I want to know how to enable the extra/hidden pixel & vertex pipelines of my geforce 6800 card.

Can anyone tell me how do I do that.

why artifacts: in cores containing disabled pipelines/cache/shading units etc., which are usually bridled down versions of 'better' models, those hidden features are untested. Or, the core itself was tested as being unsuitable for the higher model and was then scaled down by disabling faulty parts.

Depending on demand, you can have plenty good cores sold as low versions - those are the best to unlock because there's a high chance of a perfect feature unlock without artifacts - or mainly cores that failed the higher level tests and were sold as lower capabilities units - those either have faulty behaviours, or those can't scale up well in higher frequency.

The best way to know is to try, and Rivatuner being a software-only unlocker, you have nothing to fear trying it.

Quite true - the reason some people pay a premium for premium products is because they want to be sure they'll get what they paid for. There are products that can be tinkered with with a high rate of success (aaah... Cely 300A@450... Socket-A Athlon 600@900...), and some others that can't be toyed with much.

I got an Asus Geforce 6600NE silencer (passive coling): I can't overclock it much, I know the chip has not much I can unlock (merely 2D/3D clock functionalities), it runs games more or less well (for example FEAR looks nice, but not breath-takingly great), but it does what I want from it: run OpenGL stuff in absolute silence for a small price.

I think it's two pipelines you can additionally unlock...it says it all on how to do it but here's a quick guide ;

open rivatuner / hit customize at the target adaptor tab / hit the low-level system settings tab / hit the NVStrap driver tab / hit the customize tab / check the masked units (should be pixel unit 3 or 0 and vertex unit 3 or 5) / check allow enabling hardware masked units / apply and reboot

I think the 6200 doesn't have masked units (pipelines) but let me get back at on this...

My Graphics is Galaxy's 6800XT 128MB PCI Express.
The 'target adapter' portion of the MAIN tab of the rivatuner says

NVIDIA Geforce 6800XT / PLUG AND PLAY MONITOR
NV42(A1,8x1,4vp) with 128MB DDR3

As mentioned in the link. I enabled the two unit whose state was disabled. One was 'pixel unit 0' and the other was 'vertex unit 2' and restarted the computer. But the strange thing is that the HW Masked column show N/A for all units - what does this mean?

I restarted the computer after clicking OK.

After restarting the PC I checked the 'target adapter' portion of the MAIN tab and it still says the same thing

NVIDIA Geforce 6800XT / PLUG AND PLAY MONITOR
NV42(A1,8x1,4vp) with 128MB DDR3

After enabling the disabled units shouldn't this portion say something like
NV42(A1,12x1,5vp) with 128MB DDR3

Now I'm really confused

Is your friends 6200 an AGP version? If so you have a chance. Haven't heard of anybody having any luck with the PCI-E version

The N/A is only to be seen in the description of the custom graphics processor configuration column.
You should look at HW masked instead and look if it says yes anywhere.
If the row is empty you don't have masked units to unlock (or Rivatuner couldn't detect them).

Sorry, you have nothing to unlock. The 6800 PCI-E style cards all use GPUs with just 12 pipe lines. I think it was twelve anyway. Now if you had the AGP version of the card you might be able to unlock something but you don't.

On an AGP 6200 your best result would be a good 6600
bad case would be (you get what you paid for) 6200
Worst case would be burnt 6200 (that's if you overdo the overclocking)

You aren't guranteed to be able to unlock it though all the 6200s (agps) that I've seen were unlocklable.

Nothing that scary should happen but don’t hold me responsible.

BTW did he enable the unlocking in the NVStrap driver tab? Ask him to check the following guide.

http://www.doomedpc.com/?q=node/36

p.s. What does WCS stand for?

Don’t forget to keep us informed how it turned out.

The NV44 is the 6200TC. Not a very good thing IMHO.

Anyway the worst is that he got what he paid for

Can’t really blame him. Sometimes retailers are not very clear on what they are selling.

BTW what does the word “Word” in your post stand for?

Great Link! Very easy to follow and helpful instruction. I just tried the unlock portion mentioned in the instructions and not the overclock. I did unfortunatly get the "artifacts" warned about so rolled back the changes I made with no problems.

I thought the article mentioned if you got artifacts what to do so I may give it another shot. Probably not really worth it because I am very happy with my 6800 even with only 12 pipes. This card unfortunaly only has 128 mb DDR memory on it. Still it performs like a champ.

I don’t think the memory should be a factor. It’s the GPU that counts.

Good Luck