Quadro Driver Tweak (How To Make Your Quadro A GeForce Driver Side)

After numerous requests by NBR members I decided to take an hour of my time and whip this up. Between my education and work I tend to have a backlog of stuff that needs doing so here ya go.

Enjoy! =)

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*****WARNING*****

This alteration does not make your Quadro a GeForce, due to different physical hardware and BIOS between the GeForce and Quadro series this is impossible. However, this does make your Quadro a GeForce on the driver side which has various benefits explained below. This modification is completely safe, 98% of users should encounter no problems with this modification. If you do encounter problems, booting into safe mode and uninstalling the driver should solve your problem. Then just reinstall the drivers with laptopvideo2go's stock modded inf!

Please note that you use this guide at your own risk. I will not be responsible for actions you perform while using this guide. If you experience any stability issues just roll back to the stock modded inf, however I have tried this on three different systems with no problems whatsoever.

Special thanks to the laptopvideo2go team for all their hard work that they have put into their modded infs.

Ending Note: Certain drivers seem to be perfectly accepting of this tweak, whereas others experience difficulties. The only real way to tell is to test this modification on various driver sets or use drivers that have been known to work for other NBR members.

*****WARNING*****

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This is a relatively simple modification I thought I would share with NBR since I do it on a regular basis now.

What I have done is altered the device detection so that your Quadro is detected as a GeForce upon driver installation.

Therefore, the sole intent of this modification is to increase the performance of your Quadro in DirectX applications and games. Users have reported performance and stability increases when using DirectX with this particular modification.

I do not recommend this modification for the small member base that use business/workstation applications on a regular basis, which is what the Quadro was essentially designed for. By using this modification you are effectively removing the support for those programs. But only a very miniscule member base on these forums utilize such programs. (I'm sure its under 1%)

Step 1:

Choose a driver that you wish to make a modded INF for. This tweak cannot be applied universally as INFs are known to change on a driver by driver basis.

(Note: Trying to utilize an old INF on a newly released driver can cause serious stability issues, so don't do it! You have been warned...)

Step 2:

Download the INF from laptopvideo2go.com for the particular driver you're interested in. Ensure you are downloading the appropriate INF for your operating system!

Step 3:

Open the INF you selected and go to Edit > Find (Ctrl+F) and search for your graphic card. You should see a single or in some cases several results. I will be using my ThinkPad T61P in this example.

NVIDIA_G84.DEV_[040C].1 = "NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M"

Take note of the device ID for your graphic card which is in brackets above.

Note: If there are multiple results for your graphic card you will need to take note of every device ID for your graphic card. (Unless you are sure which one your specific card uses)

Step 4:

Delete the line mentioned in step 3 followed by an additional backspace to remove any empty lines from the INF.

Note: If there are multiple results for your graphic card you will need to delete every line for safety.

Step 5:

We now need the device ID you recorded earlier in this guide. Go to Edit > Find (Ctrl+F) in the INF again and search for your ID, in my case 040C. Any lines contained in the INF with this ID need to be removed similar to the line you deleted in step 4.

Note: If there are multiple device IDs for your graphic card you will need to repeat step 4 & 5 until all of them are removed. (Unless you are sure which one your specific card uses)

Step 6:

Find a device that you want to show up under system specifications in XP/Vista. Personally I recommend going with a similar card performance wise, thus I chose the 8600 GT to correspond with my Quadro FX 570.

NVIDIA_G84.DEV_[0407].1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT"

Take note of the device ID for this card which is in brackets above. Then replace this device ID with the one you recorded in step 3 that references your graphic card.

Step 7:

The device ID you took note of in step 6 will now be used. You need to search for the device ID of the new card, in my case 0407 throughout the INF and replace it with your computer's actual device ID. (040C in my case)

Step 8:

That's it! Your finished! But before you prepare to install your newly tweaked drivers ensure you uninstall your old ones properly! See the second post in this thread for my personal guide on how to properly uninstall video drivers.

I tried to make this as simple as possible so if you guys need any assistance let me know. It seems complicated at first but once you do it several times you can finish four INFs for all current Windows OS's within a matter of minutes.

Regards,

Hackez

 

Question: Why take the time to properly uninstall your Nvidia drivers?

Answer: Properly uninstalling your Nvidia drivers ensures that all excess registry entries, files and DLL's that normally remain during an uninstall are permanently removed.

Benefits: If you don't properly uninstall your current drivers, traces are left over which can interfere with the new drivers you just finished installing. This can cause artifacts, glitching, crashes and so many more problems.

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What You Will Need:


1. Guru3D Driver Sweeper

http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=driversweeper

2. CCleaner

http://www.ccleaner.com/download

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Process:


1. Uninstall your current drivers:

Windows > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Nvidia > Uninstall

2. Once the uninstall is complete, reboot as prompted. Hit F8 when your computer first starts and enter safe mode.

3. Once in safe mode open Driver Sweeper, select NVIDIA Display and run it.

4. Once Driver Sweeper has finished close it and open CCleaner.

5. Run the file cleaner and registry cleaner.

6. Reboot back into normal mode and install your new drivers.

DONE!

 

Nice! I'll give this a try with 174.93

 

You can also make your GeForce a Quadro. And there is another way to do it; load up Rivatuner, change the bios setting to Custom, set the device ID (I have an 8600, so the Quadro equivalent was FX 570M, ID code 040c) and then uninstall your GeForce/Quadro driver, and reinstall and it will be detected as the opposite.

 

Yeah, that essentially does the exact same thing but on a BIOS level and requires Rivatuner. With this tweak you simply modify the INF and your good to go.

 

Seems interesting. Would a GeForce card modded into a Quadro be as good at gaming as a GeForce card?

 

I have done it, and have experienced no fps loss. I do not know why you ask, people keep spreading disinformation about Quadros not being able to run DX games well. From every Quadro I've handled they run as well as their GeForce counterparts.

 

Its not that Quadros don't handle DX games well or that they don't obtain the same performance as their GeForce counterparts. The main issue with a Quadro is compatibility, some developers just decide not to include workstation GPU compatibility. Since the main difference between GeForce/Quadro are BIOS and drivers, usually modifying the drivers is enough to eliminate the compatibility issues.

That is the main use of this tweak IMO, the added performance is just an included bonus. I had a few older games that simply refused to work and after this tweak they ran with no problems whatsoever. =)

 

That's not what you see around here Hackez. In most threads regarding Quadros and Geforces, there will inevitably be posts about how Quadros weren't meant for gaming (which is true) and that they run like crap (which isn't true, depending on which card).

 

Well unfortunately you can't change an individuals opinion on certain topics. A majority of our well informed members on these forums don't hesitate to recommend a workstation graphic card though.

A Lenovo T61P with a Quadro will play Bioshock, Crysis, etc. flawlessly. I have even seen multiple members on these forums recommend this beautiful machine for budget gaming purposes.

 

I modded my 8600M GT into a FX 570M, but when it goes to sleep, the screen goes black and doesn't come back. So I unmodded it. Any suggestions?

 

Did you try a different driver set? Also what driver set did you use?

 

I used the 174.74 drivers on both of the "cards". So that can't be the problem.

 

Huh. A great read. If this topic had been made before I purchased my laptop I would have been very tempted by the Latitude. I'll choose not to regret buying my Vostro though as it really is a good machine.

I should bookmark this topic for future posts in the recommendation forum. One of the things that stopped me from getting a ThinkPad was the fact that I was afraid I would have issues with the Quadro trying to run WoW. Of course the other issue was that aesthetically I prefer the look of the Vostro and Latitude.

 

What should the NVS140m guys change it to, quadro 8400?

 

My 4yo Dell Latitude d610 FINALLY bit the dust a couple weeks ago, so i got a loaner d620 at work until my new d630 arrived. I really do think these ar ethe best lappies on the planet - mine went through nearly 4 years of travel (btw, it was P-M 1.8gHz, 1GB/60GB/DVD-RW/WinXP) at least 75-100 flights logging about 200K airmiles, 12-14 cruises, and it never skipped a beat until it gave up the ghost - went nearly a year past it's end of warranty...

I got my latitude D630 last week from work. I config'd the following for order:

D630
T9300
4Gb RAM
160GB 7200RPM with freefall sensor
14.1" 1440x900 screen
DVD+-RW
NVidia Quadro NVS135M
802.11a/b/g/n+BT

I know the Q135M ain't no 8800GTX, but it sure beats the X3100, and was only like $70 more...

I just wanted something to do a li'l gaming on now and then. Blazing speed isn;t important for me, as all the games I like are REALLY old, like MechWarrios 2/4, UT (no 2,3, etc..), Quake 1 and 2, etc... I tried Q2 on it, and it gave like 75fps, so I was grinning

I really do love the new size, weight, and shape of the d6xx series, and this thing is BLAZING fast compared to tha P-M the d600 had. i live and die doing stuff in VM's, and this things absolutely BLAZES! the D600 would crawl with just 1 VM open, and I've had a Vista and 2003SP2 VM's open at the same time without issue!

Anyway, back on topic - what is the NVS 135M equivalent to, if i may ask?

T

 

Just one question. After you edit the inf, are you supposed to copy it into the unzipped driver file just like in the "ThinkPad T61P (How To Make Your Quadro A GeForce Driver Side)" guide?

 

I've made my Fx 2700m going to a 9700m GTS..

1. Downloaded Nvidia Geforce 64bit mobile driver (179.48)
2. Seeked the INFs files, until I found the one that support 9700m GTS
3. Deleted the others INFs
4. Changed the Device ID 62A.2 to 63A.1

It didn't find my video card ...
then I changed the Device ID and the subsys ID with fx 2700m informations. (PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_063A&SUBSYS_30EC103C)

It installed, rebooted... and no bluescreen or instability for now.
Left 4 Dead seems more fluid

 

Hi I have a couple of small questions before I plunge into modding my Quadro NVS 160M to its Geforce equivalent.

1. How do you know which INF file from Laptop video to go to download?
2. When deleting the lines from the INF you note your device ID. Then do you simply find the device you want yours to be recognised as and just replace its ID with yours, or am I missing something?
3. Once you have modded the INF how do you actually install the driver?

Please try to keep answers simple, its a bit daunting to mess with this stuff for the first time as you can probably understand. Thanks