http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/4e6f025b33.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

[smit]

how much fps boost did you see after applying this trick ?

[assasin]

^^^ bout 15-20 fps in Halo 2 and 6-8 fps in Lost Planet DX10.

[Harvik780]

Aree bhai appna product id chipao.

[max_demon]

this voids warrenty i think

[assasin]

^^^ even oc'ing ur card will void warranty in most cases.

[a_k_s_h_a_y]

Convert a XFX 8600GT to XFX 8600GTS

GTS version has 16x anti aliasing so now will that too be enabled ??

[Harvik780]

I guess the 8800GTX can be also modded to an 8800ultra by this method as they both have the same number of pipelines oops Stream processors.

[assasin]

^^^ yeah it sud but i dont have a 8800GTX to try it out mate...:D.

@aks_win didnt try 16X AA will let u know after i try it.

[Harvik780]

What FPS do u get in lost planet and at what resolution.Ur from Durgapur,me too.I was there for 4 years.

[s18000rpm]

@assasin, edit the 2nd last pic.

hide your OEM Windows Product Key.

[assasin]

got 24-28 fps @ 1440x900 in outdoor scenes and bout 30-34 fps in indoor scenes with 4X AA and 4X AF.

@aks_win in Lost World i can set 16X AA in the settings.

[smit]

it won't show 8600 GTS unless you change the device ID to 8600 GTS in nib, also this trick is pretty much like overclocking , but it also modfies the shader domin & volt so it will rise the FPS by bit, but the biggest benfit is the shader overclock, the games which are shader based (oblivion etc) will get a big benfit after this trick , i got a whoping 7-10 FPS increase after applying this trick. :D

[assasin]

^^^ i didnt change the device ID to 8600GTS in nibitor.

[smit]

you didn't, guess it doesn't auto detect in windows XP ...

[p_d5010]

Hey, I was thinking to buy xfx 8600GT......is this a good card? i wish to play games at least in 1280x720 resolution with high settings(not ultra high)......
and, my processor is 939pin AMD 3000+, will this bottleneck 8600gt? my mobo is asus a8n-e...

[assasin]

^^^ 8600GT is a good card.u can play games at medium to high settings depending on the game.ur proccy will be a bottleneck.oc ur proccy this sud solve the prob to some extent.

[p_d5010]

^^^ 8600GT is a good card.u can play games at medium to high settings depending on the game.ur proccy will be a bottleneck.oc ur proccy this sud solve the prob to some extent.
I have already overclocked my cpu by 17%.....should i overclock more (25%-30%) to overcome bottleneck? and at what resolutions can i play latest games in high detail settings?

[assasin]

even if u oc by 25-30% there will still be a little bottleneck.
i play @ 1440x900 medium to high details,4-8X AF,and 2-4X AA.

[Choto Cheeta]

Whats the Reliablity ??

as see with OCing the Procy like C2D ur X2, its quite reliabe that u will not burn it :lol:

So whats up with this one ?? Is it reliable ??

And nice post Yaar, (Whats ur Real name by the way ??) will try for sure, with the 8600 GT which one of my frnd will get this week :p

[wizrulz]

^^^ 8600GT is a good card.u can play games at medium to high settings depending on the game.ur proccy will be a bottleneck.oc ur proccy this sud solve the prob to some extent.

any other solution to overcome proccy bottleneck other than ocing proccy???
I cant overclock mine...as my mobo does not supports it :(

[p_d5010]

Hey so would you suggest me to buy 8600gt now or wait for another month to see if better mainstream card comes till then? And what should i expect from the card if I run the game Lost Planet: Extreme condition (dx10)....at high details and 1280 resolution?

[assasin]

Whats the Reliablity ??

as see with OCing the Procy like C2D ur X2, its quite reliabe that u will not burn it :lol:

So whats up with this one ?? Is it reliable ??

And nice post Yaar, (Whats ur Real name by the way ??) will try for sure, with the 8600 GT which one of my frnd will get this week :p

as far as reliability is concerned i never faced any probs in games,no artifacts in graphics,no lags.
have idle temps of 55-57C and full load temps of 61-68C on stock cooling.so i dont think theres any chance of burning the GPU cuz 8600GTS has the same gpu only the clk speed is more.

http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/f0dfbd821e.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

my real name is Shuvadeep.

@ wizrulz to overcome the bottleneck either change the proccy or get a mobo with oc capabilities.else buy the card now and play and later on upgrade mobo or proccy.

@p_d5010 even if u wait for another month u wont get a better DX10 card in that range.G92 will be released sometime in Q4,so prices of 8800GTS 320MB wont fall by much.so its better to buy a 8600GT.u'll be able to play Lost Planet @ 1280 cuz i play @ 1440.

[p_d5010]

@p_d5010 even if u wait for another month u wont get a better DX10 card in that range.G92 will be released sometime in Q4,so prices of 8800GTS 320MB wont fall by much.so its better to buy a 8600GT.u'll be able to play Lost Planet @ 1280 cuz i play @ 1440.


Hey, can you please tell me at what detail settings you play lost planet? and u use 8600gt right? also, can you please post a screenshot of the game with FPS view on from the settings in 1280 resolution please? I am asking this coz i have seen many reviews that 8600gt is a very bad card, even if compared to 7600gt!

[Harvik780]

If u mod an 8800 gtx to an 8800 ultra then u then the temperatures will soar to unwanted levels I think the same is the case with 8600 gt to gts mod but its more risky as the gt version of the 8600 cards misses out on the power connector front.:)

[freshseasons]

Hey, can you please tell me at what detail settings you play lost planet? and u use 8600gt right? also, can you please post a screenshot of the game with FPS view on from the settings in 1280 resolution please? I am asking this coz i have seen many reviews that 8600gt is a very bad card, even if compared to 7600gt!

For the Value of money there is no better card than the 8600Gt series!
Go ahead its really good and if you can overclock it there is nothing like one.Upto 30% Increase with stock cooling.

If u mod an 8800 gtx to an 8800 ultra then u then the temperatures will soar to unwanted levels I think the same is the case is with 8600 gt to gts mod but its more risky as the gt version of the 8600 cards misses out on the power connector front.
The 8600Gt doesnt have 6 pin or any power connector except for the PCIe power that it gets.
So the over clocking takes a hit when we over clock it.So if one wants insanely overclocked Card this is not the one .Higher Volt mods are really out of question.But you are right this is the safest card to clock.
Still its a great deal for 8600Gt .Later when you are done we can even do SLI with it.

[assasin]

If u mod an 8800 gtx to an 8800 ultra then u then the temperatures will soar to unwanted levels I think the same is the case is with 8600 gt to gts mod but its more risky as the gt version of the 8600 cards misses out on the power connector front.:)

cant say bout 8800GTX and ultra but i can say that oc'ing a 8600GT is not risky cuz temps only inc by 2-5C which i think is acceptable.
so far i didnt face any probs due pci-e pwr connector being not there.

[Pathik]

hey this is very similar to ocing/... @ assasin did u try running any torture tests??? are there any frequent crashes or nything??

[p_d5010]

Hey has anyone except assasin tried to overclock using this method?

And ASSASIN....can you please tell me your XFX product code?

And please please post a screenshot of Lost planet FPS by keeping the details to high and 1280 resolution..please do this as it would help me to consider buying this card..
thanks in advance

What do you suggest betweent ati hd2600xt and nvidia 8600gt? hd 2600xt has greater clock speed....

[smit]

i tried this method, & like i said it gave me 7 more fps in oblivion also 8600 GT is better card even though HD 2600xt has a faster clock, in every way its better than HD 2600 XT.

[Rollercoaster]

dont u obviously need a much bigger heatsink/fan assembly. If u turn up the clocks as equal to the gts counterpart then ur card will automatically turndown the clock as it gets hot or burn out. And according to the FPS increase mentioned i would guess that ur card is downclocking automatically as a GTS would give much more fps difference and generate much more heat. check out performance reviews on websites like tomshardware.com and see the % difference and compare it with urs.

best u can do with the stock heatsink is get clocks as high as the 8600GT XXX version as it comes with the same heatsink. Which is cool too.

going to GTS is obviously too high a risk on the GT heatsink and i am not sure that the architecture is same in the GT and GTS cards.

The clocks u should use are exactly the ones from " XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB DDR3 DUAL DVI XXX " -
Clock rate: 620 MHz
Memory Clock: 1.6 GHz
Shader Clock: 1355 MHz
Voltage - u will have to find out.
assuming u have a "XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB DDR3 DUAL DVI" and that the architecture is exactly the same in both versions.

note that i am only making educated guesses.

[p_d5010]

so should i overclock the card through bios or use Riva tuner to overclock the card? i think this will be the safest method but i cant imagine what performance boost it can give...

[smit]

you can't shader overclock or voltage modfication on riva so you have to use bios for that , & both of them are worth it , & @ Roller when i am playing heavy system games (oblivion,company of heroes) my card temp goes around 63 C which is safe.

[Rollercoaster]

i would advise to monitor the core clock then temperature to check the stability in this specific case if possible.

[p_d5010]

oh, but according to roller coaster, we should overclock it to xxx speeds.....for safety?

[Rollercoaster]

yes and if u can get a better heatsink/fan then sky is the limit.

[p_d5010]

hey smit, give me ur yahoo id please

[Rollercoaster]

so should i overclock the card through bios or use Riva tuner to overclock the card? i think this will be the safest method but i cant imagine what performance boost it can give...
theoretically if u OC thru software then u cant change the voltages.. so u cant do the same level of OCing when modding the bios.

[p_d5010]

ok ,,,,,,, but according to smit and assasin, it safely ocs to 8600gts....and within temperature range....but just in case, if the card is not able to handle the oc'ed speed, then is there any chance that we go back to the original bios b4 card gets damaged? or would it stop responding directly if it cannot handle the overclock?

[Rollercoaster]

i have no idea what happens if the OC is in bios and the OC makes the card unstable. The software OC is applied after the system boots into windows so if there is a problem u can go to safe mode or something but in case of bad bios OC the system might not be able to boot... for that sole purpose motherboards have a reset jumper..but a gfx card doesnt..

may be others can make more heads or tails of this..

hey just noticed.. google search for "xfx 8600gts" gets this thread on the first page

[p_d5010]

Hmm.......so why cant we just boot through floppy and flash to original bios? ya but the system should do booting atleast from floppy also....would it do that? or simply halt with no display?

hmm........yaar so finally suggest me a dx10 card...i wud buy it this week probably.......i m getting 8600gt xfx at rs.7800/-....is the price ok? or overpriced?

[assasin]

seems that theres a lot of confusion.will try to clear them.
1>when u oc thru riva tuner or any other software,the card will by default run at its default clk speed.it inc the clk speed when u play any game.but this doesnt always happen.atleast it didnt happen in my case.
2>after BIOS modding,the modded clk speeds become the default clk speed,so no question of underclking.
3>u can set a safe temp limit in the bios,if ur card crosses this limit it will start throttling.so chances of burnout r not too much.
4>if u dont get any display after this BIOS modd,install a pci vga card,remove ur gfx card,set ur primary gfx in bios to pci.then reinsert ur gfx card and reflash ur original bios.in most cases this will revive ur card.
5>as far as performace in comparison with 8600GTS is concerned,this depends a lot on how much power ur pci-e slot provides to ur gfx card.

[p_d5010]

seems that theres a lot of confusion.will try to clear them.
3>u can set a safe temp limit in the bios,if ur card crosses this limit it will start throttling.so chances of burnout r not too much.

Can you please tell me how to set safe limit temperature i bios? what is general safe temperature for gfx card(i thought 75)? and if the temperature goes over safe levels, what indications should we notice?


4>if u dont get any display after this BIOS modd,install a pci vga card,remove ur gfx card,set ur primary gfx in bios to pci.then reinsert ur gfx card and reflash ur original bios.in most cases this will revive ur card.


Isnt there any other way to flash the original bios in worst case? coz getting a pci card these days is next to impossible. Also i dont have onboard graphics.

Question: I thought setting the clock speeds and voltage higher would burn the components as they are not rated for those values of voltage(like 8600gt capacitors and resistors would have different/less ratings as compared to 8600gts).......please correct me if i am wrong.

[freshseasons]

DID iT and it works like a Charm ! Eh Good and thanks!
The CPU temp is good..But one word of caution..though.
Unlike the 8600GTS where the Heat Sink covers the memory , The Memory in 8600Gt is uncovered and open.
I have put up a decent 120mm Fan right above the card to compensate for the lack of heat sink over momory.
However To get GTS there ( I am using Vista ) i suppose one has to reinstall the graphic drivers.
Hmm and then i was wondering, why not Volt mod it further..and Explore the Limits.
First turn the card and have a look at this thumbnail by opening it.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/233/xfxfreshseasonswz8.th.jpg (http://img211.imageshack.us/my.php?image=xfxfreshseasonswz8.jpg)

And you can also do this :
This is a Volt mod for XFX 8600GT.
You just have to run a Mechanical Graphite pencil through the Core and Memory points shown.
This will be Volt modding it.!
Please refrain from doing it if you dont exactly follow.I have been pretty successful with the thing.
Best luck and happy squeezing the last juice from the card.

[smit]

i have a very bad experince of volt modding on one of my older cards so i try not to volt mod with the pencil, also my Yhaoo ID is
drsanjay_shah@yahoo.com

the price of XFX 8600 GT is right, i had to pay the same price to get it.

[freshseasons]

Ya one more thing. I didint use Floopy. Arnt Floppies passe'.
Made a USB boot Drive and flashed it .
Made my day.

[BBThumbHealer]

Thnx for try..but won't try on my 8600 GT :lol:

[Third Eye]

I have the following:

Intel P4 3GHz
Intel 915GEV
2X512 DDR 2 RAM

Can i add XFX 8600GT to my system?

[p_d5010]

Thnx for try..but won't try on my 8600 GT :lol:

why so ?

[freshseasons]

I have the following:

Intel P4 3GHz
Intel 915GEV
2X512 DDR 2 RAM

Can i add XFX 8600GT to my system?

Yes you can Add XFX 8600GT to your system !

Yes you can Add XFX 8600GT to your system !

Originally Posted by BlackBerry7100g
Thnx for try..but won't try on my 8600 GT
Suites you still, 8600Gt is underclocked ! One should indulge in some lavishes of life.
You know what ? Try overclocking XFX8600GTS and it will fall flat, just as you increase few Mhz.
Wonder why ?
8600GTS is nothing but an overclocked GT so there is no room for overclock unlike 8600GT.

[p_d5010]

Hey what say abut ati hd2600xt?

[quadroplex780]

Hey what say abut ati hd2600xt?
Yes,I think the 2600 pro can be modded to an ati HD2600 XT.
But the Xt won't mod to a Gemini version as it has dual HD 2600 Xt cores.

[rohan4pal]

i m getting 8600gt xfx at rs.7800/-....is the price ok? or overpriced?

no its not 7.8k is too high the price has drop to 7000/-

[p_d5010]

Yes,I think the 2600 pro can be modded to an ati HD2600 XT.
But the Xt won't mod to a Gemini version as it has dual HD 2600 Xt cores.

How can we mod hd2600pro to hd2600xt? and would its performance be better than 8600gt modded to 8600gts?

[freshseasons]

In most of the forums HD2600Xt doesnt even beat plain simple 8600GT.
In some may be but if you talk about best of the games that there are , well Ati disappoints.

[BBThumbHealer]

why so ?

I normally don't OC my hardware..if sumthing goes wrong , then i m gone :lol:

[assasin]

as of now the only diff i found bet a real 8600 GTS and a 8600 Gt converted to 8600 GTS is the absence of HDCP in tha latter.

[p_d5010]

So should i consider buying the XFX 8600gt finally? please elaborate on what is the advantage of having HDCP

[sagargv]

hey , dont u think u shud be more careful while OCing 8600GT . it has no additional connectors , so it receives power only frm the pcie slot . if ur OCed 8600 exceeds 75watt , then wont it cause problems both in card and mobo ? thats wat i read in a review where they adviced readers to be careful . .

i had OCed my xfx 8600 to 560mhz to 2-3 minutes . next month i'm getting it replaced coz mine is running too hot . can i get the replacement or will it be declined as i OCed it . . i used Riva tuner . thanks

[assasin]

^^^ i think that u'll be able to replace it.
power consumption of 8600GTS is a bit more than the 75W mark.also if theres any pwr shortage then i think that the system will become unstable first, which i havent faced till now.
'newayz oc'ing never comes without risks.so no risk no gain.

@p_d5010 go ahead and buy a 8600GT.dont think about anything else.

for HDCP visit this link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCP

u wont see HDCP for another 2-3 yrs in India

[sagargv]

thanks ..offtopic : did u OC that E4300 to 3Ghz with stock cooling ?

[assasin]

^^^ yup.now its running at 3.2GHz

[sagargv]

thats pretty cool . .

[entrana]

this is one of the best tutorials dude is this safe because my friend is buying one

[p_d5010]

this is one of the best tutorials dude is this safe because my friend is buying one

Ya dude, just go on and do it, as many of the site reviews suggest overclocking the card to get the performance near to 8600gts.........msi cards clock to such high speeds that they beat 8600gts!!
If you are scared, you can first software overclock it through riva tuner and check for stability and temperature. If its ok running, then flash the bios!


Question: Does anyone know a budget cooling solution for graphics card? Like antec Vcool

[assasin]

^^^ did ya buy the card?

[p_d5010]

nope.....getting it this thursday

[bL4zE]

i think this is waste coz converting a xfx 8600GT wont give u a performance of 8600GTS coz wat matters with clock speeds is BANDWIDTH n how can u incrsease bandwidth buddy ???:confused:

Another thing is WARRANTY VOIDING :mad: and if some of u are thinking dat OC will void warranty den its WRONG !!! i had my 5700 LE OC n it just went out n so i had to replace it , so i gave it for replacement n bang i got 6200 instead of 5700 as it was LE :( so OC doesnt void warranty n i m daaammnnnn sure about that.

Also as my buddy said dat he got a 15-20 fps boost dats much low coz if u compare GTS n GT perfor den ders a massive diff of 40 fps. So best way is to OC like i did n now my 8600GT runs at monster 705/1750 ;)
btw i used ATITool , Ntune and rivatuner :)

[assasin]

^^^ wat BANDWIDTH r u talking about???
this WARRANTY thing varies from company to company and i think no company will give u warranty after BIOS mod.
which benchmarks show a diff of 40 fps between a 8600GTS @ stock and a 8600GT @ GTS speeds.

[Harvik780]

Wow I just googled for "Covert an 8600GT to an 8600GTS" and bang came digit.I don't think this has been revealed on other international forums and that there's a huge performance difference between these two especially in newer games,older games might show a huge difference but i don't think newer games do.

[Third Eye]

How much 3dmark 2003 score we can achieve on 8600gt.I am getting 13717 at default settings.

[entrana]

wow this is a first for india yay india
anyways would this process be dangerous in anyways i mean would the temperature increaseee and by how much and about the performance too

[Harvik780]

wow this is a first for india yay india
anyways would this process be dangerous in anyways i mean would the temperature increaseee and by how much and about the performance too
I would always suggest a pci cooler for such type of conversions however it seems that @assasin was able to overclock and mod the card at stock cooling.If u take the clocks to insane levels then u would certainly need a new cooler for ur card.

[freshseasons]

I was able to ,Overclock via Bios mod as well as, Volt Mod using pencil trick with the default cooling.
But please again bear in mind.
Unlike 8600GTS which covers the memory on its Cards, 8600GT's memory chips are open.So if not all, just using a simple 12+ Brushless fan over the Card will make a huge difference.But make sure you do not negate the air flow.

[p_d5010]

Hey would it be worth an upgrade from my current ati x1600 pro to nvidia 8600gt ? I expect atleast 50% performance improvement......
If 8600gt wont give me that desired performance, i would prefer to wait a month or two more

[entrana]

sure ati sucks anyways

[sagargv]

i think its better to wait .
hey , wat wud be the cost of a cooler for this card ?

[p_d5010]

my friend installed 8600gt in his pc ..101gcc mobo 1gb ram......card sucks big time on his machine......never seen a card worse than this at its price range .
I am reconsidering my opinion to buy 8600

[assasin]

my friend installed 8600gt in his pc ..101gcc mobo 1gb ram......card sucks big time on his machine......never seen a card worse than this at its price range .
I am reconsidering my opinion to buy 8600

wat proccy does ur frnd hav?why do u say that the card sux?its performance its pretty good.give us some reasons as to why u feel the card sux.

[freshseasons]

The card has the most wonderful value for money tag.It a wonderful card for what you pay.

[p_d5010]

wat proccy does ur frnd hav?why do u say that the card sux?its performance its pretty good.give us some reasons as to why u feel the card sux.

Well he uses that 2.4ghz model of p4, the time when vendors gave d101gcc and that processor as the bundle.
Reason this card sux is that in Lost planet, 1024, medium-high settings, I saw it giving 20fps hardly on that single die processor. If mine is also single die processor, it wouldnt run so great than my current x1600pro.


Please also tell me, have you guys(who have overclocked using this method) installed some extra cooling solution? I wont be able to buy any cooler, so please tell me what would be its temperature at stock cooling? And what is the safe range for the card to be safe from damage?

[assasin]

^^^ that proccy is sure a bottleneck.i've just put a fan below the card so that the ram chips stay cool.

[p_d5010]

^^^ that proccy is sure a bottleneck.i've just put a fan below the card so that the ram chips stay cool.

Hey can you please post the pics of your fan installation?
And have you installed a fan directly blowing fan on the chips ?

Tell me how you did this, so I can think to overclock if I decide again to buy it.

-- My friend gets 65 degrees idle and 76 on load for 20 minutes, are those temperatures safe?

See the Links:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTE4NjcwMzU5M1dwRXhBNXFrMU1fNl8xX 2wuanBn

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM3Nyw2LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==


(This proves the single die processor may not be much a bottleneck as shown in the above settings)

[p_d5010]

@assasin:
Which version of nvflash did u use?
I have the latest one i.e. 5.40
And please expleain what "-4 -5 -6" suffix does with nvflash.
Thanks

[assasin]

(This proves the single die processor may not be much a bottleneck as shown in the above settings)

cud be but P4 2.4GHz will surely be a bottleneck.newayz will post pics tomorrow.
'-4 -5 -6' will override any ID mismatch.

[p_d5010]

Waiting for the pics ...

[p_d5010]

hey ..... please explain how to keep the 8600gt cooler.....waiting for pics

[assasin]

heres the pic u wanted:

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2017/04092007012zo9.th.jpg (http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=04092007012zo9.jpg)

[p_d5010]

@assasin:
One Final question, can we reflash the pcie card using onboard graphics if by chance anything goes wrong?
And the link here also shows another alternative(typing blindly):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=160237

Hey, I cant get how did you mount the fan,can you please post a complete side view?

[assasin]

^^^ no u cant reflash ur pcie card using onboard gfx.u'll hav to use a pci vga card (costs bout 300-350 bucks).
i tried that in my pc cuz i faced a similar prob with my 6600 but typing blidly didnt work for me,had to use a pci vga card.

[entrana]

guys do you think this shoud be made sticky i think this shud be made sticky cuz theres alot of guys with 8600's who want the performance boost
dude you have so many fans do you keep your pc open or something

[p_d5010]

^^^ no u cant reflash ur pcie card using onboard gfx.u'll hav to use a pci vga card (costs bout 300-350 bucks).
i tried that in my pc cuz i faced a similar prob with my 6600 but typing blidly didnt work for me,had to use a pci vga card.

I think getting pci vga card is next to impossible these days :( Then even if typing blindly doesnt work, and not even onboard gfx helps, then i would be screwed if i do something wrong :(

-> Why cant using onboard vga work? coz I thought we can still flash pcie card using onboard gfx ??

edit: Just asked my dealer ..........thank god he has pci vga card available for 375/-. assasin, should i buy that card and flash the 8600? I am a bit nervous as I am doing it for the first time, though I have done processor overclock through bios already.........Just a final word of advice from you would be great :D

@etrana: Ya, this thread must be on STICKY.....

Oh, I forgot to ask you one more thing.......have you mounted that fan below gfx card on a red pcb or something???? Its not clear through your pic...

[assasin]

^^^ yaeh buy the pci vga card.it comes in handy when u manage to screw ur card.
just dl the pic and view it full screen.u'll understand how i've connected the fan.the red thing that u hav mentioned is my Pinnacle Tv Tuner card.

@entrana i do keep my acbby open cuz i do a lot of hardware swapping..:D

[p_d5010]

just dl the pic and view it full screen.u'll understand how i've connected the fan.the red thing that u hav mentioned is my Pinnacle Tv Tuner card.



Still cant understand how the fan is mounted. Confusing , cant tell wheter its in air or just kept down.......maybe coz of top view......please try to post side view...........thanks

[assasin]

^^^ its attached to both sides of the cabinet with help of wires.

[p_d5010]

Ok got it finally! :D
Thank you for so much help..........
Just do one more favor, please tell me the idle and full load temperatures of your card..
thanks

[assasin]

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/5485/07092007015yk8.th.jpg (http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=07092007015yk8.jpg)

hope this helps.

[p_d5010]

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/5485/07092007015yk8.th.jpg (http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=07092007015yk8.jpg)

hope this helps.

Thanks once again for help :)
U rock! :D

[assasin]

Thanks once again for help :)
U rock! :D

thnx.
i've idle temps of 55C and full load temps of 68-70C.

heres another mod for all the 8600GT owners.
i've just now flashed my card with the modded bios of XFX 8600GT Falal1ty Edition(which afaik comes with the latest bios version)
this time i've raised core clk speeds to 750,mem clk stays at 1700MHz(850x2),shader domain clk is raised to 1700MHZ(actually works at 1674).
i've also modded the voltage tables to include 4 vals of 1.2v,1.32v,1.33v & 1.34v and hav set vid to 1.34v.
to change voltage tables to ur liking goto Tools->Voltage Table Editor.
after flash the card i ran PCMark05Basic and got a score of 7558 (before i got 7416).performance in games has also increased.
getting idle temps of 57-58 and load temps of 70-74c.

[entrana]

i dont think a mere 100 gives any difference

[assasin]

in games frame rates hav inc'd by bout 3-10fps

[p_d5010]

in games frame rates hav inc'd by bout 3-10fps
So what would you recommend people to do?
the first mod or the second mod?
I think that to preserve the life of card, it would be better for first mod you stated, ONLY IF there is not much noticable difference between first and second

[The_Devil_Himself]

@assasin it means 8600GT falal1ty edition is better than even 8600GTS??

Please enlighten this poor kid.

[assasin]

@assasin it means 8600GT falal1ty edition is better than even 8600GTS??

now when did i say anything like that:confused:

all i can say is that after oc'ing any 8600Gt to say bout 720/1620/1700 one sud get performance close to or at par with 8600GTS.:)

[p_d5010]

Oh! Now getting too confused how you flashed it with "modded edition of fatality cards' . Please give a step by step guide as u did first.........this will help clear some confusion

[assasin]

^^^ theres nothing to be confused of.just dl the bios of XFX 8600GT Fatal1ty Edition.modd it with nibitor and flash ur existing 8600GT with t.its as simple as that.

[The_Devil_Himself]

But fatal1ty is just a oced 8600gt so you can just oc your 8600gt.what is the need of flashing it?

[p_d5010]

^^^ theres nothing to be confused of.just dl the bios of XFX 8600GT Fatal1ty Edition.modd it with nibitor and flash ur existing 8600GT with t.its as simple as that.

Oh! I got it......I already had all the versions of the card downloaded......did you try flashing it with 8600GTS bios?

[assasin]

did you try flashing it with 8600GTS bios?

no and i wont suggest any1 to do it cuz a 8600gts is diff from a 8600gt in 2 counts:
1>xternal pci-e pwr connector
2>HDCP

so if u flash u 8600gt with 8600gts bios then u may damage ur card.try at ur own risk.

@The_Devil_Himself read thru the whole thread.u'll get ur ans.

[p_d5010]

This thread still not made Sticky???

[freshseasons]

Not many own the XFX 8600GT card hence its not sticky.. :)

[p_d5010]

Update:
Just got my new card tonight. The Idle temperature was 61 deg. C on stock speed as well as on 610/730........load temperature max went to 82deg. C on stock as well as oc.... . Is this normal? Or too high ?

Performance:
Lost planet DX10 1280x720:Medium-High: avg.20fps.....
Bioshock DX10: 1440x900:high:29fps...

@assasin..should i try to overclock this card now by your method? or not coz temps. are too high! ...Should i install an extra fan below the card.......but would it reduce the temps. of my card?

[The_Devil_Himself]

A blowing fan below the card may help reduce the temp. by a few degrees but not much.I suggest you check with others having the same card and maybe get a replacement if it runs too hot.

[assasin]

yeah the card's running a bit hot at load.ideally it sud be bout 75C at load.just increase the clk speeds to 720|1620|1700(850*2) and report the temps here.
fix a fan below to card to cool the ram chips cuz they r uncovered.
'newayz i wont be doing anymore 8600GT modding cuz i'll be getting a 8800GTS 320MB by the end of this month.

[p_d5010]

ok.....i installed riva tuner 2.03(unsupported for 163.67)....and tried to overclock the core to 720....... but as soon as i hit apply, the core again reduces to 540? why would that happen?maybe coz of unsupported driver installed for riva tuner?
At these temps, i am not feeling good to o/c this card right now............i can do software o/c, but i would do bios mod only after i install a vga cooler.....

@assasin:
What would you do to the old 8600gt :-??

Also, should I install the fan to blow the air towards card or suck air from the mem chips?

[assasin]

install the fan in such a way so that it blows air towards the mem chips.

i'll sell the 8600GT and get the 8800GTS 320MB.

[p_d5010]

install the fan in such a way so that it blows air towards the mem chips.

i'll sell the 8600GT and get the 8800GTS 320MB.
But in the pic u have shown, it seems that the fan is sucking air from the card and throwing it out of the cabinet....

[p_d5010]

Update:
Just checked in with my other two friends for temperature, both of them get 80-85 deg. celcius on load and 60-62 on idle.....so maybe the new cards in market today are running at that temperature only maybe.........so i went on and overclocked the card.......and got 85max on load......
other thing, i just noticed that overclocking the core also overclocks the shader clock in riva tuner, as doin 700 core and 850 memory, the shader overclocked to 1566.....so conclusion, not doing bios flashing is beneficial in the following ways:
1>The card doesnt get overclocked when not in use(like no use for overclocking when u use office)
2>Unnecessary rise in temp thus reduces
3>the card core and mem reduces back to stock when the card is idle, thus reducing temps. more!(noticed in riva tuner only)

[assasin]

1>The card doesnt get overclocked when not in use(like no use for overclocking when u use office)
2>Unnecessary rise in temp thus reduces
3>the card core and mem reduces back to stock when the card is idle, thus reducing temps. more!(noticed in riva tuner only)

and the cons r:
1>u wont get the oc clk speeds each time u start any game..so it creates a prob.
2>u need to oc all over again if u uninstall driver or install os.
3>u wont be able to inc vcore.

[p_d5010]

and the cons r:
1>u wont get the oc clk speeds each time u start any game..so it creates a prob.

1>u can save the riva overclocked speeds set to boot every time when windows starts.

2>u need to oc all over again if u uninstall driver or install os.
3>u wont be able to inc vcore.

I agree with that!

[assasin]

1>u can save the riva overclocked speeds set to boot every time when windows starts.

i faced prob in games even after i did that.the card wont always oc in games i.e it wont easily exit from its throttling state.

[sagargv]

Update:
Just checked in with my other two friends for temperature, both of them get 80-85 deg. celcius on load and 60-62 on idle.....so maybe the new cards in market today are running at that temperature only maybe.........so i went on and overclocked the card.......and got 85max on load......
other thing, i just noticed that overclocking the core also overclocks the shader clock in riva tuner, as doin 700 core and 850 memory, the shader overclocked to 1566.....so conclusion, not doing bios flashing is beneficial in the following ways:
1>The card doesnt get overclocked when not in use(like no use for overclocking when u use office)
2>Unnecessary rise in temp thus reduces
3>the card core and mem reduces back to stock when the card is idle, thus reducing temps. more!(noticed in riva tuner only)

my 8600GT ( 2 months old ) also idles at 62C and rises upto 87C (max) usually between 80-85C . shall i keep the card or get it replaced ? if others too are getting the same temps , i'll keep it.

[p_d5010]

^ ^ Yup even i am getting those exact temperatures.........
I also checked two of my friend's cards, one is having 55 idle while other is having 62 idle......
So we are two of them having 62 idle

[assasin]

^^^ keep the card.load temps of 80-85c wont cuz any harm.

[freshseasons]

The card is supposed to handle that temp easily..Dont worry it wouldn't sweat itself out...

[sagargv]

thanks. in other forums also i see many quiries of xfx 8600/8500 having these temps. some of them blame xfx . i'll keep the card . change cabby and add a few fans . can u suggest a power supply for my config . my current one is failing. 12 volt rails become unstable on playing games and pc shuts off. ( i'm busy and i aint playing games , so no probs rite now ) ..cheaper the better . i dont have any particular budget set , i'll have to ask my pop.

[assasin]

if ur ready to spend bout 2k then go for the Zebronics Platinum 500W,cheapest option is a Zebronics 400W with 20A in +12V rail.
if u wanna spend more then go in for a CoolerMaster Extreme Power 500W|600W|650w.it'll help u if u upgrade to a better gfx crd later on.

[sagargv]

i'll go4 zebronics 400W . i'll buy new smps when i do next upgrade . .thanks

[p_d5010]

Update:
Replaced my 8600gt with a new piece,..........
now have 53 idle and 77 on load when o/c to 720core, 864 memory

Ya there are really some faulty cards(like my last one) in the market, all those having it, I suggest you replace it quickly b4 it burns out

[assasin]

^^^ did u like the card's performance??at wat setting r u able to play the games at?

[sagargv]

Update:
Replaced my 8600gt with a new piece,..........
now have 53 idle and 77 on load when o/c to 720core, 864 memory

Ya there are really some faulty cards(like my last one) in the market, all those having it, I suggest you replace it quickly b4 it burns out

thanks a lot for the post and pm . this will help a lot of guys . i'll inform those i know . i'll come back with new temps . plz give suggestions as i have had this card for 2+1/2 months and had OCed it for a few minutes in the first week after buying the card (will i be asked awkward quesitons ? ). i hope there wont be issues in replacing it.
thanks again

[p_d5010]

thanks a lot for the post and pm . this will help a lot of guys . i'll inform those i know . i'll come back with new temps . plz give suggestions as i have had this card for 2+1/2 months and had OCed it for a few minutes in the first week after buying the card (will i be asked awkward quesitons ? ). i hope there wont be issues in replacing it.
thanks again

I will tell my experience, the service center people were unwilling to replace the card. They kept the card for one day and said the card is not heating and 61 deg. celcius temperature was ok. They also tried to convince me by giving very bad reasons like smps of 550W required for 8600gt!(ya u can burst to laugh on that), motherboard problem or processor problem..............in short they were telling that the card was fine but my PC was the main problem........after 2-3 days of continuous convincing, I lost my temper and engaged with a big quarrel with them. Btw, as i had not paid money to my dealer, I said that I wont be paying the money for the card until its replaced. That changed the mind of salesman and I got a new card in just 10minutes :).
About overclocking, i dont think so they will ask u anything, just if u have done bios overclock, flash the original b4 returning the card.
Wish u best luck!

^^^ did u like the card's performance??at wat setting r u able to play the games at?
Franly speaking, I am very happy opting for this card after x1600pro, it gives about triple the performance of x1600pro.....card is now stable and dont even touch 80 deg on overclocking( my previous 8600gt went to 87 on overclock!)

But, I think the performance of this card was less than what i expected......and today I got so depressed when I tried to run PT BOATS DX10 benchmark, it gave just 11.8fps on high at 1024 res.......in medium the detail looses, and no DX10 feature can be noticed.........so the thing that it cant handle dx10 games is really a diappointment........I expected to run atleast the JUST released dx10 titles on high .......
Final thoughts, this card is ok for dx9 games in mainstream, but any dx10 title would be a dissapointment

[sagargv]

thanks.

[quadroplex780]

^^^ keep the card.load temps of 80-85c wont cuz any harm.
Here are my temps for XFX 8800 GTS 640 MB.
Idle-XP 51C,Vista 54C
Loaf-XP 64C,Vista 64C
And yes I am not kidding I am getting these temps after I did some changes to my cabinet and got cables out of the airflow way.
My Core 2 Duo E6600 is overclocked to 3.001Ghz and remains at 34C core idle and 56 core load on orthos running for 30 mins with stock cooloing and yes I know its hard to believe but its true I am currently waiting for my Ultra 120 extereme to arrive ordered it from prime,And about the temps of 80-85C I think they are fryingly hot considering that its an 8600 and the threshold being 110C.

[Sunny1211993]

great thread guyz.
can i mod my 8600 GTS to 8800 something?
but the moding process would consume ram or ther resources for transformation.will it?

[assasin]

can i mod my 8600 GTS to 8800 something

its not possible to do that.

cuz if it was possible then i wudnt hav sold my 8600GT and got a 8800GTS 320MB

[sagargv]

i cant find that zebby smps u told . i can find only a zebby model with 17A on 12 volt. cost is 425 . will that be enough ?

[napster007]

I guess the 8800GTX can be also modded to an 8800ultra by this method as they both have the same number of pipelines oops Stream processors.

No way dude, the clock speeds of an 8800 ultra can never be achieved by an 8800gtx. thanks to its super solid state capacitors.

[sagargv]

i cant find that zebby smps u told . i can find only a zebby model with 17A on 12 volt. cost is 425 . will that be enough ?

a lil help here.. .

[Sunny1211993]

i dont have a floppy drive,how can i create a ms dos boot cd?

[freshseasons]

i dont have a floppy drive,how can i create a ms dos boot cd?
Even i didint have a Floppy Drive.But i created USB Boot disk using usb pen drive and booted from USB and volt moded it.Works Great..!

[Sunny1211993]

no pen drive mate.

[p_d5010]

download from bootdisks.com and burn the iso

[Buzz2112]

in regards to flashing the card will it give you a error message before you flash the bios and is that acceptable, cause I tried to flash it and it gave me an error message so I decided not to and find out if this is standard

[hellgate]

^^^ flash with the following parameters:
nvflash -4 -5 -6 X.ROM where X is the name of ur bios file.

press 'y' to confirm wherever needed.

u may need to add the -l & -r parameters if ur flashing a non-XFX card with the XFX bios.(applies to all cross vendors flashes).

[Buzz2112]

^^^ flash with the following parameters:
nvflash -4 -5 -6 X.ROM where X is the name of ur bios file.

press 'y' to confirm wherever needed.

u may need to add the -l & -r parameters if ur flashing a non-XFX card with the XFX bios.(applies to all cross vendors flashes).

Thanks for the quick response Hellgate gonna try/do it now


OH YA no black screen gonna jump into Arma now and see what my FPS is like, XP is even zipping along
faster.
Very noticeable difference in FPS 10-15 FPS in some areas altogether very nice mod/hack.
Now what about OC'ing it now with Riva Tuner anyone tried that yet?

About molex power connectors...
My card has no power plug it runs right off the PCIx slot power, did XFX release a version with
a plug? and if so does this make a difference in the way the card operates?

[mayanksharma]

Nice thread indeed! Ok, need to know few things..
@assasin,
1. what are your 8600GT clocks currently?
2. How much do you score in 3DMark05 and 3DMark06?
3. What are card's idle and load temps while Crysis or other shader intensive games??

And about that, volt mod figure; if i am going to shade the core and clock res. with graphic then how much temps increment, can i expect? And what are clocks after modding? Does they remain same? How much can i push? One more thing, wont the card require more cooling due to increased volts?? And finally, even after Volt Mod, do i require Bios Mod??
Too much ques..ok, i was gettin desperate!! :D

[hellgate]

And about that, volt mod figure; if i am going to shade the core and clock res. with graphic then how much temps increment, can i expect? And what are clocks after modding? Does they remain same? How much can i push? One more thing, wont the card require more cooling due to increased volts?? And finally, even after Volt Mod, do i require Bios Mod??
Too much ques..ok, i was gettin desperate!! :D

cudnt quite gt u.:confused:
Volt mod and the bios mod r 2 separate things.the volt mod ill only inc the vcore and vmem but it wont inc the core,shader & mem clk speeds.so to inc them u hafta do the bios mod.the volt mod wud only allow u to inc the clk speeds more thru the bios mod.
1st try the bios mod and try the volt mod only if u hav any instability issues at the oc'd clk speeds.
just the other day had to flash a XFX 8600GT to lower clk speeds cuz the mobo (Intel 945GCNL) just wont supply enuf pwr to the card thru the pci-e slot.so the system crashed whenever games were executed
same card ran fine on XFX 680i mobo.

[mayanksharma]

@hellgate,
ohhK !I get it. Volt mode as alone isnt enough. Infact, it is the secondary thing to do. First it is necessary to flash the bios and then increase the volts via Volt mod. Hey, thanks for clearing the confusion bro. :)
Ok, i asked about the clocks and scores of the modded 8600GT! How much is the difference anyway..? Atleast knowing this wouldnt hurt! :p

[naveen_reloaded]

very cool tutorial...

[MetalheadGautham]

Nice thread indeed! Ok, need to know few things..
@assasin,
1. what are your 8600GT clocks currently?
2. How much do you score in 3DMark05 and 3DMark06?
3. What are card's idle and load temps while Crysis or other shader intensive games??

And about that, volt mod figure; if i am going to shade the core and clock res. with graphic then how much temps increment, can i expect? And what are clocks after modding? Does they remain same? How much can i push? One more thing, wont the card require more cooling due to increased volts?? And finally, even after Volt Mod, do i require Bios Mod??
Too much ques..ok, i was gettin desperate!! :D
poor(evil?) assasin has been banned for cheating utsav by selling him a non working graphics card:|

[sagargv]

was the non working card his modded 8600GT . .. if yes , this method may not be safe on the long run. what do you guys say ?

[Buzz2112]

I just modded mine sagargv and everything seems to work just fine.
No artifacting in games, better FPS no excessive heat.
All in all I'm pretty happy with the results, but not for the faint of heart to do.

[hellgate]

was the non working card his modded 8600GT . .. if yes , this method may not be safe on the long run. what do you guys say ?

every mod or oc involves risks of permanent hardware failure even though the risk is pretty low if u know wat ur doing.
but if u dont wanna take the risk then its better not ot venture in this direction.:)

[mayanksharma]

was the non working card his modded 8600GT . .. if yes , this method may not be safe on the long run. what do you guys say ?
Grrr...:x !! Yeah, i was going to say the same line!! How can we trust anything he said?
So, thats the point, he was banned. Look, you see that a 8600GT when overclocked, easily comes up to or takes over the default performance of a 8600GTS. Volt modding a card means that a user is trying to push the voltage flow for Core and memory separately; i.e. More than 1.33V (for Core) and more than 1.7V(for Memory)! These are the voltage values for the reference 8600GT card. IMO PaLiT Sonic model has the best volt values and onboard ovreclocking potential than any other 8600GT card. And now
even if u push the voltages a little bit, there is absolutely no need for BIOS modding. Coz, the maximum values for the Core and Memory already comes with the default bios of the GPU. Like, if u see the max values in Riva Tuner....those are the values that cant be attained with the default voltages. But by pushing the volts more, u can attain them. However, if u still feel that ur card can take more beating and bear the heat generated than u need to introduce higher values into the GPU's BIOS using BIOS-Mod. But, just think, how much risk u are putting ur card into..?? Is that all really worth it?
I am using XFX 8600GT GPU and my clocks are 915/1840 MHz 24x7. My card idles at 55 degrees and during load the temps may go as high as 87 degrees. My card scores 6891 in 3DMark 06 and is able to run Crysis with Very High values in 1024x768 resolution giving an average of 20-25fps! The game scales just good with those frame rates. Beyond 30 and 35 fps, Crysis is surely an eye tr8! But for that, wouldnt i go for a new and better GPU like 8800GTS rather than trying to kill my card with all those risky procedure. I bet, if i am getting that much from infamous XFX 8600GT module, than ppl with brands like EvGa and Palit must have gone much far without any of these mods!! Seriously, u want to mod ur card..?? Go out and get Arctic Silver5 or MX-II thermal paste for ur card and then Play SaFe !! ;)

PeacE...:)

[sagargv]

true .. the 8600 is not worth all that risk .. besdies, i think there's no point in modding my card. .the replacement i got is better but still goes upto 83C on max load . .so wats the point in modding my card ? and i havent got a gr8 cpu , so i dont even know if my cpu is the bottleneck . i got 4009 in 3dmark06. . .i aint a gaming freak . will try crysis now. . i have a 17' CRT so i dont mind running at 800x600. so why should i mod ? i play games only on sundays. . other days just a match in fifa or a race in nfs MW . . .i see no point in modding my card.

[hellgate]

it wud be better if u ask any of the guys in this thread who hav modded their cards.

[rajiv_nair_r]

Hi,

I have an XFX 8600gt (the dreaded UDF7 model with heating problems). My card idles at around 58 degrees and goes upto 95 degrees after some moderate gaming such as COD4 .. so unfortunately OC is out of question for me ... Anyways what I wanted to know was .. can I save the original bios using nibitor and use that to flash my bios if anything goes wrong after flashing with overclocked values ????

Also, can I RMA my card with Rashi Peripherals for heating issues ??

Regards,
Rajiv Nair

[sagargv]

yes , you can get the card RMA'd . When my vendor took my card and went to rashi in b'lore , the 8600GT was out of stock , so they cudnt give immediate replacement . but rashi couriered it and i got the replacement in 4 days(i'm in mysore) . they gave the UAL3 model as replacement.

and get ur card replaced b4 it burns out . try ati tool and i'm sure it will cross 100C just like my old card.

[george101]

Can anyone tell me how much difference u wil get wen oc bios than using rivatuner????? i want to knw if its worth the risk.......