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Nvidia 8400M GS Modding


Lance D'souza

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Hey guyz i was looking around for some good mods or whatever for a 8400m gs... that could help me improve my cards performance and get some decent framerates for crysis... soo i looked n looked but couldnt find anything.. so lemme start this off..

The HP 8400M GS can be modded to a 8500gt or a 8600M GS or a bunch of other cards too, even a QUADRO M

Now personally i like to mod it to a 8600M GS cuz wel its a mobile card n its better for gaming...

Now software i used:

Rivatuner 2.09 - mod the card

gpu z - monitor temps, etc

now the 8400 gs is g86m chip with a buch of restrictions set up by nvidia to hold it back

so im gonna tweak it out to perform like a 8400m gt n mod the card to thinking its a 8600M gs so it performs better

so first open riva tuner

>under target adapter click customize

>under nvstrap driver install

>dont touch n e of the other settings just click use rom straps for PCI ID device prog...

>graphic adapter identification click custom

now u get to pick the card u want to soft mod to :)

on mine i have the option to change my device id from range 0420 - 042F

(NOTE : Riva tuner does not show Mobile series chips only desktop chips hence the list below....)

which gives me these options

GeForce 8400 SE 0x0420

GeForce 8500 GT 0x0421

GeForce 8400 GS 0x0422

GeForce 8300 GS 0x0423

GeForce 8600M GS 0x0425

GeForce 8400M GT 0x0426

GeForce 8400M GS 0x0427

GeForce 8400M G 0x0428

Quadro NVS 140M 0x0429

Quadro NVS 130M 0x042A

Quadro NVS 135M 0x042B

Quadro FX 360M 0x042D

Quadro NVS 290 0x042F

this will also work for other gpus

check here for the complete list:

http://ru.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linu...appendix-a.html

so if u want a 8600M gs u set the id to 0425

moving on

so pick 1 n then click ok it will ask for a restart ... do it

now sometimes after restart drivers automatically detect but if it doesnt detect just reinstall the drivers

if u mod ur card to a Mobile series gpu then use nbf divers or for desktop use omega (u guys probably knw this allready...)

now lets unlock the max speed of a G86M

ie 8 ROPs , 128 bus width etc

>again open up riva tuner click enable hardware masked units then yes

>unlock prof. capabilities

>active pixel/vertex units config click custom

>customize

>now u can c a bunch of mumbo jumbo on ur screen now in the custom graphic processor config put in this order in the grey n white boxes

11110011 00000111 00000000 00000001

ok so u shuld get some more rop's, bus width, bandwith, texture /pixel fillrate but

i ask help how to get the pixel n texture fillrate to a standard 3.6 g instead of slightly off config that i posted ...

> now hit ok restart

>check gpu z n be amazed...

now when u use a stock 8400m gs with nbf drivers while playing crysis in winowed mode i c gpu-z gettin 91C

n when i mod it with all these setting i get a 93 - 95 C but the laptop doesnt feel that hot

is this modding affecting the card from giving proper emp readouts?

cuz i really don wanna fry my laptop...

n e ways guys hope u enjoyed my first post

ALSO>>>>>>>>

i wanted to run some 3dmark tests on this card but i had to download the program n living in q8 internet is more expensive than oil

so some1 pls post the 3dmark scores.

thx a bunch

Lance

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post-25041-1211713215_thumb.gif

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Guest Koleus

Hi,

tried your method on my hp DV2700 with 8400m gs installed.

Following your instructions I've changed device Id and then unblocked 8 ROPs , 128 bus width. Everything went smoothGPU-Z showed same info you had and BUT!!! running 3dmark 06 amazed me. Before any modifications were made I was getting 1560 points. After I changed device id to 8600m I get 1600 but after unblocking I had only 1574!! WTF?! I was not changing anything else, no programms in background, drivers version was the same: ForceWare X 171.16 for Windows Vista 32bit.

49758049ob3.th.gif

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Hey dude thx for being the first to reply to my thread...

n e wayz yeah can't explain it myself since one would think that getting some higher numbers would mean better results ...

(OoooooO also btw did i mention i was a n00b ???)

so after much contemplation i decided to go a little crazy :)

in the custom graphic processor config i turned everything to 1 n got some crazy stats on my card like 128 shaders... lol

apparently setting everything to 1 gives u a 320 bit bus width but the gpu supports only 192 bit

so i did then what any red blooded human would do i overclocked my shaders with riva tuner to 1200 n ran crysis

[Doing so with the latest version of NBF made my gpu clock go down by 1 MHz. ITS A SACRIFICE :) ]

let me get back yeah SWEEEEEEEET!!!!!

yeah yeah yeah

BUT SERIOUSLY..... i use the NBF drivers for my gpu cuz their awsome n with that on my 8400m gs without OC n any s*** runnin get temps (CONFIRMED) 95C

and after all my tweaks i get temps max 96C

processor heats up to 77C max

my advice is get NBF cuz i c u probably using the latest hp drivers???

o btw hp downclocks theirs oem gpus so as to reduce power heat etc u reach temps max 85C....

n ur shaders are disabled n so much other crap.....

dont believe me check out my gpuz u cant make this s*** up!!!!

Lance

--------------------------------------------

So i downloaded 3dmark vantage but i have yet to bench my card..... really lazzy.....

post-25041-1211835729_thumb.gif

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hey lance - you rule.

i got dv2700t 4Gb ram 8400m gs 128Mb

i did your mod - all without a hitch. OCd like 10%, get 3Dmark06 - 1857; which is higher than what i've seen other folks get. i'm currently using 169.04 from laptopvideo2go as that was claimed to be the overclockable driver set. downloading the latest from NBF now, let's see if the OC will stick on that.

but - here's the big but - i've lost system standby somewhere along the way, and naturally suspect that the mod is at the heart of this. i go to standby ok, then when i try to resume the computer comes on and likely is running as normal, but no video ever appears.

how's your system behaving regarding that?

cheers.

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Hey,

First of all, nice work Lance. I followed what you posted and changed my GPU to 8600M. Everything seems to be working correctly for me.

However, there is NO performence improvemence!

Before modding, my OC 8400M GS run call of duty 4 (1280x1024) with all other effects turned off, at around 40+ fps. After doing the mod with OC, i dont see any performence improvemence........its still around that range. So I am wondering if this masking really unlocks the professional ability of the card?

My OC info:

GPU :630 MHz

RAM :830MHZ

Shader: 1.2 GHz

Using NTune.

Another thing I want to mention is off this topic, but just out of curiosity, after OC my card to 600MHz using UTune or Rivatuner on the GPU, Rivatuner monitor still detects my GPU at 300Mhz....thought the RAM did went to 800MHz.....

Thanks a lot,

BOMB

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Hey guys, abt the loss of the standby feature have noticed it recently

----

after modding the card , when the system goes into standby it cant recover n the only way to boot is to do a HARD ON...

-----

n yeah ive noticed that u get most of the performance frm just changin the card to a 8600m gs

not so sure abt the custom processor config if it works

my original plan was to test in 3dmark every significant setting but franckly im have a life.....

also ther are abt 8 locations that control shaders

i think 3-4 that contol rop's, bus width,tex fill , pix fil

n a few others that can control busswith n ultimately affect bandwidth but the gpuz doesnt recognize changes made in these locations....

i request some1 with some real ballz and know how to please finalize this sh-it so we can move on

Keep it real guyz.....

Lance

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Guest Guest

Hate to break it to you guys but the way the GPU is physically designed you can`t jsut change it into the 8600M GS but hacking some Device ID values.

The 8400M GS is on a smaller physically 64-bit Memory Bus which means the chip is smaller than a 8600M GS. I think it actually might be a bad idea having the graphics card identified as having more features (ROP, pipelines) when it physically doesn`t have these attributes. Yes it is a G86M architecture but i think the 8600M GS is actually a G84M architecture (like the 8600M GT) so i think some websites had inaccurate informaiton stating the 8600M GS was using G86M architecture.

G86 M architecture - 16 unified shaders (difference only in clocks/memory and bus)

G84 M architecture - 32 unified shaders (difference only in clocks/memory and bus)

Your better off leaving it as it is and just overlocking it.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest chris

Hey, I loved your post. acctually I found the same thing out right before you posted this.I have a 8500 gt and I unlocked it and i was suprized to see no one wrote anything about unlocknig it on the web.You know This could save almost $30 when buying a video card.since every thing is a G86 from 8300 to 8500 gt. that means you can buy a cheep 8300gs off ebay,(or to be safe) buy a 8400 gs and just unlock it and turn it into a 8500 or 8600 M.

Well now its unlocked and its faster than a 8800 gs or near as fast.(not the clocks) I have the core clock at 675 and the memory at 521. and the cores as fast as a 8600 gts :) . IF you give me an email i can send you a picture of my gpu-z. Sadly I have the G86 core too so I couldn't get 8600 gt ...I could posibly get the 8600m? but mobile gpu's i think are slower? not sure though.

Ooooo I just got a idea...Integraded cores :)

well ttyl If you want to talk to me my s/ns are

Aim:cookieboy10789

Msn:crskub@neo.rr.com

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi there, lance your guide is really good but i have a question.

i'm thinking of buying a Geforce 8600GT and do your mod to get a Quadro FX 1700, could that be possible ??

would i get better performance for 3D Applications like 3DSMax ?

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Guest A Nuclearbomb

hello to all those who read this pose:

It's already concluded that its possible BUT MEANINGLESS and most likely, HARMFUL to do this modding.

I have tried this mod, there is no actual performence increase(same 3D mark score), and your graphic card may be harmed in this process.

As for the Quadro thing, agian, you may forced a mask with Rivatuner to trick your com into believing that you are using a Quadro, BUT THERE IS NO POINT doing this, as there will not be a performence gain. I have heard very little things about using SoftQuardo on today's cards, most likekely its because Nvidia has implemented some measurements to stop ppl from doing this.

SO PLEASE STOP ASKING ABOUT THIS!

thanks

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Guest

Hi guyz!!

8400M GS phisicaly dosen't have extra pipeline and bus width is only 64bit. Nvidia phisicaly destroy extra pipes, they laser cut pipes. Software like gpu-z after modding show incorect value.

no 4 extra PIPES - no boost performance

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wow... sounds really interesting...

id like to see some hard proof tho... like 3dmark scores from b4 and after.

doesnt seem like too many ppl believe in this and im not sure if i do either... hahaha

anyways if this proves to work... is there any way to mod a 8600M GT into a 8700M GT or even a 8800MGT??

thanks

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wow... sounds really interesting...

id like to see some hard proof tho... like 3dmark scores from b4 and after.

doesnt seem like too many ppl believe in this and im not sure if i do either... hahaha

anyways if this proves to work... is there any way to mod a 8600M GT into a 8700M GT or even a 8800MGT??

thanks

I haven't tried it yet but these should work if you follow the tut but use these codes:

GeForce 8700M GT 0x0409

GeForce 8800M GTS 0x0609 (I'm not sure about this one though, best try 8700M GT first)

Tell me how it works out! (Or if I have free time and try it first)

Edit 1: IT WORKS! I Upgraded my 8600M GT to a 8700M GT going to try some Crysis now!

Edit 2: I Checked GPUZ and EVERYTHING is exactly the same. It could be because I didn't copy that line of code like 1001010100100101001 but I'm using an 8600M GT so I'm not sure if I should be using that. Any help appreciated.

Edit 3: I firgured it out! using the normal 1010101010101 whatever, just make sure that the second last digit is = 1 and then you have all 32 shaders available! gonna make a thread about this soon :)

Edit 4: OK so if you have an 8600M GT and upgrade it to 8700M GT use 11110011 00000111 00000000 00000001 in GPU-Z I went from 8rops to 12rops and the texture fill rate stuff is much higher. 3DMark only gave me 3 POINTS MORE though and crysis runs virtually the same, hasn't really done much of an improvement lol, still wondering if more people can test this or know a different 111010101010101010101 thing that gives better performance.

Edited by Covert
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Not much point there - shouldn't 8600 and 8700 be about the same - 32 stream processors but core speed 475 vs 625 MHz and memory 700 vs 800. You can reach 8700 core speed by overclocking 8600 but 8700 again can be clocked to near or over 800. And 8700 mostly have GDDR3 memories which can be clocked to about 1000 MHz.

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Not much point there - shouldn't 8600 and 8700 be about the same - 32 stream processors but core speed 475 vs 625 MHz and memory 700 vs 800. You can reach 8700 core speed by overclocking 8600 but 8700 again can be clocked to near or over 800. And 8700 mostly have GDDR3 memories which can be clocked to about 1000 MHz.

Yea I didn't really expect any major change, I already knew about the clock speeds and looked up the 8700M specs on nVidia last night and tried to match them in every way but I felt it would be too risky matching the clock speed so I left it the same. Some other 8400M owners who did this mod for an 8600M got about 20-30 fps more in some games running at the same clock speed so I don't know what gives! I have a normal 8600M trying to get 8700M.

11110011 00000011 00000000 00000001 (Original binary)

11110011 00000111 00000000 00000011 (Modded binary that was for 8400M to 8600M tutorial - Gives me 16 shaders)

I've modded it to be this:

11110011 00000111 00000000 00000001 (Gives me back my 32 shaders and increases from 8 flops to 12 flops)

Here's my GPU-Z before and after the mod:

BEFORE: (8600M GT 256MB GDDR2 using

11110011 00000011 00000000 00000001 original binary)

8600MGTGPUZ.jpg

AFTER: (8700M GT 256 GDDR2 using 11110011 00000111 00000000 00000001 my modded binary)

8700MGT.jpg

Not really sure of where to go from here except mess around with the binary but I really don't quite know what I'm doing, or if these new rates I'm getting are just for show and not really changing my performance at all. Any help appreciated.

Edited by Covert
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Yea I didn't really expect any major change, I already knew about the clock speeds and looked up the 8700M specs on nVidia last night and tried to match them in every way but I felt it would be too risky matching the clock speed so I left it the same. Some other 8400M owners who did this mod for an 8600M got about 20-30 fps more in some games running at the same clock speed so I don't know what gives! I have a normal 8600M trying to get 8700M.

11110011 00000011 00000000 00000001 (Original binary)

11110011 00000111 00000000 00000011 (Modded binary that was for 8400M to 8600M tutorial - Gives me 16 shaders)

I've modded it to be this:

11110011 00000111 00000000 00000001 (Gives me back my 32 shaders and increases from 8 flops to 12 flops)

Here's my GPU-Z before and after the mod:

BEFORE: (8600M GT 256MB GDDR2 using

11110011 00000011 00000000 00000001 original binary)

8600MGTGPUZ.jpg

AFTER: (8700M GT 256 GDDR2 using 11110011 00000111 00000000 00000001 my modded binary)

8700MGT.jpg

Not really sure of where to go from here except mess around with the binary but I really don't quite know what I'm doing, or if these new rates I'm getting are just for show and not really changing my performance at all. Any help appreciated.

wow wow wow... haha im getting excited! lol

let us know if you see any performance changes! man this sounds awesome! hahaha

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wow wow wow... haha im getting excited! lol

let us know if you see any performance changes! man this sounds awesome! hahaha

It works pretty well actually! I did some more testing this morning and games run SMOOTH. I haven't noticed any artifacts either. I found this polish forum (Don't worry, it automatically is translated to english):

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl...l%3Den%26sa%3DG

Here's a quote from the forum over there. Sorry for bad translation

So far this przetestowałem only on STALKERZE on demku short_timedemo:

8400MG 400/600: 42FPS 8400MG 400/600: 42FPS

8600MGS 400/600: 59,8 FPS. 8600MGS 400/600: 59.8 FPS.

(ustawienia wysokie, rozdzielczość 1024x768, oświetlenie statyczne) (the high resolution of 1024x768, lighting static)

Teraz szukam sterowników umożliwiających podniesienie nieco zegara, i podkręcę tylko do 500/700 (ORG. 8600MGS ma 600/700) Zaraz ściągnę marka06 i zobaczymy co to dało. Now, looking for drivers to improve a little clock, and podkręcę only to 500/700 (ORG. 8600MGS is 600/700) Immediately marka06 down and see what it could.

So basically the scores are before and after the mod with a 8400M, and they seem to show an decent increase in performance. Check out the forum for more info.

I have gone back from the 8700M to 8600M though so i can continue my benchmarking thread fairly and the slight increase in performance wasn't enough to make me stick with 8700M though.

Anyhow, I've tried it, it's safe and you get a little bit more performance with very little temperature increase. Try the tutorial of this thread with my modded binary if you have 8600M and want to go to 8700M w/ same clock speed but more flops and whatnot. Also try some of the other cards like 8800M and see how much increase in performance you get, there's little risk from what I've tried since it doesn't overclock your graphics card.

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worked for me also! modded from the 8600M GT to the 8700M GT... i wanna try the 8800M GTS or GTX... but dunno if thats such a good idea since its on a totally different chip type and hold alot different specs... i dont wanna mess up my gpu by doing something really drastic that turns out to be dumb... anyone wanna try it and let me know how it goes??

anyways heres the screenshot of my mod for proof... this is with my highest stable overclocking speed:

86-87.gif

idle temps seem alright also... maybe about 2c higher than usual... around 60c vs 58c. this is after 2 hours of surfing the web...

i played bf2 for about 1.5 hours today... all the time i had... seems stable i had no crashing/artifacts.

temps peaked around 92c... thats about 2c higher than usual... avg gaming temp was around 87-89c. usually gaming temps are around 84-88c. keep in mind i also replaced my thermal paste with arctic silver...

and i dunno if its just my imagination but there was a little performance increase... im not a hardcore comp gamer so i cant say with 100% certainty... but watching fraps it seems that frames were about 5fps higher and in heavy firefights the frames didnt seem to drop as low as they usually do...

if someone could post some hard proof of better performance it would be much appreciated... :)

Edited by coolcop06
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  • 2 weeks later...

*bump*

sorry for that... but i was just bored so i decided to mess around with the binary code some more...

well with the binary mod that i tried first here was my results...

86-87.gif

and with my modded binary (all 1's, thats right, all zeros go to 1's...)

1.gif

yes, so theres a really BIG difference between the two... just dunno if its safe for my card...

any imput??

ill try to test it out tomm and see how it goes anyways....

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*bump*

sorry for that... but i was just bored so i decided to mess around with the binary code some more...

well with the binary mod that i tried first here was my results...

86-87.gif

and with my modded binary (all 1's, thats right, all zeros go to 1's...)

1.gif

yes, so theres a really BIG difference between the two... just dunno if its safe for my card...

any imput??

ill try to test it out tomm and see how it goes anyways....

Be sure to do so!

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I have made the tutorial to a 8600m gs, with drivers 169.04 and overclocked 510/510 but inspite of geting way better results in 3dmark05 ( 4280 ), the graphics in a game ( Assasin's Creed ) seems to get a lot worse.

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  • 2 months later...
hello to all those who read this pose:

It's already concluded that its possible BUT MEANINGLESS and most likely, HARMFUL to do this modding.

I have tried this mod, there is no actual performence increase(same 3D mark score), and your graphic card may be harmed in this process.

As for the Quadro thing, agian, you may forced a mask with Rivatuner to trick your com into believing that you are using a Quadro, BUT THERE IS NO POINT doing this, as there will not be a performence gain. I have heard very little things about using SoftQuardo on today's cards, most likekely its because Nvidia has implemented some measurements to stop ppl from doing this.

SO PLEASE STOP ASKING ABOUT THIS!

thanks

Just a quick post to correct this person who seems to think whatever he/she types is absolute and irrefutable truth.

WHY THE HECK NOT ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION ? Why rather give a whole speech on how useless it is ?

Because you see, as a matter of fact, switching from 8600GTS to FX1700 actually has its importance on some piece of software, like the one mentionned by the poster: 3dsmax. Quadros have a different approche on highend 3d software, so there can be many valid reasons for wanting to switch, especially in this industry.

This very thread happens to have helped me do this exact trade via rivatuner, and that actually fixed the problem I'd be having with maya for a long time, since it has serious display issues with the geforce series.

So there you go, your post could've helped me, and maybe many others, but guess what: it was the most useless response one could've ever given.

And, I for one don't know a lot about this flashing thing and all, but if nvidia wants ppl to stop doing that, maybe they should think of actually doing their job and making up cards and drivers that work properly. If rivatuner can get my bug fixed, there's no reason nvidia couldn't, if only they gave a damn.

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  • 2 weeks later...
:) I must say this is the most noobish thread I've ever set my eyes upon. I may be resurrecting it from the dead but things like these cannot die. They haunt you! :)

What? this thread is awesome, I'm still waiting for others to try out different card mods and see how far you can push it

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