Stuck in a bit of a bind (Quadro to GeForce question)

Discussion in 'RivaTuner Advanced Discussion forum' started by lowlight, Sep 16, 2005.

  1. lowlight

    lowlight New Member

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    Greetings,

    :(

    Let me preface by stating that I reviewed all of the forums here thoroughly for an answer to my question, but only found bits and pieces that applied. And, while I could try to peacemeal what litltle info I've found so far together, I'm hoping that one of the knoweledgable Gurus could provide me with a more direct answer...or at least a link in the right direction.

    So here's my situation, at the moment for reasons beyond my control, I need to let my wife use my spare Quadro FX 1000 card for awhile due to her previous videocard being in need of an urgent replacement (Radeon 9800 Pro). Typically, this would be no problem with most average users if it weren't for the fact that she's an avid gameplayer who would still like to have some decent play until I can scrounge up the cash to buy her a new card (although I'm loaning her my FX1000, I have no intention of selling it).

    From what I've found in the forums so far via search, it seems to be possible to get at least average playback from a Quadro card using rivatuner, but I'm not quite sure where to begin since I can't find enough straight forward information on how to get started. So, these are my questions that I can't seem to find answers to...either because of not looking hard enough or overlooking the answer:

    • Procedure - I've read in a post that the conversion is as simple as using an NVstrap driver(?), and another somewhat related post talking about needing nothing other than RivaTuner and adjusting a setting within that. Are one, both or something completely different needed here to get the conversion to work right?
    • Drivers - Can I still use the same drivers that are meant for the Quadro, or do the Forceware drivers cover both the Quadro and GeForce series of cards? Or conversely, do I need to get a specially modded (NVStrap driver??) set of drivers to work with the Riva Tuner application to do the conversion?
    • Quality - Another thing I've seen are questions asking about gameplay quality; there seems to be a vague agreement that gameplay quality is marginal at best. All I want to know is when all is said and done, can a card like the FX 1000, when soft-converted to a GeForce counterpart, play back a game like "Painkiller", "Dungeon Siege II" or "City of Heroes" at a decent framerate (those are her favorite games at the moment)?
    • Cooling - From what little I did find, there also seems to be vague commentary on the need to upgrade the cooling fan for the card. Many say to uprade the cooling, a few say that the card is designed to be pretty reselient at high temperatures. Will it cause more harm than good to leave the default heatsink+fan in place rather than replace with a stronger solution for gaming needs since this is only a temporary solution (about 3 months at the most)?

    And that's about it. I know these questions are probably pretty basic to many of you, and that the information is hard to comeby due to the generally prohibitive cost of the Quadro card which makes testing less possible. But as I said before, If I could find more difinitive answers and apply them , I would have..so my apologies again if all of these questions are answered in a FAQ somewhere on the site. I thank you all in advance for reading (and hopefully answering) this post! :)
     
  2. AlecRyben

    AlecRyben Guest

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    In games the Quadro FX 1000 is absolutely awful in performance, no matter what you would do to it, it's still going to be hugely inferior to the 9800Pro, especially in DirectX 9 shader based games.
    Drivers for all NVidia cards are the same (that's why they call them "unified")- only difference is in the optimization settings and additional professional features that are enabled when the drivers detect a Quadro card.
    So, my advice would be not to waste time and just use the Quadro in it's native mode with newest drivers without forcing it into GeForce - the performance is so lacking that the speed difference will be next to nothing. Those Quadro cards are awfully slow - the clocks for GPU/MEM are locked at 300/600Mhz (there are no two performance modes on Quadros) and even if you upgrade the cooling solution with a NVSilencer you probably cannot expect more than 400/800Mhz clocks since those are the specs for the best NV30 based Quadro - the Quadro FX 2000 and that put's it in the ranks of the GeForce FX 5800 (Non-Ultra). The GeForce FX 5800 Ultra worked at 500/1000Mhz clocks but that was achievable only on the best GPU samples with huge copper coolers.
    Your best bet would be to force all games to DX8 shaders that will substantially lower the quality but will make games playable, at least until you get another 9800Pro or GeForce 6600GT card.
     

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