CPU's Article on Softmodding an 8800 GTS to a Quadro FX 5600

Jarod888

Jarod888

2[H]4U
Joined
Dec 19, 2005
Messages
2,939
I just received my latest issue from CPU. They had an interesting article on soft modding your 8800 GTS into a Quadro FX 5600. Basically for those of you that don't get CPU they use GPUZ to verify that you are running a "moddable" GTS. ( Special Thanks to CPU Magazine for the Info.)

There is a file in the Quadro Drivers called nv_disp.inf Near the bottom there is a group of text called "Localized Strings" which lists all the graphics cards supported by the driver.
The line that is important is "NVIDIA_G80.DEV_019D.1 = 'NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600." That basically means that a G-80 based Nvidia Card with a Device ID of 019D.1 equals a FX 5600. The D.1 is not important.
The key number is the Device id. In the article they site the last four numbers of 0193, which just happens to be what I have.
After that you download or open Rivatuner
On the MAIN tab under Target Adapter, click the arrow icon under customize.
On the customize menu, the first icon is a graphics card, or Low Level System Settings.
After you open up the Low Level System Settings click the NVStrap tab; (if it is not available you are not able to softmod your card.)
Click the Install tab at the bottom which will allow you to make changes. (All my tabs were grayed out until I hit the install tab.)
The middle section is called "PCI Device ID Settings"
Click the drop down menu at the upper right called Graphics Adapter Identification
Select Custom
Scroll through the list and choose Quadro FX 5600
Click Apply, restart your system.
After your system restarts you will have to install the drivers for the Quadro 5600 and restart your system again.

You can also reverse this by uninstalling the quadro drivers and using rivatuner to change the PCI Device ID Settings back to "Determined by Hardware", rebooting and reinstalling the correct drivers for your 8800 gts.

I don't really play all that many games, and I don't do a lot with cad, however I figured I would try this out. I am curious now to see if using the Quadro Driver, if you can use SLI and have multiple monitors?

This is just more of an information post, but please feel free to discuss. Also please post if you try the mod.

Thanks
 
Fair warning: a soft-modded Geforce card doesn't equal a Quadro card. To quote wikipedia:

Many of these (Quadro) cards use the same chipset as the game- and action-oriented GeForce video cards by NVIDIA. Those cards that are identical to the desktop cards can be "soft-modded" to identify itself as the equivalent Quadro card and this allows optimized drivers intended for the Quadro cards to be installed on the system. While this will not offer anywhere near the performance of the equivalent Quadro card it can improve performance in certain applications.

The difference comes in the firmware controlling the card. Given the importance of speed in a game, a system used for gaming can shut down textures, shading, or rendering after only approximating a final output—in order to keep the overall frame rate high. The algorithms on a CAD-oriented card tend rather to complete all rendering operations, even if that introduces delays or variations in the timing.
Click to expand...
 
The last working soft mod with the GeForce is the 6800 series. After that nVidia blocked the hardware in the silicon. I think that some people are able to soft mod a HD 2900XT to a FireGL card. I haven't heard anything new but I don't need to anymore. My HD 4870 X2 in Vista runs the CAD program just fine @1920x1200.
 
Hey Jarod888,

Did you ever try to get SLI to work with the soft-modded cards? I'm curious to know if it works or not. I've got a customer here that tried this and got the cards working, but cannot get SLI to run properly.
 
alg7_munif said:
The last working soft mod with the GeForce is the 6800 series. After that nVidia blocked the hardware in the silicon. I think that some people are able to soft mod a HD 2900XT to a FireGL card. I haven't heard anything new but I don't need to anymore. My HD 4870 X2 in Vista runs the CAD program just fine @1920x1200.
Click to expand...

actually I think that the 3800 could be soft modded as well. I think there still was some benefit to soft modding the 8800GTX (it didn't fully work if I remember). I am wondering if the days of dedicated opengl cards are gone though
 
The FX 5600 used G80 with a 384 bit memory interface. The G80 8800 GTS only had a 320 bit memory interface, wouldn't it make more sense to do this with a GTX or Ultra?
 
I've been running my 8800 Ultra as an FX4600 but I may try it as a FX5600.

I do see a bit of a boost in CS4 but I'm not a huge video rendering guy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top