Turning your VideoCard into a Quadro !!

[videoclone]

For any of you out there wanting a Workstation Graphics card or just board and want to try a new thing that?s totally reversible buy uninstalling drivers... here?s the way go about it.

Turning a Geforce into a Quadro workstation Graphics card.

Step 1. Acquire a or buy a Geforce Videocard. Here is a list of the cards modable with SoftQuadro4 and their corresponding Quadro Brothers.
As For this Guide i will be using the GeforceFX 5900XT/5900 to softmod into a FX3000 as a reference but you could follow the same steps with any of these cards just replace the FX3000 with the Quadro model of your Videocard.

Geforce Ti4200 -> Quadro4 700XGL
Geforce Ti4400 -> Quadro4 750XGL
Geforce Ti4600 -> Quadro4 900XGL
Geforce Ti4800 -> Quadro4 980XGL
GeforceFX 5800 -> QuadroFX 1000
GeforceFX 5800U -> QuadroFX 2000
GeforceFX 5200 -> QuadroFX 500
GeforceFX 5600 -> QuadroFX 700 ??? <- doesnt exist in Driver's May not work.
Geforce 5600Go -> Quadro700Go

Step 2.

a) download the latest Rivatuna from Guru3D
b) download Softquadro4 the one that comes with UnpackDriver.bat Here

Step 3. Install the Geforce FX 5900XT using Forceware drivers version 45.28 make sure its this version because the newer drivers have protection against softmodding.

Step 4.

a) Install RivaTuner
b) Go into Rivatuna and Instal NVstrap (Do not restart) then go to the adaptor section and change it from GeforceFX to Quadro
c) Unpack 45.28 into a folder (Do not install)
d) copy the UnpackDriver.bat from the Softquadro4.Zip into the extracted 45.28 folder and run it.

Step 5.

Go into the Folder where Softquadro4 is unpacked and. Apply these patch?s to the unpacked 45.28 drivers
a)Apply SQ4 and Nvstrap antiprotection patches
b)Apply AnisoBoosterOpenGl patch
c)Apply DetonatorFXAntiprotector patch

Step 6.

Go to Device Manager and update the graphics driver to QuadroFX 3000 manually. Now Reboot and Install the card if prompted.

Step 7.

Go into NVStap again and in Rivatuna set your graphics card to QuadroFX3000 if it isn?t set as that already after that reboot. You will now have a Quadro modded FX.

You should set OpenGL VSynch to OFF in the Display Properties for better performance. also enable Overlays and Unified Back buffer. As i have tried these and they help in 3Dmax.

Good luck. this worked for me and the Quadro FX 3000 runs 3Dmax great.

You can also Turn ATI cards into FireGL cards but i'm not sure how to do this ... i will be doing a fire GL mod soon though.

9600 Pro -> FireGL T2
9500 Pro -> FireGL Z1
9700 Pro -> FireGL X1
9800 Pro/XT -> FireGL X2

 

[MercenaryForHire]

... and then watch as the Maya performance and 2D quality still isn't half what a real Quadro can push.

The hardware is different. geForce vs Quadro.

- M4H

 

[BugsBunny1078]

Reading that paper Merc it seems like the quadro is only a driver difference.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: BugsBunny1078
Reading that paper Merc it seems like the quadro is only a driver difference.

To address this feature in professional workstation applications, the NVIDIA
Quadro GPU family supports antialiased lines in hardware. The result? When
antialiased points and lines are used on the NVIDIA Quadro family of GPUs,
performance is noticeably higher than on the GeForce family of GPUs.

Another hardware feature difference between NVIDIA?s workstation and consumer
GPUs is support for OpenGL Logic Operations (Figure 2). Logic operations are the
final stage in the pipeline and are applied to incoming fragments and affect how, and
if, they are written into the frame buffer.

Most consumer applications and games don?t create many pop-up windows, so the
GeForce family of GPUs supports only one clip region, whereas the NVIDIA
Quadro family support up to eight clip regions.

The NVIDIA Quadro family of GPUs supports clip-plane acceleration in
hardware?a significant performance improvement when it is used in professional
applications.

The NVIDIA Quadro GPU family supports quad-buffered stereo; the GeForce
GPU family does not.

Want me to continue?

- M4H

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: BugsBunny1078
Reading that paper Merc it seems like the quadro is only a driver difference.

To address this feature in professional workstation applications, the NVIDIA
Quadro GPU family supports antialiased lines in hardware. The result? When
antialiased points and lines are used on the NVIDIA Quadro family of GPUs,
performance is noticeably higher than on the GeForce family of GPUs.

Another hardware feature difference between NVIDIA?s workstation and consumer
GPUs is support for OpenGL Logic Operations (Figure 2). Logic operations are the
final stage in the pipeline and are applied to incoming fragments and affect how, and
if, they are written into the frame buffer.

Most consumer applications and games don?t create many pop-up windows, so the
GeForce family of GPUs supports only one clip region, whereas the NVIDIA
Quadro family support up to eight clip regions.

The NVIDIA Quadro family of GPUs supports clip-plane acceleration i
hardware?a significant performance improvement when it is used in professional
applications.

The NVIDIA Quadro GPU family supports quad-buffered stereo; the GeForce
GPU family does not.

Want me to continue?

- M4H

Not to mention that true Quadros can drive a DVI display at 1600x1200 and above. However you may have better luck on the Radeons videoclone as they can be turned into a Fire GL with a resoldering of a chip on the core. XBit tested this a while back and showed it performed as well as an official Fire GL.

-Por

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: PorBleemo
Not to mention that true Quadros can drive a DVI display at 1600x1200 and above. However you may have better luck on the Radeons videoclone as they can be turned into a Fire GL with a resoldering of a chip on the core. XBit tested this a while back and showed it performed as well as an official Fire GL.

-Por

Modify the Gaming Cards on ATI Chips into Professional Ones!

- M4H

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: PorBleemo
Not to mention that true Quadros can drive a DVI display at 1600x1200 and above. However you may have better luck on the Radeons videoclone as they can be turned into a Fire GL with a resoldering of a chip on the core. XBit tested this a while back and showed it performed as well as an official Fire GL.

-Por

Modify the Gaming Cards on ATI Chips into Professional Ones!

- M4H

You make it seems like you know the whole internet off the top of your head.

-Por

 

[videoclone]

You still end up with a card that is allot better in 3D apps then the stock card i get 100% to 300% better performance with the Softmoded QuadroFX3000 then i do with the same card at stock Geforce FX5900.

Even if it doesn?t get you a 100% replica of the Original QuadroFX counterpart its still an awesome mod for anyone who wants the best but doesn?t want to folk out the money... ohh and if you wanna go deeper into it this performance difference is only in the QuadroFX series of cards it looks like people with Geforce4 cards and Geforce2 get a better conversion by simply softmodding.