Cheap Quadro Card - or how to make a $1500 card with $500

[sanobike]

There were some request last night at the users group for information on this, so here you go:

Many GeForce and Quadro cards, although created for different markets, use the same processor. The main difference in these cards is the cost (Quadro can be 3x the cost of GeForce) and the drivers. The GeForce cards are optimized for high frame rate polygons (gamers), while the Quadro cards are optimized for 3D CAD such as SolidWorks, etc., and are necessary for RealView to function.

I didn't set out to hack a video card. I actually stumbled on this by accidentally purchasing a GeForce card on a killer sale when building a new workstation. Of course, after I got it, I realized I would have no RealView functionality. Since it was a no return item, I did some research. After talking to a friend of mine at Nvidia I decided to go for the soft hack.

It is actually a very simple procedure. Use Riva Tuner to change the ID of your GeForce card such that Windows sees it as a Quadro card. Load the appropriate drivers. That's it. I'm not saying it is always that simple, you might have to do some iterations to determine the appropriate conversion of what model GeForce to what model Quadro. As with any hack, there are risks of really mucking something up. Although this is relatively safe and reversible software mod, DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

There are a lot of known combinations that work. All you have to do is a little research.

In my case, I successfully converted a GeForce 8800 GTX (less than $500) to a Quadro FX 4600 ($1500). Is a true Quadro? I'm not sure. I do know that it runs RealView and is COMPLETELY stable. I need to benchmark it to get the real performance specs when I have time.

Details of how to do this hack and where to download Riva Tuner are HERE

Good Luck!