6800GT >> QudroFx4000 questions

Discussion in 'RivaTuner Advanced Discussion forum' started by quyeno, Nov 23, 2004.

  1. quyeno

    quyeno Guest

    Hi guys,

    I'm a total newbie at all this modding stuff, i'm so new to it i never even realised this kind of stuff could be done. I'm a 3d artist and currently using a quadr4 900 and WAS about to buy a QuadroFx 4000, that was until i seen a thread at CGChannel about this, it pointed to this forum. To say the least i am absolutely blown away, not only by the fact that this can be done but also by the shear technical skills at this forum! Its amazing.

    I have read some of the threads but theres so much info for my newbie head, i can't figure out what to look out for when buying a 6800. I would be grateful if someone could please clarify some points for me.

    1. If i want a QuadroFx 4000, do i need to buy a 6800GT? 6800 ultra or will a 6800 do?

    2. Does the amount of onboard memory matter? I'm planning to get a 256Mb card.

    3. Does brand matter? XFX, PNY, etc... if you have successfully modded a brand, i would love to know which!

    4. Is there a better chance of success if i buy a 6800 that uses the P201 PCB? Would that be because its the same board layout as the real quadroFx 4000?

    I know its alot of questions but i would be grateful for any help. Hardmodding the card would be a problem as theres a good electronics repair firm just down the road.

    Peace
    Quyeno
     
  2. AlecRyben

    AlecRyben Guest

    Messages:
    7,740
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    5x580 2x590 2x780Ti 1x970
    1. Standard 6800 will do nicely, since it has the same configuration 12pipe,5vps of a real OEM Dell Quadro FX 4000. If you do get a GT or Ultra, be sure to patch the BIOS with Rivatuner's patch scripts in order to use the full 16pipe,6vp configuration.
    2. It doesn't matter, memory size is being counted at initialization time.
    3. Brand shouldn't matter, but there are no guarantees here.
    4. Board layout matters only when doing hardmods, if you plan on the BIOS flash only, any layout will do.
     
  3. quyeno

    quyeno Guest

    toppa, thanks.

    can you please also clarify a couple more points for me?

    if i do a hard mod, do i have to hack the drivers or can i use drivers as they when dl straight from nvidia? would i be able the latest drivers or are they restrictions?

    thanks for al your help dude.

    quyeno
     
  4. AlecRyben

    AlecRyben Guest

    Messages:
    7,740
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    5x580 2x590 2x780Ti 1x970
    Both "hardmod+bios flash" & "bios flash only" mods seem to convert the 6800 into a true Quadro equivalent (it runs on Linux too!), which means you can run whatever drivers you want as long as they support the Quadro FX 4000 card.
     

  5. quyeno

    quyeno Guest

    cool, thanks for the quick replies dude. I think i'll try and get myself an Aopen card just like Rui's.

    thanks dude
    quyeno
     
  6. snead

    snead Member

    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    EVGA GeForce 6800GT
    still in newbie limbo

    Just wanted to bump this -- I swear, I've spent about three hours researching the threads on this forum and I'm still confused about what I need to do... so please help!

    I have a EVGA 6800GT that I'm trying to mod to a Quadro FX 4000. I don't want to mess w/any hardmodding. So do I need to:

    - Flash the BIOS with the Dell (?) BIOS that rui has?

    - Flash the BIOS with what I guess is the PNY Quadro FX 4000 bios at *******?

    - Use some kind of script with RivaTuner 15.2?

    - Some of the above?

    So far, I've tried running RivaTuner (which shows 16x1,6vp). I've also tried flashing with the PNY bios. It worked insofar as the machine thinks it's a Quadro, but no speed improvement so far using viewspecperf 8 (it may even be worse, still waiting on full test results)

    Thanks for any help....
     
  7. AlecRyben

    AlecRyben Guest

    Messages:
    7,740
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    5x580 2x590 2x780Ti 1x970
     
  8. quyeno

    quyeno Guest

    wahey!! cool, just a total newb like needs as well, just like someone holding your hand for your first mod:)

    I have a question though, I've read Rui's thread and also his website. Its says that he tried a softmod (bios only) and it didn't work, so how come this method works?

    quyeno
     
  9. AlecRyben

    AlecRyben Guest

    Messages:
    7,740
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    5x580 2x590 2x780Ti 1x970
    Well, you will have to ask Rui, judging by the poll, the "BIOS flashing only" method seems to do the trick nicely too. Maybe Rui has a specific hardware revision? :rolleyes:
     
  10. snead

    snead Member

    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    EVGA GeForce 6800GT
    Alec, you rock!!! Thanks so much for the step-by-step -- sometimes you just need help connecting the dots.

    Went through, and successfully modded my EVGA 6800GT -- haven't run full benchmarks, just Maya (my main concern) and it went from 17.92 to 30.04 after the BIOS flash! (Oddly, it then dropped to 29.57 after enabling the pipes in RivaTuner). Will do more production testing the next few days.

    Only questions I still have:

    1) You didn't mention touching the VGPU settings in OmniExtreme. I saw some posts here mentioning these, but I wasn't clear on whether they need to be changed for this softmod or just for overclockers. They sound important to us newbies. :)

    2) Why V-sync off? Only ask b/c it's on by default.

    3) Any idea what happens to the temperature sensor once you do this? Before, my 6800GT showed GPU core temp of about 60C. Now my "Quadro FX 4000" is reading as 48C. Don't tell me it's actually running cooler...

    4) Will it still kick ass in games? :p

    Thanks again for your help!!!!!!!! Very happy now that I gambled on this card instead of paying through the nose for an FX 1100.
     

  11. Lord Banshee

    Lord Banshee Master Guru

    Messages:
    286
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    X1950XT 512 @ FireGL 7350
    1) OmniExtreme is only to set you clockrates. As long as your clock rate are match are close you really don't need it.

    2) V-snyc off because with it on and the app doesn't disable it, you only get a max of horz you monitor is. No way will your benchmark be a good result unless you stay below that number.

    3) No clue but i would like to know more about this

    4) Why don't you do some benchmarks and tell us. From Rui's site he lost a little in 3dmark. But it was still 4x my score with my 5900XT lol.
     
  12. snead

    snead Member

    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    EVGA GeForce 6800GT
    I will as soon as I get through the school term... :)

    Also, while the benchmark results are encouraging, so far I have to admit that I'm not seeing a whole lot of difference in Maya yet -- except that the overlay menus (hotbox) flicker and update slower than before.
     
  13. AlecRyben

    AlecRyben Guest

    Messages:
    7,740
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    5x580 2x590 2x780Ti 1x970
    Have you set your 3D application preferences to Maya/StudioTools?
    Maya needs hardware overlays enabled ("Enable Overlays = ON")

    Also, disable VSYNC only when benchmarking since Maya (and all other Pro 3D apps) works much better with VSYNC ON.
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2004
  14. alanc

    alanc Member Guru

    Messages:
    169
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    XFX 6800 Ultra
    Hello Alec

    I have a Gigabyte 6800 GT and I followed your instructions. It worked rebooted and installed 67.20 just fine. At boot system displays guadro!

    One problem though is the fan does not turn on???

    Any sugestions.

    Flashed it back to the orig bios because I dont want to burn out the card

    But need to benchmar system with a quadro, and the money saved is VERY important.

    Thanks to anyone with some ideas.
     
  15. snead

    snead Member

    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    EVGA GeForce 6800GT
    Yup, app preferences set. Hardware overlays enabled (color indexed overlays (8 bpp) by default).

    I switched Vsync back to on. Same behavior.

    But did I mention I'm using dual analog monitors? :rolleyes:

    Sorry.... I've been doing all the benchmarking in single display mode, but I work in horizontal span in Maya. I just tried Maya in single display mode, and the flickering overlay menus go away.

    It's too bad, though -- it was never a problem with this 6800GT, despite the fact that dual displays aren't supported by Maya. Maybe it's a driver thing? Currently using 67.02 as recommended.

    Thanks again for all your help.
     

  16. Arty

    Arty Member

    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    n/a
    I would try either maya certified 61.76 or Quardo FX special 70.41 :)
     
  17. snead

    snead Member

    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    EVGA GeForce 6800GT

    Just tried them both -- same results.

    I'm also starting to question whether I'm getting any real-world performance boost here. The SpecViewPerf scores looked better at first, but I ran the Spec Maya App benchmark last night -- the script that actually runs within Maya, vs. pure OpenGL calls. The scores across the board are worse than they were using the original 6800GT bios. This is running on a single monitor at 1280x1024, having followed Alec's instructions earlier in this thread.

    Anyone else out there using Maya and playing with this mod?
     
  18. theobarbosa

    theobarbosa Member

    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    Geforce 6800 Ultra @ Quadro FX 4400
    Humm... I wanna buy a 6800 standard, that card have 12 pipes only...

    Please, clear me: Do I need to run rivatunner too? Or I should stop in step 15? I donĀ“t wanna fry my card.

    Thanks.
     
  19. Farmer Brown

    Farmer Brown Active Member

    Messages:
    98
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    ASUS Riva TNT2 Ultra 32MB
    Just a few questions, if you guys have the time.

    I already saw the previous entries on this thread.

    1) Is it possible to alter the number of pipelines by modifying the Dell Quadro FX4000 BIOS instead of using RivaTuner? Might as well make it a "pure" BIOS solution.

    EDIT: Wait a minute, there IS and somebody did mention one. However I seem to have lost the link. Could someone paste it on this thread?

    2) Has the issue with the fan shutting down been resolved, or is this just an isolated incident? There was a similar issue with BIOS flashing on one of the 5900 to Quadro FX700 BIOS mods, if I remember right.

    3) I'm not sure if I'm getting the drift... the synthetic benchmarks do not correlate with real - world handling or performance? I hope this isn't so - I'm planning on getting an early - model 6800 soon.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2004
  20. AlecRyben

    AlecRyben Guest

    Messages:
    7,740
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    5x580 2x590 2x780Ti 1x970
    1) Yes, you use Rivatuner's BIOS patch only once and you are done. After that, you can uninstall NVStrap & Rivatuner completely if you want...

    2) No, the fan shutting down is still a problem on some cards, the solution is to redirect power to the fan from a PSU molex connector (instead of the card's fan connector on the PCB).

    3) Syntetic benchmarks are ok. Maxtreme for Max & Powerdraft for ACAD show a lot of speed improvement. The problem is that Maya viewports do not seem to benefit much in speed, only in quality (hardware overlays support makes paint effects and other artisan tools work better). The latest reports show that the real Quadro FX 4000 also doesn't do much to accelerate Maya viewport performance, so as far as i can tell the Quadro modded GeForce are identical to the real thing (even better if all 16 pipes are unlocked).
     

Share This Page