Well my friend that depends a lot on a whole bunch of things:
1. Case cooling and number of cooling fans
2. Proximity of other cards to your gfx card-I would recommend moving other PCI cards as far away as possible so that the gfx card fan can draw in as much air as possible to cool the card.
3. How intensive your graphic applications are.
4. Is your computer case in an open area for free air flow or is it in a tight confined space?
The list goes on and on.
Anyway I am sure this has been asked before and you can search this site for this info. I would check your critical temperature (max before it shuts down) and start worrying if it gets within 30-40 degrees celcius. My max temp is 127 C but I set it to 100 C for shutdown (just to be safe). I see max 75 C under load but my card is a 6600GT. Hope that helps.
Check the following forums/websites to further reserch your question:
Thanks for the information and the links. They were helpful. Currently I am running at 45C ambient temp and core temp is 60C at idle. That seems a little warm but the other sites I have visited are in that ballpark. The tower has lots of breathing room.The card is parked in the PCI-Express slot and there are no cards next to it. I don't have any new games yet (Doom3, Half life2, Far Cry) but I played a fairly graphics intensive older hack and slash game (Rune) and the core temp went up to 70C. When I get a new game and rev it up I'll report back.
My GTO hangs around 75 on a non intense game like Pirates, but kicks up to 90ish for Doom 3 and the like. My GTO is unlocked to 16/6 and oced to 400/1100 though.
That seems to be in the ballpark for where these puppies run based on all of the forums I have visited. By the way have you read anymore about the possibility of unlocking those pipelines on the more current crop of Dell's 6800 GTO's with rivatuner? I'm assuming that is what you did with yours. Everything I see indicates they shut that possibility down.
I recieved my XPS 3 in late December and the extra pipes work perfectly on mine, no artifacts at all after over a month of using them. An update to rivatuner, version 15.3, allowed the unlocking of the GTOs that previous versions couldn't do.
From what I have read on other sites attempting to open the pipes is a hit or miss proposition. Some of the posts seem to indicate that a failed attempt may have permanent negative consequences i.e. artifacting and overheating of a card that seems to run a little warm to begin with. I haven't attempted it with mine since my games (Doom3 for now) seem to run okay. Check out the forums at 3D guru and Anandtech. See what you think. I found some interesting threads by Googling search phrases. I haven't searched for a few weeks. Maybe you will find info that is more promising.
I have done it with my GTO (just received it ~3 weeks ago), so it works with the latest cards. Mine unlocked fine and I have my card OCed to 401/1100, though I could go higher. 3dmark05 is ~5500.
I'm encouraged. I'm still a liitle hesitant to tweak since my rig is pretty new and running okay. However, I'm temtped to try this out. What computer are you running your 6800 GTO in?
What are the idle and load temps on your GPU now that you have unlocked the pipes and OCed it?
I've got a P4 3.2 8400 w/ 1 GB 533 Mhz ram. I have been monitoring my temps while running 3dmark05 and HL2. My temps hit 86 while running 3dmark05 and 92 while running HL2 (though for HL2 it generally ran at about 80).
From my reading, the softmod to open the pipes is pretty risk-free (since it is only software based and can be turned off). I wasn't entirely sure how I would know if it worked or not, but I guess people see artifacts in gaming pretty much right away. I have run 3dmark05 (OCed and not OCed) and have played a couple hours of HL2 without any visual issues.
Thanks for getting back to me. Those temps seem to be pretty normal for this card. Mine runs in the same range for 3Dmark05 and the 80s for Doom3. If I can get a day free I think I'm going to give the softmod a try.
I am going to run a little experiment to see how much my temps fluctuate with the card softmodded and not, as well as OCed and not. I'll let you know what turns up.
Update: Haven't run the experiment yet, but I monitored my temps during HL2 again (about 1+ hours of playing) and my max temp was 92 with the average over the time at 80.
Hickory Stick
2 Intern
•
148 Posts
0
January 30th, 2005 20:00
1. Case cooling and number of cooling fans
2. Proximity of other cards to your gfx card-I would recommend moving other PCI cards as far away as possible so that the gfx card fan can draw in as much air as possible to cool the card.
3. How intensive your graphic applications are.
4. Is your computer case in an open area for free air flow or is it in a tight confined space?
The list goes on and on.
Anyway I am sure this has been asked before and you can search this site for this info. I would check your critical temperature (max before it shuts down) and start worrying if it gets within 30-40 degrees celcius. My max temp is 127 C but I set it to 100 C for shutdown (just to be safe). I see max 75 C under load but my card is a 6600GT. Hope that helps.
Check the following forums/websites to further reserch your question:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_video&message.id=103349
http://download.guru3d.com/aquamark3/
http://www.nvnews.net/
Message Edited by Hickory Stick on 01-30-2005 04:50 PM
Message Edited by Hickory Stick on 01-30-2005 04:56 PM
IrvXPS4
21 Posts
0
January 31st, 2005 01:00
mrbaggs
108 Posts
0
January 31st, 2005 12:00
IrvXPS4
21 Posts
0
January 31st, 2005 20:00
mrbaggs
108 Posts
0
January 31st, 2005 20:00
IrvXPS4
21 Posts
0
February 1st, 2005 00:00
IrvXPS4
21 Posts
0
February 1st, 2005 01:00
mrbaggs
108 Posts
0
February 1st, 2005 01:00
XPS4
5 Posts
0
March 12th, 2005 00:00
Any 'step-by-step' instructions to alter the GTo to 16/6?
I start with Rivatuner, then what?
Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks
IrvXPS4
21 Posts
0
March 12th, 2005 23:00
kendirr
25 Posts
0
March 26th, 2005 00:00
Here are step-by-step instructions for unlocking the GTO pipes:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=1500237&enterthread=y
I have done it with my GTO (just received it ~3 weeks ago), so it works with the latest cards. Mine unlocked fine and I have my card OCed to 401/1100, though I could go higher. 3dmark05 is ~5500.
Good luck.
IrvXPS4
21 Posts
0
March 26th, 2005 02:00
kendirr
25 Posts
0
March 26th, 2005 04:00
I've got a P4 3.2 8400 w/ 1 GB 533 Mhz ram. I have been monitoring my temps while running 3dmark05 and HL2. My temps hit 86 while running 3dmark05 and 92 while running HL2 (though for HL2 it generally ran at about 80).
From my reading, the softmod to open the pipes is pretty risk-free (since it is only software based and can be turned off). I wasn't entirely sure how I would know if it worked or not, but I guess people see artifacts in gaming pretty much right away. I have run 3dmark05 (OCed and not OCed) and have played a couple hours of HL2 without any visual issues.
Message Edited by kendirr on 03-26-2005 02:30 PM
IrvXPS4
21 Posts
0
March 26th, 2005 22:00
Kendirr,
Thanks for getting back to me. Those temps seem to be pretty normal for this card. Mine runs in the same range for 3Dmark05 and the 80s for Doom3. If I can get a day free I think I'm going to give the softmod a try.
kendirr
25 Posts
0
March 26th, 2005 23:00
Good luck.
I am going to run a little experiment to see how much my temps fluctuate with the card softmodded and not, as well as OCed and not. I'll let you know what turns up.
Update: Haven't run the experiment yet, but I monitored my temps during HL2 again (about 1+ hours of playing) and my max temp was 92 with the average over the time at 80.
Message Edited by kendirr on 03-26-2005 08:24 PM
Message Edited by kendirr on 03-27-2005 01:29 PM