More on the Software Quadro Hack.

[Bender]

Don't know if this is old news or not but here it is anyway. I stumbled upon something very interesting about the software Quadro hack. If you don't want to use a program to do it you can hex edit NVCORE.VXD and get the same results. Here are the settings:

For Version = 4.13.01.1100
Offset = 0002924E
Search = 8B 86 50 03 00 00
Replace = B8 08 EC 05 00 90

For Version = 4.13.01.1101
Offset = 0002924e
Search = 8B 86 50 03 00 00
Replace = B8 08 EC 05 00 90

For Version = 4.13.01.1200
Offset = 000293c2
Search = 8B 86 50 03 00 00
Replace = B8 08 EC 05 00 90

For Version = 4.13.01.1240
Offset = 00028638
Search = 8B 86 50 03 00 00
Replace = B8 08 EC 05 00 90

[Mord-Sith]

Well im FINALY done runny benchmarks comparying the quadro mod vs the SoftQuadro. I used a program called SPECview Perf to compare GeForce vs SoftQuadro vs Quadro. All tests were ran at factory defualt and after a clean boot.
As you can see the Quadro still outperformed SoftQuadro in every catagory. Just as a test I tried using both at the same time and there was no improvement over Quadro.

[M@€$†®Ö™]

Interesting !

Maestro

[joey_rjm5]

If that's your girl maestro I have to say she's dang good lookin

[el]

joey_rjm5 (Jun 27, 2001 05:04 a.m.):
If that's your girl maestro I have to say she's dang good lookin
Bender is that your girl? j/k so what are your conclusions? have you done anything in 3d max to see if the soft quadro will render a scene faster or anyting like that. does it have a hardware overlay?

[Bender]

el I have done the resistor hack to a few cards but I havn't had a chance to test it against a software modded card. I have 3dsmax but I havn't tried out the rendering speed. In mechanical desktop the rendering time is the same for the geforce as the quadro. I think Mechanical desktop is more limited by memmory speed and cpu speed.

[Mord-Sith]

hey I forgot to add this link http://www.specbench.org/gpc/opc.static/opcview.htm this the program I use to do all my benchmarks. Also they have benchmakrs for proE and 3dsm. Im going to install 3dsm tonight and see how the SoftQuadro Compares to Quadro

BTW that link gives a description as to what all the tests actualy do. FYI

[sparks]

Ok I keep hearing about the quadro hack. Can the software hack be reverted back to std geforce if I don't see any improvement or just don't like what I get?

Is the quadro just for the sake of speed or do you get something else for your nickel :)
I have always said that my Gforce DDR creative card had sorry 2d with washed colors, would this help?


thanks for any info I might want to check this out
sparks

[Bender]

The software hack can easily be converted back to the cards original state since it is only software. The hack improves performance of programs like Autocad 3Dsmax ProE... but won't really don anything for games. Supposedly the visual quality in 2d apps will improve but I haven't really noticed. By the way I am using the resistor hack not the software hack.

[Mord-Sith]

you will see improvements ONLY in the professional graphics area. The quadro mod unlocks functions in the chip that are used for CAD and Rendering aplications. The actual speed of the GPU does not change. If you use ProE or 3dsm or other CAD type programs you will see HUGE improvements but if your a gamer nothing will change.

The software mod changes your nvcore.vxd. To undo the softquadro mod just reinstall the drivers.

As you can see from my graph the software mod doesnt come close to the hardware mod in most areas

[sparks]

Thanks very much for your info.

sparks

[Pinky]

I'm not going to run and do the hack since I have no use, but you have capped off my personal study on the whole thing.

Thanks.

[Mord-Sith]

Bump Sorry I did like 8 hours of testing and I dont want it all to just get lost at the bottom :)


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[Ignad]

I see you had a hardware quadro'd geforce. How did you generate the standard and soft quadro numbers?

Thanks!

[Mord-Sith]

I did the switching mod. Instead of just moving the resistor I put in a switch so i could go from one to the other. You can see how its done here http://www.tweakhardware.com/guide/quadro-switch/

[Bender]

If you want to have a higher core and mem speed you might also flash the Quadro bios. I flashed my MX to a Quadro bios and the memory and core went up to 200/200 from the standard 175/166. Just make sure your card can run at the new speed before flashing the bios. This saves you the hassle of using the coolbits registry hack. Even when you switch computers the card is still overclocked. I don't know if the bios for the Geforce2 ddr to the Quadro 2 does the same thing but I'll give it a try.

By the way if you use the solder hack the card actually shows up as the Quadro even if you don't flash a new bios. My geforce2 ddr shows up as a Quadro2 pro.

[Mord-Sith]

Im going to flash my bios and see if I get any other improvements at the same clock speed.

[Aneurysm]

If I applied this hack on a GeForce 2 Ultra, would it lower the clockspeed or what?

[Mord-Sith]

You clock speed wont change at all

[Mord-Sith]

I just got an email with the same consern as Aneurysm. I want to make it clear that the bios dictates the default core/memory speed. The resistor mod will not change the default core/memory speed or at least it doesnt on a GeForce DDR. I did check this to make sure. My tests were all run at the same gpu/memory speeds.

I would like to add that the bios default core/memory speed is a constant and does not change from the resistor mod. I know this seems a little repetative but I got the same email again today.

[puppet]

Along that same line BlakeN........a BIOS flash will not magically change the core/memory physical properties. The defaults may be higher but what your particular card can do as far as OC'ed settings will not magically increase.

Just had to say that because some people get the impression that the hack changes more than it CAN. ie.....overclocking.

[Bender]

As if this hadn't been stressed enough, a Quadro bios will do nothing at all for the performance of a card. The only thing it may do is raise or lower the default core and mem speed.

[Mord-Sith]

Does anyone know how to rais the voltage on a video card GPU. Ive heard of it being done but have never seen any artical as to how.

Thanks

[Bender]

It would also be nice to be able to up the ram voltage on a Gforce card. I'll start looking into this. I know if you up the IO voltage the card is supplied with more voltage but dose that mean the core and ram get more voltage also, or is the voltage regulated by the card. I'm guessing the IO has nothing to do with how much voltage the ram and GPU are supplied with.

[Mord-Sith]

Bender I found this article on how to up voltage on a Geforce 2

http://www.xbitlabs.com/video/geforce2-overclocking.html

I dont know if it will work for my card but im going to look into it after I get my water rig on my video card.

[Bender]

Thanks BlakeN Maybe I'll give it a try sometime. It doesn't seem to do a lot for overclocking but it is something. I wonder how safe it is to run your GPU at 2.5v instead of 2.0. I would defiantly find a better heatsink than the stock one if I try the hack.

[Bender]

Hey did you also notice in the voltage hack article it talked about setting the default speed to your overclocked speed. If you do this then the max memory and core speed can go higher. all you have to do is go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesC lassDisplay0000NVidiaNVTweakHardware and copy the value of Krusty to Bart. I tried this reg hack out and now my max core and memory speeds are 295/445. Now all I have to do is try the voltage hack. Hum maybe I'll give it a try tonight!

[Mord-Sith]

Ya ive done that before but you can just use nvmax as well

[Bender]

Hey BlakeN check out this (http://www.geocities.com/tnaw_xtennis/Qd-Iquality.htm) article on visual quality of Quadro hacked cards. It should also hold true for software hacked cards. It looks like yet another reason to do the hack.

[Bender]

I thought I would bump this one up from the bottom.

This hack seems to apply to every Detonator driver I have come across. Doing the hack yourself is very handy since you don't have to install any stupid software. Why not learn how it is done so you can impress your friends a little. I am still interested in the visual quality of hacked cards if anyone has any info about it.

Offset = 0002924E
Search = 8B 86 50 03 00 00
Replace = B8 08 EC 05 00 90

If this doesn't work on your drivers let me know.

[Mord-Sith]

Bender is the man for posting this nice little hex hack but for my money its resistor mod or no mod.

Anyone know where I can get a cheap small radiator for my ddr gpu :) Ive got everything else built I just need the radiator.

[Bender]

Well it isn't very small but it will still fit inside your case.
Aquastealth.com (http://becooling.safeshopper.com/images/bv15xgm6.jpg)
The price isn't to bad at $28.99. I totally agree BlakeN the solder method is way better but for some some people soldering is out of the question. Personally I love to solder method.