NVIDIA GeForce To Quadro Soft-Mod Guide

Discussion in 'Reviews & Articles' started by Dashken, May 9, 2008.

  1. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Heh.. It's a softmod, so your buyer will need to know how to mod it.
     
  2. bola_dor

    bola_dor Newbie

    Hi all,
    This a really long thread with some technical info and benchmarks..
    and reflects a lot of work from some people..thanks to them!!

    I´ve softmoded a 8600GT
    I´m using 3DS max 2009 64b and ACAD 2010 64b, on Win 7 64x

    Which are latets quadro drivers version, maxtreeme and Autocad performance drivers that should work?

    How can I benchmark them? not only renders but viewport performance??
    SPECviewperf works with olther software so I don´tthink it is reliable.

    Thanks:beer:
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2010
  3. kristoffe

    kristoffe Newbie

    missing nvdisp.inf file in expanded quadro driver files

    there is no file nvdisp.inf, it is in fact nv_disp.inf, a simple typo in the article but daunting for beginners to find. Nice walk through, though.
     
  4. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Thanks for the heads-up, but I think it was nvdisp.inf earlier. They probably changed it in the newer driver revisions.
     
  5. ZZ3D

    ZZ3D Newbie

    GTX 460M ?

    hi, I recently got a new laptop woth GeForce GTX 460M card. I would appreciate if sombody can confirm if it can be softmoded to Quadro, and to which one?

    for my GTX460M, GPU-Z shows the following:
    - GPU: GF106
    - Revision: A1
    - Device ID 10DE-0DD1

    after unpacking the NV_DISP.INF from the new 266.45 driver, I couldn't find matching Quadro.

    the closest mach I've found in the .INF file is:
    NVIDIA_DEV.06DD.01 = "NVIDIA Quadro 4000"
    but probably this is not correct??

    PS - is there any risk in softmoding cards? I mean, is it possible to damage a card by choosing a wrong Quadro "target"? I know I can always revert the driver, but I don't want to end up with bricked card..

    I couldn't find answers to these questions, hope you can help!
     
  6. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    No, I seriously doubt the GeForce GTX 460M can be modded.

    No, there is no permanent risk to soft-modding. If you fail, it just doesn't work. If it crashes all the time, just uninstall the driver.
     
  7. ZZ3D

    ZZ3D Newbie

    Adrian, thanks so much for your reply. hope 460M will be modd-able soon )) let me know if you find out anything about it, I'd apreciate it...

    I guess I could do a test mods anyway, if it's safe,,, so I don't damage the card. I've read somewhere that it could be bricked because it's basically being overlocked, and overheated... are you 100% sure it's sasfe?

    the reason I wanted to soft-mod it is because I need to run professional stereoscopic 3D applications on my notebook. I have a real Quadro on my workstation, and it runs great. but my notebook vendor just confirmed that Quadro-based notebook with 3D (120hz) screen still doesn't exist...
    if anyone knows about such laptop, please let me know,, thnx
     
  8. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    No, it won't brick your card because you are not hard-modding it. It's not even a firmware hack. You are just using a modded driver. In fact, you can also reduce the clock speeds.

    If the card overheats, it will just crash. It won't brick.

    Off topic but why would you want a laptop with a 3D screen? If you really "need" a 3D display, I would suggest hooking up your notebook to an external LCD display.
     
  9. ZZ3D

    ZZ3D Newbie

    you're right, I could've got a Quadro notebook with regular (2D) screen for output to my 3D monitor or 3D projector, but I opted to get 3D laptop with GeForce because for my work I need to have a mobile stereo setup... even though I cannot run some 3D applications in stereo. ((
     
  10. msp

    msp Newbie

    GTX460M - Quadro driver or wake up from the dream?

    Hello everybody,
    I was trying to find some info to softmod my gpu but I got the reply I was(n't) looking for from Adrian :)

    I cannot find any driver matching in the inf files. Furthermore, rivatuner does not show the low level system settings to start experimenting with any drivers of the same 'family'. For example I see that Q2000 is also GF106 fermi-based. Both have 192SP, rest of the specs are even lower on the quadro. 16 ROPs, 128bit bus & 1GB memory (460m: 24/192/1.5) In that case, would it mean that a modified driver would prevent the gpu from using all memory width?

    ZZ3D you probably got the Jw-3de like I did! Specs are good for the price, chose 3D for the matte 120hz screen. I got this a desktop replacement since I've become faster than my old P4 2.8 through the years! :D
    It has been great so far, I just got the message that gpu is not supported on Viewport 2.0 in Maya and wanted to give a try. Googled a lot but cannot find clear answers regarding this specific gpu.

    Anyway, thanks for your efforts gentlemen, the thread looks full of useful information. If anything comes up, please share it with us.

    btw: Asus g73jw-3de - Win 7 x64. I'm using Adobe CS5 and Maya 2011 x64 - this is my entertainment as I do not play games!
     
  11. ZZ3D

    ZZ3D Newbie

    msp, you got it right, I got ASUS G73JW 3D on Win7 x64, and I'm also not using it for games but for professional work.

    but I didn't quite understand what you wanted to say about Maya? did you make it work in stereo 3D? if so, how?

    I need to have 3ds Max, Maya and Google Earth to work in stereo on this notebook. but it seems that this GeForce GTX460M doesn't support these applications? (that is, it doesn't support quadbuffered OpenGL?) so, if I understand correctly, the only way to do that is to softmod it to Quadro? BUT so far, 460M cannot be softmodded yet, right??
    ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED : )

    btw msp, if you figured out the specs for the Quadro equivalent to your GeForce, why don't you give it a try and try to softmod it, and let us know about the results!? -)
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2011
  12. msp

    msp Newbie

    GTX460M to Quadro

    When I start rivatuner I get a message that the current driver is not supported thus I dont have the low level system settings to experiment. Neither I can find any other way to change the id of my gpu and trick windows find the "new hardware" as a quadro. If I manage to do that, I can use my current and latest driver 266.58 which also supports:
    ION notebook GPUs.
    GeForce 8M, 9M, 100M, 200M, 300M-series, and 400M notebook GPUs.
    Quadro 5000M
    Quadro NVS-series notebook GPUs (only those that support DirectX 10 or higher).
    Quadro FX-series notebook GPUs (only those that support DirectX 10 or higher).

    Regarding maya, once I click on the Viewport 2.0 gives me the: "//Warning: Rendering mode is not supported by the graphics card. Switching to default rendering mode". Is there a setting for that? I follow some tutorials to have some fun while learning, so I am not an expert. Had used version 7 for a while some years ago along with a book and was very interesting.

    And no, I have no idea if you can run that software on stereo 3D mode. Sorry :( Haven't use much the 3d mode anyway, some videos to see how does it look like and it's cool I can say...

    EDIT: Viewport is ok now as I installed Maya Hotfix 3. No warning, runs fine...
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2011
  13. ZZ3D

    ZZ3D Newbie

    thanks, msp.
    hope there will be a soft-mod fix soon.
     
  14. Assemmbler

    Assemmbler Newbie

    Quadro FX or Quadro ?

    Hi everbody,

    i would like to assemble my own workstation. I am using a lot 3DS Max (2009) rendering.

    What would you prefer as a Quadro Card?
    Or another question: Is it possible to softmod a Nvidia Card to a new Quadro Card such as Quadro 2000, 4000, 5000, 6000?

    I don't know what difference in performance between a Quadro FX 4000 and a Quadro 4000 is? Or any other card of the FX series and the newest Quadro series is?


    Can somebody help?
     
  15. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    We don't have the actual benchmark results, but we have the next best thing - a comparison of the specifications of those graphics cards. Check it out @ Tech ARP - Workstation Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 6.3

    If you are just concerned about the performance, compare their Geometry Rate, Fill Rate and Memory Bandwidth. I would also recommend you check out their OpenGL Support.
     
  16. Assemmbler

    Assemmbler Newbie

    Thx a lot. I will have a look on it :)
     
  17. IGMW

    IGMW Newbie

    I have verified that my card is compatible to soft modding. However Riva tuner does not look like described in the guide.

    "A series of icons will appear. Select the first icon (Low-level system settings). This will open up a new window called "Low-level system tweaks"."

    My first icon is "Low Level Refrash Rate Settings"

    :nuts:

    Please help.
     

    Attached Files:

  18. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    It's not there because the GeForce GTX 465 is not moddable. As far as we know, the last moddable cards are those based on the G80 GPU.
     
  19. IGMW

    IGMW Newbie

    Well that is a shame. Someone should probably update that article.
     
  20. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    I don't think there's any modern card which is moddable.
     

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