Softmod ur video card for higher performance

[Harvik780]

Soft Modding ur old Consumer Nvidia video card.(Geforce 6800 and prior)
Disclamer-This tutorial is only for educational and testing purposes (mod only for testing).I take no responsibility if u damage ur video card during the process by messing up with settings.
Facts(first things first)-
Nvidia and Ati sell the same GPU with different names.The difference between these models is the number of vertex shaders and pixel shader pipelines or hardware\software masked units locked on them along with different fillrates(Higher fillrate=higher performance).This applies to geforce 7900 cards and perior.The actual thing is that during the production of video cards some hardware units turn bad resulting in graphical corruption or unstability so they are done away by locking them.The same is not the case with software units but they are locked due to pricing issues(higher software units=higher performance and same with hardware units).The good news is that u can unlock these for higher performance without the need of hard modding or bios flash.This works on Geforce 6 series(revision A1)or prior.(If the revision of the geforce 6 series card is A4 or newer it won't work.)
Second step-
Download rivatuner from www.guru3d.com
Install rivatuner(operating system must be Windows xp X-86 or 98se)Must have a supported driver
Run rivatuner-Then under customize click on low level system settings-Click on nvstrap driver click on install.Reboot the system.
Run rivatuner again then again goto nvstrap driver click on Use rom straps for PCI deviceID programming if u have a geforce 5 series or newer card this results in the loading of a driver prior to the video card driver during boot which acts as the video card's bios.Under graphics card identification select custom.Now u can select a custom card that has as additional pipelines which are locked on ur card.
E.G.-U can select a geforce 6600gt for a geforce 6600 or 6600le card.This will change the fillrate too resulting in higher performance.But if u experience graphical corruption in games u should select a lower series video card.
If u wanna manually unlock the pipelines then u can select customize under Active pixel/vertex units configuration(from the drop down menu to the right).Select Allow enabling hardware masked units then click on customize.Here u can manually select the unit to unlock.
Reason for this not working on Geforce 6 series cards with revision A4 or newer is laser locking which is nvidia's new technology to overcome modders(don't know how long it will stand).It severs the connections between the internal circuits rendering the pipelines non unlockable.
In case of hardware masked units the success rate is very low but for software masked units success rate is 97%.
I hope u like this information
and look forward for replies.

Is this a very common information or unuseful why not any replies??

Guys this is not that dangerous and u might get an excuse to buy a new card.

Please Let me know if u felt that this post was too long or something is wrong with it.

[mehulved]

doesn't Overclocking A Nvidia Based Graphic Card cover it?

[Harvik780]

Originally Posted by tech_your_future

doesn't Overclocking A Nvidia Based Graphic Card cover it?

Don't u know that overclocking is a part of modding and modding itself includes more things other than overclocking.Read my post carefully its not about overclocking.
I think its going over ur head.

[rajasekharan]

"(If the revision of the geforce 6 series card is A4 or newer it won't work.)"


so it wont work with 7600GT is it?????

[Harvik780]

Yes,u got it.

[mehulved]

Originally Posted by Harvik780

Don't u know that overclocking is a part of modding and modding itself includes more things other than overclocking.Read my post carefully its not about overclocking.
I think its going over ur head.

I don't understand anything about it so I just asked a question. Why do you people take it as we mods are out here to just make your life miserable on the forum.

[Harvik780]

Originally Posted by tech_your_future

I don't understand anything about it so I just asked a question. Why do you people take it as we mods are out here to just make your life miserable on the forum.

I am extermely sorry for my behaviour i was just annoyed because i didn't get any replies.I respect modders and am not like other "cheap" suckers who make fun of u.U do a great job of maintaing the site.As far as i m cocerned i have had no problems what so ever with modders.

[deathvirus_me]

Nvidia and Ati sell the same GPU with different names.The difference between these models is the number of vertex shaders and pixel shader pipelines or hardware\software masked units locked on them along with different fillrates(Higher fillrate=higher performance).This applies to geforce 7900 cards and perior.The actual thing is that during the production of video cards some hardware units turn bad resulting in graphical corruption or unstability so they are done away by locking them.Nvidia and Ati sell the same GPU with different names.The difference between these models is the number of vertex shaders and pixel shader pipelines or hardware\software masked units locked on them along with different fillrates(Higher fillrate=higher performance).This applies to geforce 7900 cards and perior.The actual thing is that during the production of video cards some hardware units turn bad resulting in graphical corruption or unstability so they are done away by locking them.The same is not the case with software units but they are locked due to pricing issues(higher software units=higher performance and same with hardware units).The good news is that u can unlock these for higher performance without the need of hard modding or bios flash.This works on Geforce 6 series(revision A1)or prior.(If the revision of the geforce 6 series card is A4 or newer it won't work.)The good news is that u can unlock these for higher performance without the need of hard modding or bios flash.This works on Geforce 6 series(revision A1)or prior.(If the revision of the geforce 6 series card is A4 or newer it won't work.)

No offense but this is one the most scariest thing i've ever read ... if u do wanna post something , then first make sure ur basics are clear .. again no offense , but urs is not even close to being clear ... let me explain ..

the reason behind all the initial 6800LE , 6800's to be easily softmodded to 6800GT/Ultra counterpart is because nvidia initially use the same core for manufacturing the different cards , and then later software masking them to hide the required no. of pixel/vertex pipelines (which are not by any chance the "soft" part of the card) ... so it took a simply trick in Rivatuner to actually let the driver access these "hidden" physical components by simply altering the software masks ...

Infact the first few thousand's were completely unlockable ... and most 6800LE's ended up with 16pp,6vp with no stability issues ... Nvidia still uses the same manufacturing process for the newer GPU's too , i.e. different cards sharing the same core ... But this time , the units are laser locked ... so nothing can unlock them ..

The thing about fill rate ... its mostly dependent on the pp,vp and the core processing power of the card ... so high core clock , with successfully unlocked units will indeed perform better .. and by no chance is the Fill Rate locked in any card ... it directly varies according to what ur card is running at ..

And now for some more information .. this softmodding was only working with the nv40 cores (in some cases with nv47 too) , particularly the revision A1's ... so only the 6800's were actually benefiting from unlocked hardware units ... and no other cards in the course of time has had any success with unlocking masked units. .

Softmodding is actually implemented for some other purpose ... If u might know , Quadro cards actually , at time share the same core with the GeForce card .. nvidia differentiates them by setting different GPU Strap Id's ... this is where softmodding really shines ... Under normal circumstances , most older 6800GT's or 6800U's are softmoddable to Quadro FX4000 ... and with all the professional features unlocked , ironically they outperform the Quadro counterparts ... now imagine the price difference .. Infact , some newer gen. 6600GT's were also Quadro softmoddable ... And for ATi , its something similar .. softmodding to FireGL i think ..

BTW make sure u check out the Rivatuner section of Guru3d for more details

http://forums.guru3d.com/forumdisplay.php?f=18

[Harvik780]

Thanks for the info.But i think there are still a lot of confusions.The cards which are Geforce 6XXX revision A4 or higher(That means all the cards including all versions of Geforce 7XXX series and Geforce 8XXX series are not soft modable due to laser locking).And ya nvidia uses the same core for exactly same versions of graphics cards but as far as i got the information i read that the better cards r manufactured 1st and the lower versions of the same card r manufactured considering which better card's core did not have fully stable pixel pipelines.