SoftModded Geforce 6800 to Quadro XSI Raycast Problem

[bravmm]

"What am I doing wrong?"
Well... assuming a piece of software will get you the highend features people pay big bucks for. The Geforce is a Geforce for a reason, and not a Quaddro although chipset layout might be the same.

You already gave yourself the answer, turn it off and work without a problem, or have nice AA and have problems.
Also be sure to turn off Vertical Sync for better OGL performance with multiple windows open.

There's nothing much you can do about it,

cheers,

rob

[Klowno]

If like you say others who have done the conversion has got it working correctly
maybe you should check that your conversion is functioning by benchmarking
it with Specview first(if you havent allready)?

[jagg]

If like you say others who have done the conversion has got it working correctly
maybe you should check that your conversion is functioning by benchmarking
it with Specview first(if you havent allready)?

Yeah I haven't run any benchmarks. I kinda jumped the gun on them cuz Specview is a big file to dl. I'll get onto it and try it. Thanks.

[revert]

A big difference might be the actual drivers others are using compared to you. I don't know, i haven't done it.

[UnderwearNinja]

I thought I read somewhere that anti-aliasing is one of the things that doesn't work after a softmod, but now I can't find that post.

[ThE_JacO]

that I know of, forceful FSAA is going to cause the same ruckus even on quadro cards in most situations (although in the game version of drivers it's run slightly differently to keep the performance a priority, therefore it's even worse, it's not reliable either on all quadro cards I used up to the fx4k generation).

it's simply NOT something you want to keep active when working with CAD/CAM/CAE or Contents Creation apps; get over it or give up on precision in all regards to raycolliding (which includes painting as well) and be ready for more frequent hangs and crashes.

[jagg]

Yeah you guys were right. I confirmed that not only do mainstream cards have problems with anti aliasing in XSI but so do the workstation cards such as the Quadro FX. So even if I had a legit Quadro I'd still have to have anti aliasing turned off.

That being said even with my 6800 GT softmodded to a Quadro I ran some benchmarks and I am VERY pleased with the results.

Using SPECviewperf 8.1 on my un modded 6800 GT with the latest forceware drivers my scores were;

---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 15.87

---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT
catia-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 10.04

---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
ensight-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 10.51

---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 8.742

---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT
maya-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 18.95

---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 11.81

---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 11.38

---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGS\SUMMARY.TXT
ugs-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 4.495



After the softmodd to a Quadro FX 4000 with the latest Nvidia Quadro drivers results were;

---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 34.66

---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT
catia-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 25.49

---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
ensight-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 27.74

---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 20.42

---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT
maya-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 43.88

---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 51.10

---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 30.34

---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGS\SUMMARY.TXT
ugs-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 35.70

Higher scores are better. So you can see there is a pretty suggnificant performance boost when your card is softmodded to a Quadro. Referring to the comparison done by CGTALK
http://features.cgsociety.org/story..._id=3321&page=3 (http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3321&page=3) my modded 6800 sits between the Quadro FX 1400 and Quadro FX 540. More to the 1400 side of things.

So all and all the modd will increase your performance in 3d applications. I suggest you give it a look. All the information you need can be found at http://www.guru3d.com/rivatuner/

Here's a little tutorial for people who don't like to do research.

1: Boot your computer

2: Remove old video drivers and reboot

3: Download and install latest Quadro video drivers and reboot

4: Download and install RivaTuner and run

5: Click "customize" icon under target adapter tab

6: Choose "low-level system settings"

7: Under "NVStrap driver" tab click install

8: Under "Graphics adapter identification" choose "custom", NOT Quadro

9: Enable "Use ROM straps for PCI DeviceID programming"

10: Choose 004E (NVIDIA QuadroFX 4000) in drop down box below "Use ROM straps..."

11: Enable "Unlock professional capabilities"

12: Apply settings, click ok, and Reboot

That's it! You now have a Quadro FX card.

***PLEASE NOTE: WHEN USING YOUR CARD AS A QUADRO CARD GAMING PERFORMANCE WILL SUFFER. YES YOU HEARD RIGHT, YOU WILL LOOSE FRAME RATES WHEN PLAYING GAMES IN QUADRO MODE. IF YOU WANT TO PLAY GAMES ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LOAD UP RIVATUNE AND CLICK THE "UNINSTALL" OPTION IN THE "LOW-LEVEL SYSTEM SETTINGS" AND REBOOT. THEN WHEN YOU WANT TO GO BACK USING YOUR 3D SOFTWARE YOU DO THE OPPOSITE.

[ThE_JacO]

quadro drivers take care of, beside other things, of tweaking several elements so that the card IS more performant... in "professional" benchmarks ;)

the speed increase of modding to quadro, in real world terms, is not as relevant as it used to be.
on my 6800 infact I saw more regressions then anything with the modding.

soft modding used to be the only way to get solid and stable behaviours out of "game cards" in certain applications: particularly maya when it was still heavily relying on overlay planes routines that consumer cards didn't support, Houdini, always a bitch, and old soft|3D, which was a hard port against the architectural differences from its SGI origins.

in the most recent times, and with the most recent cards like the 6k and 7k gens, soft modding is not necessary anymore for a proper display of the apps, and hardly ever performance critical, if not detrimental at times.

[jagg]

Thanks ThE_JacO (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=8748)

So you're saying there's no benifit in modding now adays? Honestly when I had a heavy scene loaded in XSI I didn't noticed any performance improvments as I navigated the scene. The benchmark numbers were impressive though. I just don't know how relivant they are in a 3d program like XSI. Should I just stick with my normal 6800 GT drivers? vbmenu_register("postmenu_3120413", true);

[ThE_JacO]

take what I'm saying with a pinch of salt, as I've got over my HW fetish period a long time ago, and these days I upgrade my home workstation every 4 years (usually because I'll have moved to a different continent more then because it's outdated :) )

the two things I can give you as facts are:
1) benchmarks are not to be trusted, particularly so how the results would ever apply to XSI, Maya or HDN, this is from knowing the driver/marketing connected politics of HW companies, and from personal experience
2) I've softmodded every geforce I've had, and I've always had the same gen of quadro at work, and the differences over the various generations between a GF and a quadro are 100% guaranteed to have been diminishing.

for me it made no noticable difference (the modding of a 6800) and it made some other things slightly more painful (beside making Halo in Houdini go superbunter), so I consider it useless, but this is personal.

if you hack it, don't mind the game loss in performance, and it's still stable and solid, maybe even moreso then before, then keep it modded.
if it seems faster to you, even if it's just placebo effect, and it helps you sleep better at night, keep it modded :)

personally I'm using normal drivers because I like to use whatever release I feel like, without fear of them reacting badly to the hack, and because I can't be arsed with the modding process anymore :)

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