# Geforce 8800 Destruction Competition Wrap-up



## Rasparthe

The Geforce 8800 series are among the most iconic video cards ever produced by Nvidia. The 8800 GT, codenamed G92, was released on 29 October 2007 and was the first to transition to the new smaller 65 nm process. This core proved to be so popular it was rebadged into the next series of cards, the 9000 and even made it into the later 2009 offerings like GTS 250. Now these ground breaking cards lay forgotten in drawers, closets, and garages.

During the months of October and November, Overclock.net hosted a competition to bring these forgotten cards back to their glory. Using three benchmarks from the era of Geforce 8800 dominance, members kept one eye on the cash prizes and the other on the current world records as gathered by HWBOT.org.



It was quickly established that the greatest card in the entire 8800 series was the GTS 8800 512MB, which when launched in December of 2007 put Nvidia in the odd position of having a sub-$200 card outperforming its $400 brother the GTX. For this competition, it was the must have card to catch the fastest 8800s of all time.



Looking at the above picture you can see the stock specifications for the GTS 512. The current record holder for 3DMark 03, Smoke, was able to move from stock (650 core/970 memory/ 1625 shader) to an astounding 1253 core/1274 memory/2916 shader cooled by liquid nitrogen and powered by a 4770K @ 6251 Mhz. A long way to go for anyone willing to take up the challenge.

The first step was selecting a suitable GTS 512, likely sourced from eBay. Of all the GTS 512 versions that were manufactured, the hunt was on for cards sporting Samsung memory chips. These were found to overclock higher and better than the Qimonda counterparts, which actually required downvolting in order to get them to overclock halfway to decent.



Even with a GTS 512 and Samsung memory in hand, the stock power and voltage limits of the card made it impossible to raise the core much higher than 800 Mhz with exceptional cards making it up to 900 Mhz. Soldering irons would be required to get these cards into world record range and to win the competition.

 

Luckily the voltage mods for the 8800 series are fairly easy [LINK] even for the novice among the competitors. If you wanted to see volt modding, this competition did not disappoint, from the basic to the extreme, cap and inductor additions and replacements, including some incredible work by Mllrkllr88.











With cards selected, the mods soldered, it was time to get the scores down. Each competitor needed scores in Aquamark (Record: 485773), 3DMark 01 (Record: 147544), and 3DMark03 (Record: 73596). Each of these top scores were done using liquid nitrogen but one competitor, Poparamiro put together some pretty good runs without any subzero assistance. Pushing his vGPU voltages to 1.5v and his vGDDR up to 2.18v and managing a very respectable 954/1318/2376 for core/memory/shader clocks.

*4TH PLACE* [LINK]





Third place was taken down by Senior Moderator xxbassplayerxx using a LN2 cooled Skylake processor. The GTS managed an impressive 1107/1260/2484 (core/memory/shaders) also cooled by LN2 and volt modded complete with LED voltage readouts for ease of use.

*3RD PLACE *[LINK]





Mllrkllr88 took some convincing to even participate in the competition but when he got started his skills with the soldering iron were impressive. Not settling with just a simple volt mod, he added additional caps and even replaced inductors. Not every adjustment was an improvement and it appeared he destroyed his 8800 as many as three times and still managed to bring it back to life.



Even XFX took interest and chose Mllrkllr88 to receive a donated card they had laying around. It was given the royal treatment but was just outstripped by the faster GTS cards. Still, that card didn't remain stock long and hopefully they didn't need it back!



It should be noted that despite only using DICE, instead of the colder LN2, Mllrkllr88 managed to take second spot even using a 4790k instead of the newer Skylake platform. Impressive work that saw 1080/1296/2484 (core/memory/shader) clocks for his Aquamark 3 score, certainly a hard won second place effort.

*2ND PLACE* [LINK]





Finally top spot went to another overclocker that didn't much appreciate the stock power package supplied by Nvidia. When trying to take down the title of fastest 8800 ever, drastic measures would have to be employed. Strong Island decided to go with an E-power board to try and give the card all the clean, stable power it would need to reach the heights needed for a record run.





With mods complete and everything set, Strong Island managed to take the Geforce 8800 series record for 3DMark03, setting the new bar at 74160, almost 600 points higher than the previous best. He pushed the card to 1203/1269/2970 (core/memory/shaders) cooling with LN2 and running a 6700K Skylake processor. As an almost distant afterthought, he also took first place in competition.

*1ST PLACE* [LINK]





Congratulations to everyone that participated and managed to keep their hardware alive, and thanks to all the subscribers for following along for the two months of the competition. Thanks to Wiggles5289 for supplying a lucky draw prize, that was much appreciated, and to OCN for the prizes. If you managed to win one, Pizzaman will be contacting you, or has, regarding how to claim.

Want to read the entire journey, start to finish? [LINK]

Submission thread for all the scores [LINK]


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## cssorkinman

Congrats to the winners!
Look forward to more comps in the future


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## xxbassplayerxx

Woo! Awesome write up and great competition


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## mllrkllr88

What a great article and awesome competition, well done everyone! This wrap-up definitely looks like the work of a future OCN editor / moderator


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## strong island 1

awesome write up, you have some really nice writing skills and story telling skills


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## strong island 1

wish I coulda done these in time, 3024mhz shader.


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## xxbassplayerxx

AM3 and 01 at 6.4GHz


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## Rasparthe

You can't win same contest twice you know! ?

Awesome runs!


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## Iwamotto Tetsuz

Winner never stops keeps on going. Beat the record once and again









Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!



Quote:


> Originally Posted by *strong island 1*
> 
> wish I coulda done these in time, 3024mhz shader.


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## nvidiaftw12

Nice! Cool of you guys to keep OCN, you know, OCN, and not bickeraboutgamesinnewsthreads.net.


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## incog

Can someone compare the performance of the top spot with a contemporary GPU? Just so I understand things a bit more


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## BinaryDemon

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *incog*
> 
> Can someone compare the performance of the top spot with a contemporary GPU? Just so I understand things a bit more


I would find this interesting as well.


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## Rasparthe

The record that was set during this competition was using 3DMark 03 benchmark as a measure and scored 74160. The current fastest that 3DMark 03 has EVER been run is 294423, done on a 980 Ti and set by an overclocker named Dancop [LINK].

A very stock run of 980 Ti on a FX-9590 was done at 130015 [LINK]

For something more midline a 960 at a basic overclock does 124158 [LINK]

Hope that helps!


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## TheN00bBuilder

Meanwhile, I did the impossible and killed a card on stock cooling with a 50 MHz overclock. XD


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## Iwamotto Tetsuz

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Rasparthe*
> 
> The record that was set during this competition was using 3DMark 03 benchmark as a measure and scored 74160. The current fastest that 3DMark 03 has EVER been run is 294423, done on a 980 Ti and set by an overclocker named Dancop [LINK].
> 
> A very stock run of 980 Ti on a FX-9590 was done at 130015 [LINK]
> 
> For something more midline a 960 at a basic overclock does 124158 [LINK]
> 
> Hope that helps!


So the liquid nitrogen overclock was slower than lates edition cards like 980 ti?


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## xxbassplayerxx

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Iwamotto Tetsuz*
> 
> So the liquid nitrogen overclock was slower than lates edition cards like 980 ti?


Correct. The 8800 GTS 512MB was released on December 11th, 2007 - 8 years ago.


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## Rasparthe

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Iwamotto Tetsuz*
> 
> So the liquid nitrogen overclock was slower than lates edition cards like 980 ti?


I think the plorbem is that the 8800s were released in 2007, for 8 year old cards they don't hold up well.

EDIT: ninja'd by the master


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## xxbassplayerxx

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Rasparthe*
> 
> I think the plorbem is that the 8800s were released in 2007, for 8 year old cards they don't hold up well.
> 
> EDIT: ninja'd by the master


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## Iwamotto Tetsuz

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Rasparthe*
> 
> I think the plorbem is that the 8800s were released in 2007, for 8 year old cards they don't hold up well.
> 
> EDIT: ninja'd by the master


Quote:


> Originally Posted by *xxbassplayerxx*
> 
> Correct. The 8800 GTS 512MB was released on December 11th, 2007 - 8 years ago.


That was exctally what I was thinking. Newer cards with new arqchtechure means fast


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## rcoolb2002

Great write up and great competition guys.


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## SamuelL421

Awesome write up! I'd love to see more of these competitions and join in! I stuck to the red team throughout the 8800 era (so I didn't have OC fodder to play with), but congrats to everyone who participated.


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## ScottishPickle

I have just found my eVGA 8800GT! I am going to fire it up and see how it does with my 1440p monitor and my 4790K.

This card got me through some tough times.


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## 4everAnoob

I would like to know the power consumption of these cards when going above 1ghz+, did they test this?


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## ScottishPickle

Well l forgot that l only have one Display Port on my monitor so l need to dig out my old one plus l wasn't too sure where my DVI cables were.


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## ScottishPickle

What a pain.


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