Nvidia Quadro drivers instead of GTX drivers

Peter100 wrote on 3/12/2013, 10:03 PM

Hi again,

I have managed to install Quadro drivers on my gtx 570. I have no much time for testing, but the performance seems to be comparable to 296.10 gtx drivers.

How to modify Quadro drivers?
You need to change INF file by inputing there ID numer of your graphic card.
This is an instruction I have found in the internet:

******************************
IMPORTANT:
You do it on your own risk!
It worked on my computer without any problem, but I do not guarantee it would work on yours. Make a copy of important data before the process.
******************************

1. You need to obtain your graphic card Identify number.
Go to: Device manager -> Choose your graphic card->Properties->Details. Choose there Hardware Identificators. For my gtx 570 the indetificator is: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1086&SUBSYS_35131458&REV_A1
My graphic card ID is: 1086

2. Download driver for your GTX card. Do not install it, unpack it and find there file named "nv_disp.inf" or "nv_dispwi.inf". Open it wit notepad. Press ctrl+F and type your graphic card ID. Mine is 1086.
You will find 3 rows with your card ID.
For my example:
In two sections:
%NVIDIA_DEV.1086% = Section004, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1086
And in one section:
NVIDIA_DEV.1086 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 "

Copy those rows and save them in a new, clear notepad document.

3. The next step is to download Nvidia Quadro driver.
As previously, save it on a hdd and unpack it.

Now you need to find files named: "nv_disp.inf" or "nv_dispwi.inf". Edit it and paste the rows you have copied from your driver INF file to the new driver INF file in the proper sections. Save the file.

4. Now the instalator will install the Quadro drivers for your GTX card.

Before instalation of Quadro drivers, I have completly uninstalled current GTX drivers.

ushere wrote on 3/12/2013, 11:54 PM

interesting - anyone else care to comment / try / explain in layman's terms why this might help?

Grazie wrote on 3/13/2013, 2:13 AM

Peter? For Vegas Users what would be the motivation? The modification you found, has this been linked to an improvement for the Vegas User? Or is this solely for Gamers?

And the real "Elephant in the Room": Why would a company sell a Card for 6 times the price, if all it would take would be the modification of the driver to achieve the same with a card for a fraction of the price!?!

There is much to consider here. The outcome would depend on true evidenced based results. If true, then there are many questions that would need answering.

Cheers Peter100

Grazie

Grazie wrote on 3/13/2013, 2:17 AM

Peter100 I notice you've just joined this Forum with this thread. Could you include your system specs in your information.

Cheers

Grazie

Grazie wrote on 3/13/2013, 2:28 AM

Maybe in modifying a QUADRO driver a user may only be modifying the driver so that it will fit to "other" cards. I can image that a company adjusts-up a generic driver to work with other cards and that all that is happenning is that this mod is only and really adjusting-down to fit a humbler cheaper card. And in truth, the result being a non-net-sum gain. Meaning no advantage at all! It could also mean a ruination of a/the exsisting working GTX card.

No, the more I think about this, and until there are ANY demonstrable advantages ( unlikely ) and possible "same" if similar results ( likely! ), the modification can only remain questionable.

Cheers

Grazie

Peter100 wrote on 3/13/2013, 4:36 AM

The cause, why I have spent a few hours of my life to make this softgrade, are the problems with GPU acceleration in SVP. A few months ago I have bought a new computer. Before the purchase I have read the Sony Creative Software announcment, that GXT 570 is the most efficient GPU for SVP. I could have bought a better processor i7 39xx but spent the money for GPU which I can not use for AVCHD rendering.

Then I noticed that many Nvidia users during last yerars make a softgrade from gtx to quadro. Some of them notice a prerformance improvement, but not in games. Quadro drivers are optimized for pro user software like 3DS, Premiere Pro, etc.
I have made softgrade to the latest driver 311.75 and SVP works correctly, but no performance improvement comparing to GTX 296.10 drivers. However there are still problems if Dynamic Preview RAM is > 0.

Unfortunatelly during the next weeks I have no time for testing. Maybe some older Quadro driver version would make a boost in SVP? I do not know.

While choosing quadro driver version, I have noticed that many companies certify Nvidia quadro drivers, that it works with teir software.
(http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro-certified-drivers.html#page=partnerSelected)
There are: Adobe, Pinnace, Boris and many, many othar companies that I have even never heard of. But guess what. No Sony Vegar Pro certification. If I purchase expensive Quadro card, will it work correctly? And if yes, for how long? Till the next driver version?

IMHO problem is not in Nvidia drivers, but in SVP. I do not know if in the SVP itself or third party libraries. I think SCS should fix it. SVP is not na toy software for 30$.

Grazie wrote on 3/13/2013, 4:55 AM

OK Peter100, I'll play along for a bit.

You only have an opinion and no supporting evidence other than others having issues to "backup" your idea. Correct?

OK . . . . .

If you were to ask SONY a direct question, what would it be? Keep it simple.

Cheers

Grazie

Peter100 wrote on 3/13/2013, 5:01 AM

I do not what you mean. Just type "296.10" in "Search" of this forum and you will find out what is a problem.

Peter100 wrote on 3/13/2013, 5:07 AM

My problem is that I spent a few weeks of struggling with SVP. Then, at this forum, I have found an information about the drivers problem.

The next thing is that I made, in act of desperacy, a softgrade to Quadro drivers, hoping it would help. That is all.
I did't do this becouse changing drivers is my hobby. I have to work, not to play.

Grazie wrote on 3/13/2013, 5:28 AM

Peter100, and again: What question would you like to ask SONY?

Cheers

Grazie

Peter100 wrote on 3/13/2013, 5:48 AM

Here is the question:
Why SVP do not work correctly with the latest Nvidia drivers for my GTX 570 card? This problem concers many users (browse the forum).

This question was answered: turn off GPU acceleration for Mainconcept ACV/ACC rendering.

So I made a driver softgrade to check if it would change anything, hoping that the community would help in analyzing this problem.

Grazie wrote on 3/13/2013, 5:58 AM

Oh!

"Why SVP do not work correctly with the latest Nvidia drivers for my GTX 570 card?

Why not include your Modified QUADRO driver concept within your question?

Cheers

Grazie

Peter100 wrote on 3/13/2013, 6:04 AM

Anybody else tried to use quadro drivers for GTX 570 card?
Any opinions?

farss wrote on 3/13/2013, 7:34 AM

Just a couple of observations / questions here.

My understanding is that one difference between the GTX and Quadro cards is in the firmware. Does installing the Quadro software load Quadro firmware onto the the GTX cards?

There are other differences, only the Quadro cards support 10bit video output and the SDI daughter boards, I suspect this is irrelevant to this discussion, it simply means that you cannot get all of the Quadro experience from a GTX board hence it's quite likely nVidia wouldn't go out of their way to prevent what's being proposed here from working.

Bob.

Peter100 wrote on 3/13/2013, 8:21 AM

Hi Bob,

I know there are differences betwen GTX and Quadro cards, however I do not know if these are hardware or software (firmware) differences.
The installation changes only drivers. The result is the same as you would install a different version of GTX drivers.

I have been making the softgrade at night, so the only test I have done was rendering in SVP to Mainconcept AVCHD mp4 format and comparing the render duration.
I have tested Quadro 311.35 and 296.35 drivers against 296.10 GTX drivers.
Rendering was correct with Quadro drivers. 296.35 driver was slightly faster than 311.35. And Quadro 296.35 driver was as quick as 296.10 GTX driver.

This what I can tell for now.

Best regards,
Peter

rmack350 wrote on 3/13/2013, 12:31 PM

I can think of a couple of reasons why this might be a good thing:

1-Some applications might require a Quadro driver and decline to run without it. (This wouldn't affect Vegas, though).

2-The GTX drivers are subject to constant tweaking in order to get good benchmark scores in reviews. This is sometimes done at the expense of other functions. After all, if there's a mistake in a frame of a game it's only there for a fraction of a second and then its gone. Quadro drivers probably don't get tweaked like this since the goal is accuracy and stability rather than speed.

This is mainly conjecture on my part. I'm not saying that using a Quadro driver on a gaming card is a good idea. You'd have to try it or wait for Peter to use it that way for a few weeks and see if he's still here and happy and posting after that.

Another point, though. If you could get a successful, glitch-free render in one try using a Quadro driver, that's much faster than two failed renders with a Gaming driver. Reliability trumps speed here.

Rob

ddm wrote on 3/13/2013, 1:13 PM

I vaguely remember a similar trick to get GTX cards recognized as Quatros in Premiere when it first supported GPU, maybe in CS5? Since Premiere only supported quatros at the time. I recall some decent results and I always intended to try it but never got around to it since Premiere is just so darn stodgy to work with.

Lovelight wrote on 3/13/2013, 3:49 PM

Wow, what an interesting idea. I love these kind of workarounds!

farss wrote on 3/13/2013, 4:18 PM

"I vaguely remember a similar trick to get GTX cards recognized as Quatros in Premiere"

That's a quite different trick.
Here the list of approved cards is hacked to include other, not approved / certififed, cards. By all accounts it worked reliably and since then many more cards have been added by Adobe to the approved list.

Bob.

ddm wrote on 3/13/2013, 5:05 PM

Ok, since I obviously didn't have anything better to do with a beautiful 85 degree afternoon, I tried said hack. No luck installing into Windows 8 x64. I got the inf files sufficiently hacked to recognize my gtx570 but the installation of the driver would eventually fail. Tried 3 different Quadro drivers going back as far as last August. Rebooted into my W7 x64 install, where I am using driver 275, there I was able to install the hacked quadro driver, so at least the method works but I did not see any performance improvement over the tried and true 275 gtx driver. Go figure. I have been generally unimpressed with the GPU in general with my 550Ti and my 570. They both benchmark very similarly, AND they both are pathetically close to CPU only, which in my case is a lowly i5/2500. Nothing overclocked. My gtx 570 is from Zotac which might be the problem although it seems to be behaving properly when monitored by the GPU-Z utility. Anyway, with GPU off, Vegas 12 runs swimmingly and I can keep my preview ram set to 4k which is where I like it.

Peter100 wrote on 3/13/2013, 5:22 PM

Tommorow I will try to do this render test:
http://www.mmdv.com/sonyvegas/rendertest/about.php

I will compare performance of a few versions of GTX and Quadro drivers and post the results.

Grazie wrote on 3/13/2013, 6:04 PM

I will compare performance of a few versions of GTX and Quadro drivers and post the results.

Peter, that would be awesome.

Cheers

Grazie