demo38 Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Looking at some new machines,; we were considering the Quadro line as we've always used, though I'm intrigued by the thought (in reading here), about soft-modding GeForce cards to run as Quadros. If I were to buy 2 GeForce cards, (planning on soft-modding them to run as the fastest compatible Quadros), what would be the fastest GeForce cards that this would be possible? 8800GT --> Quadro 4600? Would this be stable? To be used primarily with Max in a Dell box / dual Xeons, but Revit will also be used on the machines (as I understand that FireGL would be best for). Thanks for any thoughts, J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antisthenes Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 as far as i know you cant soft mod anything after 6800 (i have 2) to a fx 4000 because of a change in hardware. i do hear the ATI cards soft mod in the newest versions refer to forums.guru3d.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 You can't softmod an 8800GT or a new 8800GTS (the 256/512MB version) with the current software. You can mod an 8800GTS 320/640 and I think you can do an 8800GTX, but I'm not sure. There was a thread that started as a Geforce vs. Quadro discussion and devolved into a softmod discussion; I don't have time to search right now but look for one with geforce vs. quadro 1700 in the subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demo38 Posted August 19, 2008 Author Share Posted August 19, 2008 Thanks for the replys: found that thread here for anyone interested. http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/29160-quadro-fx1700-geforce-8800gt-4.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slinger Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Just know, if you have a system from Dell, and you screw up your card when flashing it to a Quadro, your SOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demo38 Posted August 20, 2008 Author Share Posted August 20, 2008 Thanks, I hear you. It would be an after market add on for sure. Can't even get that card in the system I would order. Thus saving the original is a must. So, soft modding 2 cards in the same box is no issue then? If I were to buy 2 8800GTS cards (320/640) / soft modded? Is this solid in 64-bit as well? Thanks, J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Never tried it in 64-bit or with 2 cards. But I can tell you there's no flashing involved - the ID strap driver is software only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demo38 Posted August 20, 2008 Author Share Posted August 20, 2008 (edited) Software only? SOLD. Thanks. Last question if you don't mind. NewEgg lists an 8800GTS SSC 640mb card. The SSC line have any issues that you would be aware of? $130. Worth the shot... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130317 Edited August 20, 2008 by demo38 More info... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 It looks fine and it's hard to argue with the price. I'm throwing in another caveat here just because I don't want people getting way too excited and then maybe disappointed: I've done this in XP 32-bit on particular Geforce 8-series with the G8x GPUs, not the G9x. Not 64-bit Windows, not Vista, and I haven't tested all the software available. This is not a supported feature, and you take on some risk in doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demo38 Posted August 20, 2008 Author Share Posted August 20, 2008 Understood, and good to point out. I've soldered chips onto motherboards and flashed various electronics for additional features, so I will in no way hold you responsible for anything that wouldn't work. I will, on the other hand, report back as to the findings of what worked / didn't if we pursue it. I'm more curious than anything else. According to RivaTuners site, the latest version now supports XP-64 (Vista 64 in progress) and G9 series cards, so only time will tell. Thanks for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Ooh, time to try on my home PC I want to go from a FireGL under XP64 to an 8800GTS softmodded and dual-booting XP64 and OSX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antisthenes Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 yes the newest rivatunner supports softmod of 64 bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demo38 Posted August 25, 2008 Author Share Posted August 25, 2008 Great to hear. Well, we have the 8800GTS SSC (640Mb) sitting in the IT dept now. We'll be benchmarking it with Cinebench in a Dell 3400 - 64bit soon. I'll post results with the card it has in it now (a Quadro 1700, I believe), along with the 8800 as is, and of course, after soft-mod. Is there a better benchmarking app that I should test with other than Cinebench for testing the graphics cards / performance? Thanks, J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 Not so much "better" as "different" - e.g., Specviewperf favors "pro" OpenGL cards very strongly, Cinebench somewhat, and then there are all these gamer benchmarks that don't use OpenGL at all. Your Cinebench performance will not have a very strong correlation to your Max performance. Your 8800 card will beat the 1700 in Max with or without the mod because Max doesn't use the Quadro as effectively as something like Maya or Solidworks. Try this: http://www.spec.org/gwpg/apc.static/max9info.html It's based on Max9 but there isn't all that difference between 9, 08 and 09 in terms is graphics performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demo38 Posted August 27, 2008 Author Share Posted August 27, 2008 (edited) OK: Report back #1 Specapc for Max is a 32 bit only app, and this machine for testing is strictly a 64bit XP right now. So, I went with Cinebench to at least see some numbers on it. Machine is a Dell T3400 Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6850 @ 3.0GHz - Quadcore 4Gb RAM The original card in it was a Quadro FX 1700 Since the only difference in Cinebench to observe for the video card is OpenGL. I'm only listing OpenGL shading here. With the original Quadro FX 1700: 5918 CB-GFX With the stock GeForce 8800GTS SSC / 640Mb: 5107 CB-GFX With the softmod GeForce 8800GTS SSC (now seen as a Quadro FX 4600): 6416 CB-GFX Obviously, I'm happy with those results. Next I would like to grab a second card and run them SLI and test again... Will also check the price on a 9600GT (RivaTuner now supports it as well) for kicks... An EVGA 9600GT 1Gb card for $180... Hmmmmmmmm.... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130363 Thanks for the help on this. By the way, this was the RivaTuner guide I followed: http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33898714 Hopefully more to come. Edited August 27, 2008 by demo38 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slinger Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 ok eVGA is having a huge labor day sale and you can get some nice cards for cheap. SO if you want to try out the soft-mod on a inexpensive card, go go go go: http://www.evga.com/articles/428.asp 256MB, 8800 GT, PCIe 2.0, D+D+HD $89.99 320MB, 8800GTS KO ACS3, PCI-E D+D+H $ 99.99 512MB, 8800 GT Dual Slot PCIe 2.0 $ 109.99 512MB, 8800 GT KO, PCIe 2.0, D+D+HD $ 99.99 Lots more too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 Damn that's some good prices. Can anybody confirm whether the mod works on an 8800GT, or an 8800GT 256/512MB? Last I'd heard it didn't but that was a few months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slinger Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 I ordered a 8800Ultra Superclock and got it for $197 shipped Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demo38 Posted September 5, 2008 Author Share Posted September 5, 2008 OK, we picked up a GigaByte 9600GT 1Gb card to test. According to RivaTuner's description, the card is supported. Reading deeper, it's supported for overclocking, not for softmodding yet. Oh well, it's a fast card none the less. Still need to test an SLI config on the 8800GTS (we just got the second card). -J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutaj Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 Demo38, any word on the SLI? Looking to pick up a card for next week. Thanks, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demo38 Posted September 17, 2008 Author Share Posted September 17, 2008 Mike, I wish I did. I was out on vacation last week. The system I've been testing on (a Dell T3400), didn't ship with an SLI bridge. We're (our IT dept) going to contact Dell today hopefully and get the story on obtaining one for that motherboard. I'll need that adapter to be able to compare the results to an SLI config of the 9600GTs as well, since the softmod doesn't work for them yet (or ever?). I will post back as soon as I have some numbers. -Jonathon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demo38 Posted October 8, 2008 Author Share Posted October 8, 2008 OK, we finally ran those tests. Riva Tuner, from what we were able to accomplish, doesn't support soft-modding in an SLI config, at least with the 8800GTS that we tested with. We did hook up a pair of 8800GTS in SLI and compared that to an SLI config of 2 9600GTs though. Cinebench 10 / OpenGL results were: For ease of reading, I'm copying the prior results below and adding the GT: ---------------------------------------- With the original Quadro FX 1700 (for comparison): 5918 CB-GFX With the stock GeForce 8800GTS SSC / 640Mb: 5107 CB-GFX With the stock GeForce 8800GTS SSC / 640Mb - SLI Config: 6200 CB-GFX With the stock GeForce 9600GT / 1Gb: 5303 CB-GFX With the stock GeForce 9600GT / 1Gb - SLI Config: 6237 CB-GFX With the softmod GeForce 8800GTS SSC (now seen as a Quadro FX 4600): 6416 CB-GFX ---------------------------------------- As you can see, the SLI config did improve performance by about 1000 points in either card, but not enough in either case to beat the single softmodded 8800GTS. Looks like we're going with the 8800GTS. Thanks for the input on this everyone. -J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangalore Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 I was having an issue with the nvidia geforce 8500 GT 512mb ddr2 card when using maya 2008-2009 the refresh in perspective vie was screwed and stopped from time to time so i installed the last riva tuner and made it to be recognized as a quadro card and now is working fine and have no issues with the viewport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tasi55 Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 Hey guys, tried it out. Actually works, quite happy actually, Sketchup works well but my only problem is that doesnt seem to do anything in Revit, unless Im missing something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 There's some bug between Revit and nVidia with OpenGL that's so odd I've given up on it completely. Let me know if you figure it out In the meantime, I'll reiterate what I've said several times: REVIT USERS SHOULD BUY AN ATI VIDEO CARD. Preferably a FireGL - whatever the current one in the v3xxx or v5xxx series is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now