softmodding Geforce 8800gts to quadro

[wonc]

Hello, my friends,
I have heard some success stories regarding to softmodding geforce 8800gts to quadro. Is this possible? If it is possible, please let me know how to do it. I have to mod the card ASAP for my animation class, because they are gonna use Maya 8.5.

[wawan]

yes it can. you can follow the instruction below:

1. Install Riva Tuner (you can download it on www.guru3d.com) then run it. Prepare the Quadro Driver.

2. Choose "low level system setting" (see picture below)



3. Set the menu just like picture below...dont forget to Apply...then restart the computer




4. After reboot, Windows will ask you the driver for your new "QUADRO" just install the driver then.





dont forget to backup your original nvstrap. you'll need it when you want change back into your GTS.

good Luck

[wonc]

Thank you, wawan,
I will try it on my geforce 8800gts
But I got questians for ya?
What brand of geforce did you use for softmod?
Does this softmodding method also work well on 320MB version?
How does the softmodding affect my gaming experience?

[wawan]

I have Pixelview 320MB. Even on the picture using 640 MB, but it still work on 320MB. I've try and it works. The effect is relative. Just try it. It safe. Dont forget to backup your original nvstrap before you softmod your GTS. if you want to change banck into normal GTS, just copy and paste the mod nvstrap with the original nvstrap. Then restart your windows and install the driver.

good luck.

[jolle]

Cool.
After my 6800GT broke I borrowed a 7900GT from school.
Unfortunatly the 7xxx series is unsoftmodable (think I just made that word up).
Read some contradictory stuff about the 8800 series, some said it worked, some said it didnt.

Could anyone please run some benchmarks? apps (Specviewperf I guess?) prefered but some game benches could be nice aswell.
Would REALLY appreciate it.

[wawan]

the picture below show the result before and after softmodding GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB using 3DMark 2003 and 2005. Enjoy it:

3DMARK 2005 Normal 8800 GTS


3DMARK 2005 Softmodded Quadro 4600


3DMARK 2003 Normal 8800 GTS


3DMARK 2003 Softmodded Quadro 4600



just try it, and share your experience

thx to mr.bonk for the screenshot.

[Tahnit]

so apparently this improves performance?

[jolle]

Originally Posted by Tahnit

so apparently this improves performance?

weeeeell..
I suspect you get worse gaming performance more often then not.
The drivers arent really written with the same game specific optimizations as the geforce drivers.
What it will benefit is primarily pro 3d apps such as MAX, Maya etc.

[Mindnumb]

Jolle: I softmodded my 7900 gtx, so i guess your card could make it as well.

i used the instructiones provided here: http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?opti...er=asc&start=0

But I guess the one provided above is much the same.. Best of luck.



Another note... Do you guys know if some drivers are locked for softmodding? Tried it at home with my 8800gt, but no luck, nvstrap tab does not appear in rivatuner, only fan controll :-( . The attempt was made with the latest drivers ( 169.25 i think ), so that might be the culprit.

[Mindnumb]

Oops. checked rivatuner forums.. seems my card might belong to the G9x series, and no nvstrap for me as of yet.... well well, lets just hope unwinder does not grow tired of his work with rivatuner :-) Kudos his way!

[TheNGTV]

It won't work properly.

nVidia has lasercut a certain segment of their post-G8X chips. None of the Geforces can have proper workstation 3D functionality. Aka: 3D Studio Max is still slow, Maya is molasses slow, run the SPECViewPerf scores with both drivers and you get similar results. It's Quadro, but on the same line it's just a Geforce posing as one.


ATI OTOH doesn't have any protection in their drivers/chips; Get the FireGL driver suite, mod PCIe IDs, install drivers and 3DS Max custom driver, you're done.

[Mindnumb]

on the 7900gtx I am using at work it speeds up solidworks tremendously, and realview raphics works....

[TheNGTV]

Whoops, sorry.

Post-G8X. First card to get fully cut was 8800GTX, where you had to install a special driver for 3DSMax only with the nVidia rendering path too (it crashed whenever you went into OpenGL)

[wonc]

Well softmodding works somewhat. I can experience smooth camera rotation.
But there is a problem. When I tried to render a model using various transformation tools, Maya 8.5 suddenly freezes. What is likely the problem?

[the_podman]

Originally Posted by TheNGTV

ATI OTOH doesn't have any protection in their drivers/chips; Get the FireGL driver suite, mod PCIe IDs, install drivers and 3DS Max custom driver, you're done.

Could one of you fine gentlemen or ladies point me to instructions on how to Softmod my ATI Radeon X1950 Pro to FIREGL drivers. I'm a professional 3d artist and my Maya performance is pretty close to abysmal. I need some help ASAP.

Thank you,
-Rodney

[acroig]

Originally Posted by the_podman

Could one of you fine gentlemen or ladies point me to instructions on how to Softmod my ATI Radeon X1950 Pro to FIREGL drivers. I'm a professional 3d artist and my Maya performance is pretty close to abysmal. I need some help ASAP.

Thank you,
-Rodney

Hi Rodney! Welcome. You may want to post this in the Radeon drivers forum. The ATI gurus hang out there.

[the_podman]

Woops! My bad, I found a link to what I needed. Thanks.

On the topic of this particular thread, though. I was wondering if anyone had tested softmodding the Geforce 8800gts to Quadro within WindowsXP x64 bit edition? I am wondering if I would need to do anything more than the steps above. For example, do I need to copy/paste my hardware IDs for the GPU to an .inf file.

Thanks,
-Rod

[amarkovi]

I have a GeForce 8800GT 512MB (running XPpro 32bit) could I use the above mentioned softmod to get something more out of my card?

I need OpenGL performance to work in Sketchup - on small models the 8800GT is fine but I had some trouble with larger models in the viewport

This is for work, so I do not need any gaming performance.

Thanks!

[norway7]

Hi,

If I buy a new Geforce FX 260 could this be softmoded to a Quadro CX? In the nv_disp.inf file in the Quadro driver it says:

NVIDIA_GT200.DEV_05F9.1 = "NVIDIA Quadro CX"

and on Wikipedia it says that FX 260 have the same GPU (GT200). Is the GPU all that have to be correct?

Someone tried it or know this works?

Norway7

[gabsterkz]

Hi, I have trouble with my 8800gts, gpu-z doesn't want to recognize video card, riva tuner shows my card's revision is A3, but I thought it should be A2. I guess, something go wrong in my VC transformation, could you please send me the original nvstrap.sys file? I hope this will solve problem.