SpecViewPerf 6.1.2 Benchmarks on BP6 with G400 and GF2MX

Wolfram · Post by **Wolfram** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 8:57 am

Hi all,

I wanted to check if I could speed up game editing significantly on my BP6 (GTKRadiant and 3dsmax) with a Geforce 2 MX (Hercules 3D Prophet, quite sharp display output) instead of my beloved G400.

One interesting aspect was that the GF2MX can be "soft-modded" to a Quadro 2 MXR, which has certain advantages in 3D editing suites.

So I ran the SpecViewPerf 6.1.2 benchmark suite and I was shocked

BP6, 512 MB RAM, 2x Celeron 366@523, G400 / GF2MX "SoftQuadro"

AWadvs-04 = 10.73 / 57.34
DRV-07 = 2.51 / 7.96
DX-06 = 2.31 / 12.73
Light-04 = 1.26 / 3.91
MedMCAD-01 = 3.48 / 20.04
ProCDRS-03 = 4.55 / 12.04

Poor G400, I´m afraid you have to go :sniff:

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 12:05 pm

Interesting...

I wonder if you can "soft-mod" a GF4MX?

Post by **Derek** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 12:06 pm

I've heard of the modification before, but for some reason I remember it as a hardware modification. If you could share the mod documentation that would be great (I would like to give it a try).

kuun · Post by **kuun** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 3:17 pm

as would i

i have a GF2 MX200 and would like to get more unf out of it if i can

Wolfram · Post by **Wolfram** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 7:58 am

Derek, you´re right, there was a hard mod before this soft mod came up.

hyperspace, the creators of Rivatuner only tested it with a GF4Ti but they say it should work with a GF4MX as well.

kuun, SoftQuadro only gives you (impressive!) advantages for 3dsmax & co. There are SpecViewPerf benchmarks for a patched GF2 Ultra on my favourite german 3d hardware site 3dcenter.

For gaming, it´s a different story: Benchmarks indicate quadro-patched Geforce cards are about 10% _slower_. From the above site:
Quake III Arena 1.17, demo001, 1024*768 @ 32 bit high quality without S3TC: Quadro2 Pro 91,1 fps - GeForce2 Ultra 101,0 fps.

Information about Softquadro(4) is here.

Basically, you have to

1. Download Rivatuner and install it. SoftQuadro scripts are included in a subfolder.

2. Unpack an NV Detonator driver that you want to patch. Since 30.82 they are distributed as compressed packages. So open the package with WinZip or whatever, rename the compressed files (described in the guide mentioned above)

3. Run an included nv strap driver antiprotectition script (yes, nvidia does not like us soft modders;)), there´s one for win9x and one for 2k/xp in a subfolder of rivatuner. The script patches the driver you have unpacked before.

3a. If you have a GF4, run the SoftQuadro4 script. The rivatuner author says you don´t have to run it if you have a GF 1/2/3. I didn´t know that and ran it for my GF2MX. Didn´t seem to cause any trouble, though.

4. Activate the nv strap driver (manual install via autoexec.bat for 9x, install via rivatuner options for 2k/xp)

5. Reboot. Windows will now detect a Quadro video card and ask for an appropriate driver. Give it the path to the driver you have unpacked and patched before.