Asus G1S and Avid Media Composer 3 (8600m GT to Quadro FX 570M Soft-Mod)

I'm posting this because someone else may find this mod usefull.

Recently trying to make Avid Media Composer 3.0 run on my Asus G1S-B1 (Original Vista). The problem is that Composer 3 only work with NVIDIA Quadro cards.

Soft Modding a GeForce to Quadro is already well established ( http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=539&pgno=1), but I've recently tried to do it with the techarp method and failed (drivers wouldn't detect the card). So, here's the extra steps you need to make to turn your 8600M GT into a Quadro FX 570M (and make MC run smoothly)

Important: Before attempting this, read the full article on techarp so you know what you are doing, but don't follow any of the steps yet:

1. Install Avid Media Composer 3.0 and Restart as it requires

2. Try opening MC3. It will probably crash on "Loading ACPL effects", this is a sign you need the Quadro Drivers

3. Goto "C:\Program Files\Avid\Utilities\nVidia\Vista32" and install the "169.47_quadro_winvista_32bit_english_whql.exe" file (NOTE: install will fail, but will extract the files to "C:\NVIDIA\WinVista\169.47\English")

4. Goto LaptopVideo2Go and download the Modded Inf for Mobile GPUs ( http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/vista/169.47) and save it to "C:\NVIDIA\WinVista\169.47\English" Overwriting the original "nv_disp.inf"

5. Download RivaTuner and follow the steps on TechArp (Step2), except you will change your DeviceID to "040C". Save and Restart.

6. Now windows needs to find a new driver for your brand new Quadro. Installing via NVIDIA setup ("C:\NVIDIA\WinVista\169.47\English\Setup.exe") didn't work for me (but you can try on yours and see if it works). Restart

7. If that Didn't work for you (as for me), go to Device Manager, find the "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" under Display Adaptor, Right Click It, Click on properties, go to the "Driver" tab and Click "Update Driver"

8. We're now going to use the "Have Disk" method(may vary depending on your system). Choose "Browse My Computer", then "Let me pick from a list", and then "Have Disk". Select the folder "C:\NVIDIA\WinVista\169.47\English", and then select the "NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M" hardware

9. Restart and Run MC3. Should load smoothly

10. Ceremonial "I didn't have to buy a new computer to run Media Composer 3" dance is optional (but very rewarding)

Cheers!

 

Benchmarks please!!!!!! In particular, Specviewperf 10 bench marks! Thanks! Us HP users some comparison with our softmodded V5600...

 

Done testing. I have to say, the only reason I did the mod was so I could run Media Composer, not expecting any changes in performance at all. Mostly that was confirmed, but check this out:



There seems to be a real increase in 3D Max speed. Averaging the two passes each, there is a 50% increase in FPS with the Quatro Drivers.

Visual Quality between the two was absolutely equal.

All the rest seems to stay the same. Not bad for 1 hour's work. Just upgraded my Video Card

 

Hmm I wonder if the real 570m's performance is the same? I am got 31 in the Pro/E test... And certainly way better in the Maya test, gona try the others soon.

Good job on the bios though!

 

Now it widely known that Nvidia has decided to physically disable hardware acceleration for certain operation on GeForce cards since 7xxx series. So, you can no longer get a fully functional Quadro by simply softmodding a GeForce card, which is still possible with ATI Radeon cards.

Otherwise, sotfmods like that work only partially (disscused on the forums linked below), but if you find a certain softmod useful for your needs, that's great.
- http://forums.techarp.com/reviews-articles/24105-nvidia-geforce-quadro-soft-mod-guide.html
- http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=220942&highlight=8800+quadro

Ehh now, you spend way too much time in the HP section, but still, it's better than some other "shady" parts of this forum I guess.

Don't worry, the real Quadro FX 570M performs quite well actually.
- http://www.spec.org/gwpg/gpc.data/vp10/fujitsu-siemens/H250_156.79_XP_1280x1024/viewperfsummary.html

 

ooo! Thanks for the link !

 

thx for the link thx a lot @ dreamer

 

will this help with photoshop? Does it void warranty? Will my games keep performing the same?

 

No.

No.

No, gaming performace is usually worse. Consumer drivers are the best for gaming.

 

thx I know enough