SoftQuadro...?

[RiGLEY]

Hi !

I am planning to buy a new videocard. I don't have too much money, so i think i will buy a ti4200 GeForce card.
There is a utility called SoftQuadro. With this little util. you can modify your GeForce card into a Quadro card. Is it worth it to modify a GeForce 4 card into a Quadro ? I use (only) LW.

Thanks !

[Aegis]

You won't get a huge boost unless you use Maya or Max and you'll also lose a small amount of perfomance in OpenGL games ('cause you'll be using application rather than games orientated OpenGL code). Direct X performance is completely unaffected by SoftQuadro however.

Personally, I think it's worth it as SoftQuadro'ing the card will enable hardware lines support which does seem to boost LightWave's wireframe modes quite a bit. The sad fact is that LightWave makes little use of the Quadro features at this time - hopefully that'll change with the release of [8].

You might want to check out my "SoftQuadro for Dummies" guide available here (http://www.darksunworld.com/LightWave3D/SoftQuadroGuide.zip). Also make sure you use the 42.51 drivers - they're the latest ones supported by SQ4.

[RiGLEY]

Thank You so much for the help !

[Trolly]

Thank you Aegis for that information...it is very useful indeed.

[Aegis]

Glad to be of help! One day I'll get 'round to finishing my advanced RivaTuner 'tut and then I'll really get your GFX cards rocking :D

[RiGLEY]

Can i modify a GeForce FX videocard to make it better for OpenGL ? :confused:

[Aegis]

Yes you can, by applying the "AnisoboosterOGL w2k.rts" patch that comes with RivaTuner - This'll give you a performance increase in OpenGL (enables some optimizations that nVidia have chosen to disable in the drivers). Overclocking your GFX card always gets a welcome performance boost (My GF4 Ti 4200 runs the same speed as a Quadro 4 900XGL and it's SoftQuadro'ed :D). Beware though - O/C'ing your card will invalidate the warranty and if you're unlucky (or don't know what you're doing) may burn it out altogether - also, the GeForce FX cards don't overclock much (I think they're already overclocked when they ship them...)

Check the RivaTuner pages at www.guru3d.com/rivatuner for all the latest info.

[Trolly]

Hi again, some questions popped up, had no idea where from to get some answers. Maybe this is the right place.
Well...according to this very informative page here:http://nvworld.ru/docs/sq4e.html
GeForce Ti comes only in two flawors...A2 and A3. And there is stated that...hmm cant remember. But it says that if u have a card from one of these revisions...dont remember was it A2 or A3...with one of them u will not have so good support for OpenGL hardware antialiasing. I checked out and found out that my card is an A1:eek:
It should be and Ti4200 with agp 8x and after I SoftQuadro'ed my card, windows identified it as a Quadro 780. I havent run any tests tough yet, I will do it. Just were thinking and hoping that maybe someone more experienced has to say something about it.
And one more question Aegis, what are the clock speeds for GPU and ram on ur overclocked card?

[Aegis]

My card is an Albatron Ti4680 Turbo which is actually an AGP x 8 Ti4200 (Albatron loves to rename their GPUs). Core clock is O/C'ed to 300.4 (from a default of 250), Memory clock is at 661.5 (from a base of 550) - this makes it just a tad faster than a Ti4600/Quadro 4 900XGL. I've SoftQuadro'ed it too so it's now a Quadro 4 780XGL - the same as yours.

Be very careful when O/C'ing your GFX card - before you try for numbers like these make sure your card has excellent cooling - the Albatron board comes with a MASSIVE copper heatsink/fan and all the RAM is covered by aluminium heatsinks too - that's why you can push it so hard (I actually got it up to 350 Core, 700 Memory but DirectX is far more sensitive to O/C'ing than OpenGL and it kept crashing Unreal Tournament 2003 :D) It's also got BGA (Ball Grid Array) RAM which helps with heat diffusion.

As for the A1/A2/A3 thang - I believe the NV25AALines patch will still work for you - install it with "force on" and it should get hardware lines up and running on your board - if you have any stability problems just install it again and this time "force off".

My general rule of thumb when O/C'ing a new graphics card is to try it out at the next board up i.e. If you have a Ti4200, try running it at Ti4400 speeds - it should work fine. The Albatrons are exceptional in this regard as they're designed from the ground up for overclocking.

Default nVidia Clock Speeds:

4x AGP

Ti4200 ---- Core 250 - Memory 500
Ti4400 ---- Core 275 - Memory 550
Ti4600 ---- Core 300 - Memory 650


8x AGP

Ti4200 ---- Core 250 - Memory 513
Ti4800 SE - Core 275 - Memory 550
Ti4800 ---- Core 300 - Memory 650

[Trolly]

Hmmm....been testing my card now and then...285/585 has been no problem so far.
Could say, ur card really does run "fast":D
Today I installed SpecPerf 7.0 to run some tests. First I ran the 3dsmax test...it completed it with no problems...I noticed antialias was on. I turned it off and tried to run all tests. But with this I ran into problems. The SpecPerf runs fine for a while and then just hangs and freezes the pc...takes control over pc...and after short time comes restart. Funny is that as I first ran the max test alone with antialias, I had no problems. Only if I am trying to run all the tests and w/o antialias.
I am VERY sure that it is not caused by cpu or memory or gpu. It is not long from here as I built this pc and tested every component. I have no problems with other tests or games...like 3d mark, sisoft sandra burn-in and so on. I just wonder where the problem may lie..or it is just some kind of bug.

[Trolly]

Well, well, well...last night I made some more tests. It wasnt just the SpecPerf. I installed Maya and LW to my new box. After the vid card is SoftQuadro'ed, both of these applications dont run. I launch them and some seconds after initializing the apps just hang, and machine reboots.
Now I know that the SoftQuadro is here to blame. But the problem is..I have not a smallest idea what to do or how to fix it. With my old GF4 Ti 4200 agp 4x I had no problems as I SoftQuadro'ed it...altough I used very old detonators back then.
:(

[Aegis]

What Dets are you using now? SoftQuadro only works for Dets up to and including 42.51 - in addition, if you're using Dets older than that they may not support the NV28 and other AGP x 8 variants. You can get the 42.51's (which I'm using with no problems whatsoever) from www.guru3d.com

[Trolly]

OK...now I can say that yes it was the driver issue. I used the latest drivers what RivaTuner supports. Something with 43.xx. Altough they were RivaTuner compatible..they were not SoftQuadro compatible. I did download now the 42.51 drivers. But somewhy I am unable to patch them. To execute the NVStrap Antiprotection, it gives no problems. But as I try to execute the SoftQuadro patch it says to me that patching did not went successful. I know that SoftQuadro supports these drivers...but somewhy not on my pc. :(

[Aegis]

Are you unpacking the 42.51's first before trying to patch them? Some of nVidia's drivers come in a format that RivaTuner cannot patch at first - you have to copy the UnpackDriver.bat (http://www.agmorgan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/UnpackDriver.bat) to the driver folder first and run that - you should then be able to patch the Det's no problem - remember that you have to patch them before you install them.

Email me if you still can't get it working...

[Trolly]

Yes...I used the UnpackDriver.bat.
How else could u select the nv4_mini.sys for patching. Cuz w/o using the UnpackDriver.bat the nv4_mini.sys has an extension in form of *.sy_.
I downloaded the 42.51 Detonators from 3D Guru. Applyed the NVStrap patch successfully. And then as I tried to apply the SoftQuadro4 patch I got following error> Link (http://hot.ee/madduck/error.jpg)
Who knows...maybe it is even normal:(

[Aegis]

Hmm... nope - that ain't normal - I use the same drivers downloaded from www.guru3d.com and they patch just fine (and certainly don't give me that error).

Riddle me this:

What version of RivaTuner are you using? Should be v2.0 release candidate 12.4

Are you using the SoftQuadro/Anti-protection scripts included with RivaTuner RC12.4 or are you downloading the old, defunct and totally out-of-date SoftQuadro patch ZIP?

Check out the following grab from my setup and see if you can spot the difference ;)


http://www.agmorgan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/SoftQuadro.jpg


This is the patch script that comes with RivaTuner 2.0 RC12.4 - any other version of either RivaTuner or the patch script won't work on the 42.51's...

[Fragmaster]

Uh oh, wish I could of posted earlier. SoftQuadro, will NOT work with Ti cards. It works with Geforce 2, and 3 cards, because the chipsets are very familiar with their Quadro counterparts, whereas the new Quadro cards are COMPLETELY redesigned. :( The Ti is still an ok card for modelling with, but not outstanding (gaming card)

[Trolly]

Why is that...after all the softquadro4 hype one says the whole thing is bull****.
By the way Aegis, I did got the drivers patched...I just uninstalled the rivatuner and then reinstalled it...were able to patch then. Weird but it works now. Thank u dude for all the help and patience.
I know the next question will be a bit off the topic, but what is a good non proffesional card what could be used also for modeling then? Me was planning to get a new card soon to jump to the DX9 convoy. I had in my mind Radeon 9500 pro or radeon 9700.
Cant afford proffesional cards right now anyway. Nvidia is producing **** right now with the whole fx genere. I am not finding it to be a wise move to invest ur money to nvidia technology right now.
Any ideas?

[Aegis]

Uh, I dunno where you got your information Fragmaster but you're completely, utterly and totally wrong :) There's only marginal differences between the GeForce 4 Ti's and the Quadro 4 range (the GF2 and GF3's were identical in all respects to their Quadro equivalents) and It's entirely possible to convert a GF4 into a Quadro 4 using SoftQuadro4

See this article (http://www.nvworld.ru/docs/sq4e.html) if you're interested in learning more...


Trolly: LightWave doesn't make much use of the advanced OpenGL features of pro-level GFX cards at the moment although this may change with LightWave 8 - either the GeForce FX 5900 or the Radeon 9800 should give you great performance in LightWave (although I have to agree with you, the FX line does nothing for me - I'm gonna stick with my Ti 4200 for the time being and skip the current generation of GFX cards...)

[Fragmaster]

Hmm ok, sorry didn't realise there was a new SoftQuadro. Does it improve performance enough to warrant using it?

[Trolly]

See this article (http://www.nvworld.ru/docs/sq4e.html) if you're interested in learning more...