Well from the title you should be able to tell I have a very simple Q that I have yet to seen asked or answered in the forums. Can you take a pair of 6800's softmod them to QD4000's and then run them in SLI same as you can with the real 4000's?
Yes, I have made it..with bios mod.. http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=53058&highlight=quadro+mod Videocard 6800GT 420Mhzcore/1140Mhz mem MB DFI Ultra-D mod to SLI Processor Opteron 146 @ 3Ghz (334*9) 1.6V cooled with Big Typhoon (on full load 49°C ) Memory 2x512 250Mhz 2.0 3-3-6 1T Soundcard Onboard nVIDIA Storage RAID-0 SATA II (2x250Gb)Hitachi PSU OCZ Mod 520W Results: Single 6800GT 256Mb (bios mod to Quadro seen as 6800 series GPU) PCI-e 16x ForceWare Release 80 Version: 84.21 V-sync OFF Overlay ON Run All Summary ---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT 3dsmax-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 55.36 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT catia-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 44.70 --------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT ensight-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 39.01 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT light-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 35.41 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT maya-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 86.49 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT proe-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 75.38 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 39.27 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGS\SUMMARY.TXT ugs-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 45.18 2x 6800GT 256Mb (bios mod to Quadro seen as 6800 series GPU) PCI-e 16(8+8) ForceWare Release 80 Version: 84.21 V-sync OFF Overlay ON Run All Summary ---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT 3dsmax-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 59.20 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT catia-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 47.49 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT ensight-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 61.54 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT light-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 35.32 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT maya-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 86.07 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT proe-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 93.63 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 52.21 ---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGS\SUMMARY.TXT ugs-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 84.70
But when iam right, then the specview bench takes its graphic card information from the Display driver and will test your pci card as quadro, but as the guy from this thread you mentioned, said the most graphic software take their info from the OS and will handle your card as 6800GT. Just a thought about this. In Maya, in the Rendering Hardware Buffer Globals view , can you render shadows? normaly a Quadro can.
Software does not check the name of the card (it could be GeWeez XY 9999), it only checks for pro capabilities.
I thougt the software is asking the System "Quadro , true or false?". but when it only aks for Pro Caps, then why should a bios mod neccessary.
for schnauze : ~then why should a bios mod neccessary. ~ -If you use other OS like Linux.. -or if you want to try SLI for non-quadro cards..just like mine 6800Gt@quadro 3400/4400..because rivatuner does not support software mod to quadro (pro caps only) on both cards..rivatuner supports just one card.. ..and the only program that really uses both cards (SLI-Quadro) is UGNX.V4.00.21..without quadro card this program is really useless..(sample test..) wire frame without quadro just base 6800Gt single came with 21 fps wire frame with base 6800Gt mod to quadro 3400 single came with 62 fps wire frame with 2x base 6800Gt mod to quadro 3400 came with 120 fps It is huge improvement from the regular 6800GT.. In other pro aplications like Maya there are no such improvements..maybe small ones or none.. I hope the drivers improve in this field..I use Maya every day..for making games..and TV spots.. Bye..
3DS Max also has huge improvements due to Maxtreme drivers. AutoCAD also due to Powerdraft drivers. Houdini and Maya improvements are more in stability due to use of hardware OpenGL overlays instead of software overlays. It's not asking for a name, it only checks a bit (1-true, 0-false) in one of the registers that means "pro caps card (=Quadro)"
I mean in SLI Quadro there are no such improvements ..not so huge like in UGNX.V4..yes of course, compare gforce and quadro (equal range 6800U/4400 single card) is improvement..in performance and stability.. ..but in many games now SLI is working just fine..why is it not the same in many other pro aplications.. Where is the limitation ?? in drivers or hardware ??..or just in both of them :frown: Will there be OpenGl in Windows Vista ? ..or just DirectX 10..what will happen then with pro aplications which base on OpenGL API?? Bye..
Very intresting what you are saying. I came to my opinon cause i find no improvement in the maya performance when i try this quadro mods. At least i can now use te Ashli Plugin, but i dont realy need it.At least it is good that i didnt buy suc card, would be a lot of money for nothing real. :nerd:
schnauze if you work with Maya and use a lot of hardware shaders (maya plugin CgFxShader.mll & AshliShader.mll) then two cards (bios mod to quadro) really shine only when you press Ctrl and space (full screen mode)..I have tested it ..the GPU load balancing bar jumped on 90%!!..as well as 3dmark with sli gforce.. with profile set in drivers to 3D App -Modeling AFR (but with those settings you dont have overlay plans,you must select it manually and restore settings in drivers to Global driver settings and then good-bye 2xquadro..when overlay is on..maya stops using both cards :mad3: ....when I set in drivers to Maya profile..just one card works :frown: and everything in maya works correctlly including hardware overlays..smooth wireframe..Hardware render buffer..these are the best settings for my work..but the second card is unused in these settings :frown:
Perhaps a future Maya version will be more gratefull to a multi gpu Workstation. At Moment i wait for Maya 64 Bit, hope it will coming soon. I only use hardware render for particles, so a second card will be only more gaming fun for me. Is it possible with such a second card to use multi display with a 19" and a 24" widescreen oder two widescreen, that will be perhaps something intresting. the 24" have a resolution of 1920x1280 and the 19" 1280x1024. Is to much for one card if you use horizontal extension? uke2:
multi display works only when sli connector is not connected with two cards.. see links below http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_sli.html copyed from http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_sli_faq.html What is SLI for NVIDIA Quadro? * SLI Frame Rendering: Combines two PCI Express graphics cards with an SLI connector to transparently scale application performance on a single display by presenting them as a single graphics card to the operating system. o Benefits Visual simulation, broadcast, and video applications that are fill rate–limited will benefit from using the split frame rendering (SFR) mode. o SPECviewperf 8 and other applications that are geometry–limited will benefit from using the alternate frame rendering (AFR) mode. Requirements: o Two identical NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500, 3450, 3400, or 1400 graphics cards o SLI connector * SLI Multi View: Combines the power of two NVIDIA Quadro PCI Express graphics cards to span a single hardware-accelerated OpenGL application window across multiple displays, run a single application per GPU with multiple display outputs, or enable other flexible usage of two PCI Express graphics cards. Benefits o View professional applications over multiple displays to increase visual real estate. (currently available on Linux only) o Run a single application per GPU to offload geometry processing to a second GPU. Requirements o Two identical NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500, 3450, 3400, 1400, or 540 graphics cards.
Sounds cool! Thx. But only 4500 or 3400 nothing said about 4000 or 4400. Have you tried it with your System? Yesterday i played with two Monitors an Horizontal span, workflow getting very slow, and Painter even crashes. Dual view is much better i think. One question by the side, i run my card , at moment with the normal softmod, i install 77.56 3400/4400 but in the Rivatuner low system setting i only find quadro 4000 --004e, their are others like 004d and so on, but named unkown. which one is the 4400. Or have i ti use 4000, even its AGP
Who else tried SLI with 6800GT PCIe cards? What is strange is that FX4000 are not specified to run in SLI mode. Does it work because actually 6800GT PCIE become FX4400 (but we are unsure as windows still sees a 6800GT), whereas AGP versions do become FX4000? Thank you to anyone who can reply. I am currently starting up my own small CAD company and running two 6800GT @ Quadro SLI could give me a boost in performance for an unbeatable price!
