It's true. 8800GTS is a perfect Quadro now (3DSMAX9 ONLY!!!)

3dsMax only right?

Still only for 3dsMax? Just checking... Quadro for OpenGL generally would be awesome. (though I suspect many 3D packages will soon go to D3D for Vista anyways)

Maybe the thread title could be renamed to "perfect Quadro, for 3dsMax" or something. Cool info though!

 

I don't think that the words "perfect" and "3dsMax" should be used in a same sentence. That thing crashes like crazy. I wonder if Max9 is somehow more stable since they decided to stick with "we do only Windows" strategy.

 

I always thought the best thing about MAX was the object construction hierarchy, which seems to function more cleanly than in any other package, though SI does a good job. Maya's construction history is pretty shoddy. Because Max's internals are so modular, it seems to make plugin development easier, which results in some cool tools. Also, I like that Max uses DX for vid card compatibility. But max's interface has always been kinda klunky, which is also part of the price of modular design. I haven't run it much lately, though I should probably brush up on it.

 

I have used Max a lot in the past and the modeling philosophy works great on paper, but I became a paranoid wreck due to the constant fear of crashing and not being able to recover the project files due to corruption...
It took me some years of working in Houdini & Cinema4D to finally get over that...

 

AlecRyben,
I know it's off topic but I must respond about 3DSMax.
It's my favorite tool and I use it for more then 10 years and I use to model using it or using Rhino or even Autocad (depends on the project ie architecture, design, game ...) and when I'm forced to model using 3DSMax, it's not a problem at all because there are a lot of professionnal plugins like polyboost or power nurbs.
With or without plugins, it works well, even the latest version I'm on now for a month.
Proxies, xref are here to lower the mesh you have to deal with. The workflow is also good.
Example :
modelling : Rhino
Texturing : import Rhino file into 3DSMax using power nurbs
Rendering : third party renderer or Mental Ray renderer (included) using a renderfarm.

What else can I ask for ?

Cheers

 

IMHO, if you mainly do your models in Rhino, VRay for Rhino would be a much better choice than exporting your models into Max.

 

For rendering, yes, but might not be so good for texturizing.

Somewhat more on topic: I use open gl apps (SW2007/Rhino/Lightwave) and would love to have a quadro fx4600/5600, but cant finance one of these.
I got myself a Fire GL 3100, the cheapest card I have found that support "Realview" in Solidworks 2007. The card cost me equal to $25 or 18€ on internet auction!

Using it in my Mac Pro whom had a GF7300 (passive), I got surprised how annoying a fan can be, I had totaly forgot about fans, since I have been using a Macbook Pro before this Mac Pro.
The Mac Pro is very quiet, even at full workload.
Now I decided that I will try to get as capable card as posible that uses passive cooling, or something with a very silent fan.

Will a 8800gts/gtx get warmer if it is Quadro-mooded?
Any tips on how to fit a passive cooling on these? or a low-noise fan cooling.
I think the airflow in the Mac Pro is quite good though.

 

I totally agree even if VRay exists for Rhino.

@AlecRyben,
Thx for replying. Sometimes, depends on the context, I'm forced to render using Mental Ray and I don't have a stand alone version so I prefer to use 3DSMax and all the nodes in a renderfarm.

 

For Open GL apps your best bet is either an ATI 19xx modded to FireGL 73xx or a Nvidia 6800 modded to Quadro 4300 and extra pipelines unlocked. I have both in different machines, both work well for the price.

Hopefully the new ATI 600 cards will be softFireGL moddable.

 

Just wanted to post that the mod didn't seem to work on either of my 8800GTX's. I'm not too sure why the softmod doesn't work, but It could be the difference in memory between the Quadro 5600 (1 gig) and the GTX (768 Meg).

 

Hello! Great news here, i´m happ and glad to read there is a possibility to patch a 8800gts for quadro 4600. I´ve tryed with RivaTuner 2.02 and 160.02_quadro_winvista_32bit_international-Driver. It works fine, but it seems I made some misstakes. 1. I cant install Maxtreme, the is a message "cant find a quadrocard...". In the installed Driversettings there are none Programprofiles...only Games. isn´t it a GeforceFeature?. In the Devicemanager i can see the QuadroDriver is installed. Hmmm, can anybody help me? Maybe a Howto to softmod in steps (i sure i have forgotten s.t.). Here is my Email for a PM: Quadro.5.cyberfloh@spamgourmet.com THANKX a lot!

 

You didn't softmod anything since the 8800 cards are locked solid and cannot be modded into a real Quadro clone.
The name of this thread is grossly misleading since the "mod" is only possible for Maxtreme D3D for 3DSMax 9 and it totally screws up your OpenGL drivers when you do it.
That's why I think that the "mod" is not actually worth the trouble since it's far from a complete solution, especially if you are not using 3DSMax 9 exclusively. Sacrificing OpenGL is usually not an option, especially if you use other programs that may depend on OpenGL to function properly.

 

Solid lock means, a real mod into a quadro is impossible?

 

This will be very useful for when I get a GTX in a few months. AutoCad should fly now. (I didn't read the whole thread so maybe not?)

 

Yes, that's exactly what it means. You can never make a perfect Quadro out of 7XXX or 8XXX series since they are factory locked into "GeForce mode" unless you modify the drivers to circumvent some of the locks, but it will never be "perfect" (you get some - you lose some)

 

WOW great work!
has someone compared these values with a real quadro? are they in the same range or is the real one still faster?

 

ME TOO ME TOO PLEASE? :smoke:

I know he said that he doesn't want to PM everyone with the details, but can one of the members who got his PM, PM me? Thanks

 

Re...

...think, how strong are those series, ...well, as far I found on the net, they are like underclocked Quadros with less RAM (I'm looking on 78xx/79xx & 88xx series), it's normal that nVidia will lock them, why should I give 5-10x more money for something that I already have...

PM me if you know how to 8800GTS with 320MB, need help...

Cheers...

 

As much as they are strong, they lack speed, stability and professional features that make them a PITA if you use pro OpenGL software a lot.
There is a huge difference in performance that favors the Quadro between a true Quadro FX 3500 (or even 1500) and a GeForce 8800 GTX in Maya, Houdini and Unigraphics.

 

+ one more

...OK, i tryed & moded my 8800GTS 320MB to FX 4600, result is a little confusing, when the GFX works in normal mode, that is like it self, 8800GTS, temperatures are like 55/57 idle, 65/70 full load, but when I moded it to FX 4600, temperatures were 46/48 idle, didn't try full load thou. The freq was same 500/1600 for bouth mods, can any1 explain this?

...one more question, does the real FX fasts up rendering, like: "OK, you little CPU, let me show you how powerfull I am", says GPU???
I'm interested in acceleration in 3DSMax9, for rendering?

Cheers