Quadro FX1600 > Geforce 8700GT

[acecel]

Hello

I just would like to know if it is possible to switch from Quadro Driver (FX1600m) to Geforce 8700GT one ?

I want to buy an HP 8710w with a Nvidia Quadro FX 1600M, and im asking myself about choosing a "standard" driver to get better framerate in games.

First, does a 8700GT driver will give me better fps ?

Second, how can i force windows to choose the 8700GT driver?

Thanks in advance for all your answers !

And thanks for nVision team for his nice work !

:)

[mobilenvidia]

The 2 GPU's are based on the same core.

The Quadro will have slightly slower Core/mem speeds for reliability reasons.

If it was my choice stick with the Quadro, it's worth a lot more $$

The driver will not help speed up the GPU this can be done with nTune's overclock if the BIOS allows it.

It's a very nice machine using a very nice GPU.

[acecel]

I choosed this machine because i can have it with a student offer (even if im not student) at 1900?

And i will use it also for works (Dev, 3D, openGL) but i will make a dual boot (one with work setup and Quadro drivers, another one with geforce drivers for games..)

I thought 8700GT's drivers will give me better framerate, just because Quadro driver isnt optimized for games..

It isnt the case? :)

Edited August 13, 2007 by ®®®
Removed Full Quotation of Previous Post

[mobilenvidia]

It doesn't work that way.

The drivers are Unified so they peek inside the onboard ROM to see what GPU it is.

Here it decides what gets accellerated.

The driver has some control to what can happen but 95% of it gets done in the driver its self.

The only thing is to fool the BIOS into thinking the GPU is something else, but this requires BIOS flashing and a risky business

Trust me the Quadro FX 1600M is going to kick butt in anything 3D be it Moddelling or OGL/D3D

It will only perform slightly less in games than the 8700M (guessing as I havn't seen any core/mem speeds)

I would think 1600M will perfrom about the same level as the 2500m (GF7 based) but will have DX10 support the GF7 based GPU's lack.

Hope this helps, just be happy with your Qaudro which can play games and model like the best of them :)

[acecel]

Here is a review of this machine : http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3864

Like you said, Quadro cards are exactly the same that standard one, except the driver.

And i have read in few boards than Quadro FX Card + Geforce Driver = Geforce Card

Im a little disapointed right now, because i choosed this notebook for works AND games, but first for games (work is more like a "bonus").

So if perfs are (a way?) lower than a laptop with 8700GT card, im not sure if i will choose this offer :)

Edited August 13, 2007 by ®®®
Removed Full Quotation of Previous Post

[mobilenvidia]

The drivers are UNIFIED they work for Quadro's, Geforce and Mobile GPU's all in one.

You have one of the best GPU's on this planet, I'd be very happy to have it if your not :)

So your Quadro 1600M can play all games as good as a 8700M, but the 8700M will choke on anything moddelling.

[acecel]

I thought FX1600m is the 8700GT chipset and not 8700M :P

And notebookcheck graphic cards benchmarks list confirm that was the case :)

I know this is a really really nice notebook (and furthermore for this price) but its also an investissment, and the first reason i decided to buy another laptop was to be able to play last games with full options :)

Anyway thanks for your answers, but i really hope im right and you are wrong (lol)

[mobilenvidia]

I'm not sure what your after, if I had a choice I would choose the Quadro FX 1600m over the 8700M GT.

True the 8700M GT (what the actual GPU is called) is SLIGHTLY better at 3D gaming but it also has 3D Moddelling acceleration.

This is Hardware controlled and no driver can fix this.

Drivers for Quadro's can be used by Geforces and vice versa, Quadro only drivers have slightly different profiles which are otimised for moddelling.

[acecel]

Ok i understand, so i should use Quadro drivers for games too.

Thanks a lot for your answers and your knowledge (and for your work here)

I will try to make a big review of this notebook when i will get it ( probably at the end of this month), if you want i can (try to) translate it in english to let you throw your eyes on it :)

Thx again ! :)

Axel

[mobilenvidia]

A review would be good.

Remember the reason why we are here, you can grab any recent driver and use it on your Quadro FX 1600M with a modded INF.

So you are not limited to Quadro specific drivers that HP have.

[acecel]

I have seen what look like .INF file, and im asking myself about changing something in this file.

In the [NVIDIA.Mfg] section, it is possible to change the Quadro FX1600 driver line to choose the 8700GT like :

NVIDIA_G_QUADRO = G_8700GT, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0407&SUBSYS_XXXXXX

Or something like that :)

Im probably wrong, but i have used a tool to put desktop driver on a mobile card (ati) on another notebook, so i can prevent myself to think the same thing is possible for quadro cards.

[mobilenvidia]

Change this line :

%NVIDIA_G84.DEV_040D.1% = nv_NV3x_DOEB, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_040D

to

%NVIDIA_G84.DEV_040D.1% = nv_NV3x, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_040D

But really a waste of time as the above will only stop this from aplying:

[EvictionThreshold_AddReg]

HKLM, "System\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\MemoryManager",Period.EnableEvictionThresholdForWrite,%REG_DWORD%,0x0

You still have a Quadro even with the change as the BIOS tells the driver you have a Quadro.

It's not a bad thing to have a Quadro, you'll loose about 5% performance at the most but you gain all the moddeling accelleration fetures.

Lets hear no more of this, be happy with what you have, there is no other card that will fit the machine anyway.

If you can even aford a new 8700M GT then you may as well buy a new laptop and send this one to me :)

[acecel]

:)

Ok i will keep the Quadro driver.

Thanks anyway :)

[Guest Moonunit]

Hello

I just would like to know if it is possible to switch from Quadro Driver (FX1600m) to Geforce 8700GT one ?

I want to buy an HP 8710w with a Nvidia Quadro FX 1600M, and im asking myself about choosing a "standard" driver to get better framerate in games.

First, does a 8700GT driver will give me better fps ?

Second, how can i force windows to choose the 8700GT driver?

Thanks in advance for all your answers !

And thanks for nVision team for his nice work !

:)

Stay away from all top of the range HP laptops if you wanna do gaming.

I've had serious problems with two of the top of the lines models now for sometime.

First I had the NW9440 fully stocked with 4GB of ram and all the trimmings.

The tended to freeze up when i'd use 3D graphics in games and needed a hard reboot to start working again.

It also had some issues when the screen that too many similar light colors, then it would also crash.

I spent countless hours with a support specialist at HP trying to get them to fix the problem, they also spend me development drivers and bios firmware, but nothing helped.

Finally, the machine froze while in game play, and when I rebooted it, the whole hard drive had crashed. The built in recovery disk was also dead, so I lost all my date.

HP replaced my machine with the brand new 8710W, and you would think the problem would be solved there, but no, it still freezes in game play, regardless of resolution, connected to external screen, color depths or any other tweeks or setting.

It's really truly annoying, so my word of advise it to stay away from all HP laptops with Nvidia chip sets until they've been able to sort it out.

Not worth the hassle AT all!!