Posted:2006-06-27 By video card review Number of View:245837
7600GS REVIEW OVERCLOCK BENCHMARK
VOLT MOD : PALIT
By :video card review
Posted:2006-06-27
xtreview is your : Video card - cpu - memory - Hard drive - power supply unit source
1. Introduction to The 7600 gs
When the videocard GeForce 7600GT started to appear on sale they seem very perspective, it was the best choice until last price drop in x1800gto, First the prices for faster Radeon X1800GTO have lowered up to GeForce 7600GT. level, And secondly, on sale there were cards GeForce 7600GS, equipped with DDR3 memory with full (256 Mb), and after overclocking they easly reach 7600GT performance level in speed. This was the principal cause for this
7600gs review- The card reviewed today is Palit 7600GS Sonic.
2. 7600gs Design and a complete set
The Design box is same for all videocards Palit of series GeForce6 (6600 and 6600GT), is only labels with the information from 7600GS Sonic:
7600gs Video card capability as listed as well
From the last point it is told, that SLI will work only on 6600GT, that can lead into error the unprepared user. Certainly, it not so, Palit 7600GS Sonic (as well as all others 7600GS) has SLI support .
Complete set:
* CD-disk with drivers ForceWare (v84.21 for Windows 2000/XP/x64 and v77.72 for Windows 9x/ME/NT4.0);
* CD-disk Cyberlink Power DVD 5.0;
* a DVD-disk with the full version of game Conflict Global Storm;
* adapter DVI/D-SUB;
* adapter HDTV.
The videocard with installed cooling system looks as follows:
Radiator of the cooling system is made from aluminium. The fan noise is average , but the card has no control over the rotating speed. palit 7600gs cooling system can be easily removed and installed without a screw-driver.
Palit 7600GS Sonic has design PCB which distinct from reference, but precisely as other card from the same series - Palit 7600GT Sonic:
The palit 7600gs come with GPU G73 audits A2, lreleased on 8-th week 2006:
256Mb GDDR3 memories BGA-136 with access time of 2.0ns. Chips Infineon HYB18H512321AFL20 have been released on 38-th week 2005. Datasheet on all microcircuits of memory Infineon of series HYB18H512321AFLXX and HYB18H512321AF-XX 512-Mbit GDDR3 it is possible download via this link (PDF, 1884Kb).
The page on a site of the manufacturer contains mistakes: both photos mismatch the validity and the frequency GPU is specified as 400MHz but actually it is equal 450MHz. Image BIOS it is possible download here.
By default the card works on frequencies 450/1000 MHz. Without system cooling update The GPU was able To overclock up to 540 MHz, and on memory - 1494 MHz! After such overclock on memory I have switched off the computer, pulled out the card and once again checked up marks... All is correct, the chips marked as 2.0, without volt mod was overclocked up to this high frequency. Note the card tested is far not the best overclocker fromplait 7600gs -
I got messages from other owners of similar videocards saying That such overclocking on memory is more likely normal rate, than exception.So i come out to the assumption that is 1.4 chips, marked as 2.0. if u look on the manufacturer site , u should notice that their is two chips of series HYB18H512321AFLXX and HYB18H512321AF-XX .that AFLXX work on 1.8V, and AF-XX on 2.0V. Palit has simply purchased chips AFL20 and put them on
1.98V, therefore they are already overclocker tas 1.4ns! It anything other, as preinstalled Volmod on the memory, made by the manufacturer.
7600 gs volt mod and overclocking with air and water cooling
For chip and memories voltage controllers they have used two microcircuits Richtek RT9214 located on the underside of the card at the left. By default the voltage on GPU is 1.12V, and for memories 1.98V. And, as i has already told, the voltage for memories is already up by 0.18V.
Note that memory was not overheating before the volt mod but after heat becamse serious probleme .we have installed Zalman radiator on the memory and added radiator 80mm over the ramsink but the maximal stable frequency was limited to memory overheat.
volt mod on this card can be done with borth variable resistors or by pencil mod. First we lets examine pencil volt mod:
To increase voltage on GPU it is necessary to paint over resistor R37. check up the resistance received after painting is possible under this table:
R37 Ohm
Vgpu
833
1.12V
817
1.14V
755
1.23V
691
1.35V
605
1.52V
580
1.62V
555
1.66V
534
1.75V
TO increase voltage for memories it is necessary to paint over resistor R34. check up the resistance received after painting with the fellowing table:
R34 Ohm
Vmem
665
1.98V
638
2.03V
609
2.17V
579
2.27V
volt mod GPU and memories with the use of variable resistors ( as alternative for pencil GPU volmod):
7600gs GPU volt mod: we connect 6-th leg RT9214 (Vgpu-feedback) c 3-rd (ground) through variable resistor 10k Ohm. For monitoring it is possible to use legs of condensers CP1, CP2 or CP3.
7600gs memories volt mod: we connect 6-th leg RT9214 (Vmem-feedback) c 3-rd (ground) through variable resistor 20k Ohm. For monitoring it is possible to use legs of condensers CP4, CP5 or CP11.
7600gs Alternative pencil volt mod GPU: instead of resistor R37 it is possible to use for the same purpose SR74. By painting both resistors it is easier to receive higher voltage, than having painted over only one of them.
Results of Overclocking after volmod:
* Without system cooling replacement GPU has been overclocked up to 713 MHz with voltage 1.52V
* After installation of water cooling system GPU has been overclocked up to 765 MHz with voltage 1.66V
* Memory with the installed radiators and fan has has been overclocked up to 1656 MHz with voltage 2.27V.
4. Definition of optimum value of delta
Cards on chips nvidia G73 (7600GT, 7600GS, 7300GT) by default work with zero delta. At overclock that geometric frequency becomes limiting factor and, to continue overclocking procedure, it is necessary to make delta negative. Optimum value of delta depends on the card, from efficiency of cooling and from GPU voltage and if u change something delta will only change so it is necessary to determine anew.
Before delta change GPU worked on frequency 765 MHz with voltage of 1.66V using water cooling. For the beginning I have changed delta to-100 and defined the geometric domain frequency , lowered up to 729 MHz, the overclocking limit ROP/Shader makes 828 MHz, i.e. 63 MHz it is more than the limit at geometric domain zero delta. Then i has changed delta to -63, but on frequencies 828 (765) MHz I got some friezes. Final stable frequencies was 820 (756) MHz.
5. memories timing
Timing by default on Palit 7600GS Sonic are:
Using NiBiTor v2.9a I have changed the following timing:
* tRcdRD from 12 on 7
* tRcdWR with 8 on 2
* tRRD with 8 on 2
Those change has not influenced the maximal stable frequency of the memory (1656 MHz at voltage 2.27V), but at the same frequency has given an increase 3.2 fps in test{3d 2001} Mother Nature.
6. 7600gs Testing
6.1. A test configuration and drivers
Testing was done at room temperature equal +26 C. In sysytem configuration there were some changes. First, because of summer heat it was necessary to lower frequency of the processor by 51 MHz (from 2920 to 2869), and memory frequency from 243 to 239 MHz. Secondly, is was runing out of Arctic Silver 5 , and instead of it it was necessary to use alcil-3.
* 540/1494 - overclocked card with stock volt and cooling.
* 713/1656 - Vgpu-1.52V, Vmem-2.27V, cooling on GPU did not vary, for memory aluminium radiators Zalman have been installed.
* 765/1656 - Vgpu-1.66V, Vmem-2.27V, water-block on GPU , radiators on chips of memory.
* 820 (756) x1656 - the same, as 765/1656, but with modified delta to "-63" and memories. timing via "nibitor".
6.2. 7600gs Operating temperature
To find out temperature of the graphic processor under load and at idle we have used RivaTuner 2.0 RC16 program . I waited, some time to get the temperature stabilized and wrote down the received temperature . Then started 3DMark05 and after pass i wrote down the maximal temperature. The received results are ::
Clocks
Voltages
Temperatures
Cooling
450/1000
1.12V/1.98V
43°c/53°c
stock air
540/1494
1.12V/1.98V
44°c/57°c
stock air
713/1656
1.52V/2.27V
49°c/84°c
stock air
765/1656
1.66V/2.27V
47°c/65°c
water
776/1656
1.75V/2.27V
49°c/69°c
water
The delta was equal to zero in all modes .
6.3. Testing 3DMark and Aquamark on stable frequencies
ALL benchmark option has been left to default .
7600gs benchmark :3d2001
7600gs benchmark :3d2003
7600gs benchmark :3d2005
7600gs benchmark :3d2006
7600gs benchmark :aquamark
7600gs benchmark test has shown a big gain from increase in frequencies, changes of delta and timing update .approximately 65 % overall increase after change. The current full modded 7600gs work at level of overclocked 7600gt
6.4.7600gs maximal results in benchmark
we had done some moderated test .we have cooled the system using +13c water .overclocked the cpu to 3ghz ,memory to 250 (5-2-2-2T 1T command rate).using the cold water the card has showed more overclocking potential from 850 (769) x1656 up to 864 (783)/1692.and finnaly used the good old win2000 witch known as the best oprating sysytem for high 3dmark score
Results have turned out the following:
* 3DMark2001: 36702, world record in a category 7600GS
* 3DMark2003: 17712, world record in a category 7600GS (single card configuration)
* 3DMark2005: 8349, 2 place in a category 7600GS (single card configuration)
* 3DMark2006: 4214, 2 place in a category 7600GS (single card configuration)
7. The conclusion
Plus:
* 7600GT at the price of 7600GS;
* use DDR3 memory instead of DDR2 without reduction of its volume;
* excellent overclockingpotential, on both GPU and memory;
Minuses:
* No fan regulator
* bad cooler quality
* no cables (S-Video and RCA), there is only a HDTV-adapter;
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