Q. I have a 7800/7900/7600/7300 card and I want to unlock the pipelines like I did on my 6800 LE, how to do this? A. You can't. Q. Are you sure? Then, why not? A. Please see Unwinder's reply here: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=1418355#post1418355 Q. So - which cards *can* be unlocked? A. Only NV40, NV48 and NV43 rev A2 cards that have disabled or hardware-locked vertex/pixel pipelines can be unlocked to better performance in games (and all other programs) These are 6800 AGP8x, 6800 LE AGP8x, 6800 GS AGP8x, 6800 XT AGP8x, 6800 XE, and 6600 LE (only with NV43 rev A2 chips) NB!! Newer 6800 plain/LE/GS/XT cards are often made with NV42 chips instead, and therefore, not possible to unlock... As an example, see http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=182249 Q. Ok, I want to buy a new 6800 GS AGP8x card, how can I know if it is made with NV40/NV48 or NV42? A. Look in the specification. Or ask the manufacturer. Also, the core frequency might give an indication, NV40 chips are clocked at 325-350 MHz, the NV42 chips are clocked at 425-520 MHz Also the fabrication process is different; NV40 chips are 130 nm, while NV42 chips are 110 nm. I'm not sure about the NV48 chips, they seem to be 110 nm, and therefore, should be clocked at 400-500 MHz. But those are AFAIK, not produced anymore and may be very hard to find. Q. But that means a NV42 6800 GS AGP8x with 520 MHz core will be faster even when locked at 12x1,5vp than a NV40 6800 GS AGP8x with 325 MHz core which is unlocked from 12x1,5vp up to its full 16x1,6vp?? A. Yes. Q. So where can i find a NV42 6800 GS AGP8x with 520 MHz core? A. There is one here: http://www.palit.com.tw/en/products/nv_agp_6800GS-Sonic.html Q. I thought the NV42 chip was a chip made for PCI Express cards, how can it be used on AGP8x cards? A. With help of the BR02 PCIe-to-AGP bridge. This is what is also used e.g. on 7800 GS AGP8x cards. Q. I have one of those cards with NV40 or NV48, and I want to unlock it to 16x1 pixelpipes + 6 vertexpipes! What to do? A. Search for "try NV40 softmodding" in RivaTuner's ReadMe.htm Q. What is "Quadro-fying"? A. Modifying your GeForce card into its Quadro sibling. Q. Will "Quadro-fying" get better speed? A. No, the usual Direct3D games will have same speed, and OpenGL games will be a bit slower. Q. Then, why should I "Quadro-fy" my card?? A. "Quadro-fying" may give better speed in some OpenGL professional applications, like Maya, Houdini etc. Q. Which cards can be "Quadro-fied"? A. All cards from NV10 to NV40, and also NV43 rev A2, NV45, and NV48 (strapped to "021e") But it seems that NV34 is not stable with any drivers. Q. All these "NV40" and "NV45" codes, where can I find out what they mean? A. Try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_NVIDIA_Graphics_Processing_Units Also, the file "nv4_disp.inf" in the drivers is showing these codes, e.g. NVIDIA_NV48.DEV_0218.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XT " . .
Q. I have a 7800/7900/7600/7300 card and I want to unlock the pipelines like I did on my 6800 LE, how to do this? A.Yes you can, 1.Moding hardware, 2.Moding drivers and software, 3.Moding bios, 4.Phyiscaly repairing factory cuts. The 7800/7900/and 7600 have some locked pipelines and shaders. The 7300 does not unfortionatly atleast the ver I have, could be on others. How ever on my 7800 and 7600 I was able to unlock these things with some time. If ya know how to mod, thats great then you can do the same. I don't have a 7900 but people do mod them the old fassion way. Thats what I had to do... if nobody can make the software right... if ya want something done right do it yourself and not rely on others for them to take 50 years to come out with software to do it. Replacing some bios code and putting on some new mods are quite fun of a hobby. Need more caps and a resistors for some better volts and clocks tho... A better explination that you can't would really be nice. Its that the software is limited because the models are so new. Nothing afew mods can't fix.
Grayfox84 I seriously recommend you to STOP POSTING BULL**** across and misinform noobs this way. It is physically impossible to mod these chips. PHYSICALLY. You've make me really angry. One more such comment in the forum and you'll reave it forever. You've got your warning.
One question. The NV42 6800XT has four masked pipelines, but in my experience, they have not been unlockable. I was under the impression that Nvidia was only laser-cutting G70-G37 cores (I might be wrong). Why aren't the pipes in the 6800XT unlockble? Thanks, -Saucy
The only unlockable cores are NV40, NV48 (NV40's die-shrink chip), NV43 (pre-A4 revisions). All the rest (including your NV42) are physically locked.
BIOS flashing is not a physical modification. Physically locked usually involves some severed connections on the PCB/chip.
i have a quadro fx 3450/4000 sdi in rivatuner it is saying nv42 A1, the nvstarp gives me all the options even the "enable detection of hardwaremask". i went in to see if i can unlock extra pipes and vertex.the fx 3450/4000 sdi has 12 pixel pipes and 5 vertex. i clicked on 1 set of quads and rv told me to reboot. i rebooted after the boot screne the windows was loading. then something happend the screen was blank but i could see the mouse and top left hand corner of the desktop. i moved the mouse and it was moving after couple of seconds it froze and then the monitor flickerd off and then back on. this would happen like five times and i wold get a blue screen saying memory dump. so, i went back into vista using safe mode and uninstalled rivatuner and rebooted. everything is back to normal. i know people will say nv42 is unlockable. but the quadro i have is extremely wired.first the board layout is not that off a 6800 but rather 7900gs, even the cooler is 7900gs not 6800. i saw the images of quadro fx 3450 mine dosent look like it is quadro fx 3450 but quadro 3500 instead.by thw way the quadro is from dell. is dell trying to do something to the card and if my card is quadro 3500 and dell somehow downgraded it. then i want to unlock all the 20 pixel pippes thanx
You can't unlock anything. And you should definitely check your eyesight, since it looks like you are too blind to read previous posts. :mad2:
Thanks Clokkevi for the summary, I´m sure it will help guiding people looking for the info they need!!! Just a quick addition from my side: 6800GT and 6800Ultra PCI-E are moddable as well, but as hard to find as 500 €´s in my pocket : ) Mine works still pretty good in the appliacations I use and I see Alec has one still as well. So thanks again .... regards
Hi new here, but help pls. I have ASUS 7300GT SIlent 256 DDR2. Did this with riva tuner: Then I came up with this: I checked those "disabled" pipelines so it gave me instead of 8pp and 4vp it gave me 16pp and 5vp. Riva asked me to restart, I did that then when I returned they were checked but in main: as you see it it's back to 8pp, 4vp. But then when I returned to this: those pipelines stayed checked. So how come Riva on main window says 8pp, 4vp, but on window where I check pipelines says 16pp, 5vp??? And what's with that "disabled" how can I make it enabled??? And yeah when I uninstall RivaTuner, will those pipelines stay unlocked if I unlocked them (answer me even if it's unpossible to unlock). Thnx.
The reason this is happening, is because this is the way that RivaTuner works. The NVStrap service is what makes the unlocking work on the cards that *can* be unlocked. When we place the checkmarks at the "Custom graphics processor configuration" window, RivaTuner will change some values in the registry at the key named [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NVStrap\Parameters] Then, when the PC reboots, it will look at these values and try to enable those pipelines. This will not work on any GeForce 7x00 cards. The next time you start RivaTuner, the main window will show that you still have 8pp, 4vp. but when you go into the "Custom graphics processor configuration" window, it will look at the values of [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NVStrap\Parameters] which is still what you made them to be when you placed checkmarks at the "disabled" bits, and so it will show them as still with the checkmarks on. As I wrote - on GeForce 7x000 cards like your 7300, you can't. On a GeForce card with pipes that *can* be unlocked, they will stay unlocked as long as the NVStrap service is installed. You may uninstall RivaTuner without uninstalling NVStrap (I think). If you take out the GeForce card and move it to another PC, which does not already have the NVStrap service running, and have the proper registry values set in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NVStrap\Parameters] - the pipes will be again be disabled (locked), of course.
OK now this is weird???????? Uninstalled RivaTuner, Installed AtiTray because of core/mem optimal overclock and artifacts........anyway info says instead of 8 and 4, says 8 and 5 pipelines???? Even Everest says the same?? :eek2: What the hell happend??? Is there another tool to see how many pipelines I have???
