Windows XP and S3D live on - in new Nvidia Quadro Drivers

[budda]

Hi,

Nvidia promised new 3DVision Stereo Drivers for XP workstations.

I am sure they did not want to do it for XP, but they have.

Here are the general details - http://www.nvidia.com/object/Quadro_win ... _whql.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Quoting from the Driver Release Notes -

Version 186.18 Highlights
This section provides highlights of version 186.18 of the NVIDIA Release 186 Driver.

NVIDIA Control Panel Updates

3D Settings Pages

• Workstation/Quad‐buffered 3D Stereo (new Stereo‐Display mode settings in the Manage 3D Settings page)

Added support for the following stereoscopic 3D hardware and modes:

• GeForce 3D Vision hardware–generic active stereo, via on‐board DIN connector, passive (Clone mode) modes, and 3D DLP display

• Generic active stereo

• Horizontal interlaced stereo displays

• Texas Instruments 3D Ready DLP® (Digital Light Processing technology) displays

I might go and try this out on my AGP 6800GT / Quadro FX4000.


Thanks.

[DavidGhast]

Doesnt make a whole lot of sense as quadro is a workstation based card and most people using them are on win7/vista. If you really need xp, it would be easier and cheaper to dual boot into vista for gaming with a regular card, and have xp for everything else.

[cybereality]

Thats great but the Quadros are not exactly optimized for gaming so I don't see how this helps much. Plus, with the high cost of quadros it would be cheaper to just buy Vista + 3D Vision + GeForce card then to mess around with this stuff. Should be helpful for the few professionals that were doing simulation type stuff in OpenGL, but otherwise its not that big a deal.

[budda]

Hi,

Doesnt make a whole lot of sense as quadro is a workstation based card and most people using them are on win7/vista.

I cannot see why companies would need to move all their data and professional applications from a traditional workstation with an XP operating system to a slower operating system such as Vista. Nvidia must have recognised this as it has gone to some effort to make this 3DVision compatible driver for XP workstations.

As far as I know, Windows7 has not been officially released, nor has it proven to offer compelling business benifits .....

Should be helpful for the few professionals that were doing simulation type stuff in OpenGL, but otherwise its not that big a deal.

Not all professional applications work in openGL. Some major applications are now designed for DirectX.

The key point is that the same hardware is essentially being used for gaming cards and workstation cards. Even some of the formerly openGL only professional applications are being made to work in DirectX.

Its now only a small technical step away for Nvidia to support 3DVision or other forms of stereovision on XP for gaming under the current Nvidia unified drivers. Will Nvidia do it ? I don't know. There are still plenty of decent XP machines out there.

Thanks.

[Okta]

Just shows what we all know that NVidia &^%&ed over XP and 3d gamers on purpose. They could have carried on the driver support. They just didnt.

[cybereality]

Just shows what we all know that NVidia &^%&ed over XP and 3d gamers on purpose. They could have carried on the driver support. They just didnt.

Right, but if it wasn't for Nvidia there wouldn't even be stereo3d gaming as we know it.

[DavidGhast]

I cannot see why companies would need to move all their data and professional applications from a traditional workstation with an XP operating system to a slower operating system such as Vista. Nvidia must have recognised this as it has gone to some effort to make this 3DVision compatible driver for XP workstations.

As far as I know, Windows7 has not been officially released, nor has it proven to offer compelling business benifits .....

Production companies are just following the software developers, who are following the hardware manufacturers, who are conspiring with microsoft to ensure compatibility with the new P-OS they release every few years. Software developers arent going to code for extinct OS just because a portion of their customer base gets their panties in a twist at the thought of having to adapt to a new, albeit inferior, operating system.

[budda]

Hi,

At this point in time, Nvidia are coding 3DVision drivers for these set-ups.

Win7 - 32 bit
Win7 - 64 bit
Vista - 32 bit
Vista - 64 bit
xp - 32 bit - quadro cards
xp - 64 bit - quadro cards

And they currently have no support for the classic XP 32 bit gaming using geforce 3DVision technology.

I would have thought with Nvidias experience with stereo XP gaming, they could have easily provided driver support for 3DVision on XP for gamers.

Nvidia could then say : - Look here, your gaming experience would be better if you migrated your XP 3DVision set-up to Vista or Win7. instead of arrogantly saying "Take it or leave it, its all or nothing!".

Other big name companies such as Sony and Nintendo have learnt not to throw away the long-tail of customers they have acquired from their earlier hardware and console offerings. However, Nvidia is rejecting its XP stereovision customer base.

I can see great opportunities for AMD/ATI from those Nvidia customers wanting to switch across when they buy their next video cards, if the S3D support is there.

Also, modders are reporting successful conversion of the latest HD Radeon gaming cards to full FireGL cards, and these mods are compatible with the latest workstation drivers. I say, save a few thousand dollars on a card and spend it on some good 3D hardware instead.

Thanks.

[UndeadD3vi1]

Anyone tried this?
NVIDIA GeForce To Quadro Soft-Mod Guide

[budda]

Hi,

The last Nvidia geforce card that can be fully modded to its equivalent quadro is the 6800 geforce card. It can be converted to a softquadro FX4000, subject to the NV GPU on the card.

The original thread is here - http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=172822" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For those interested in the Radeon to FireGL softmod, you are in for more luck.

The original thread is here - http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=275174" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Happy reading.

Thanks.

[Okta]

Hi,

The last Nvidia geforce card that can be fully modded to its equivalent quadro is the 6800 geforce card. It can be converted to a softquadro FX4000, subject to the NV GPU on the card.

The original thread is here - http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=172822" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For those interested in the Radeon to FireGL softmod, you are in for more luck.

The original thread is here - http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=275174" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Happy reading.

Thanks.

That Nvidia thread is from like 2006? 8xxx and 9xxx can be modded to quadro and accept quadro driver so until someone tries it with some glasses we wont know. If i could be bothered putting my 8800gt back in i would and try it but i dont have the time.

[UndeadD3vi1]

Buddha you just made it sound like those who own a Series 7+ will have no luck with SoftModding, this is far from the case. There are many different methods and amounts of functionality that can be restored. (Read this thread for more info)

Sticking to the original reason of this post, the soft-mod will allow XP users to install these drivers and hopefully the Stereo 3D will work. So is anyone going to test this? Surly the Performance Boosts of a Quadro and the other little extra's Quadro's have are irrelivent to this topic

Edit: Okta pretty much said everything I just did and beat me to the submit button (I took longer to reply due to reading that above linked thread)

[DavidGhast]

all the new cards have had their chips lazer locked or something, which means they cant be modded unless you redesigned the chip. There's no performance boost for quadro cards in regards to gaming, nor is there any use for them other than for the sole purpose for which they were designed - post-production and content creation software. In fact they have the exact same hardware as gaming cards, but instead they are marked up 5000% for the firmware included on them. Since gamers outnumber content producers by a 1000000:1, its only natural that they would price each card accordingly.

[budda]

Hi,

I am skeptical about the reported unlocking of 7,8,9 series geforce cards with respect to professional applications.

Firstly, does quad buffered openGL stereo work on these geforce cards with professional applications.

Secondly, why doesn't the guru3d website report these supposed successes especially since the programmer for RivaTuner - Unwinder - resides there.

Thirdly, some unlocking of professional applications can occur with patching, only because there were no real hardware protections put in place to stop DirectX applications such as Autocad and 3dsMax from gaining performance.

If some people obtain useful gains from softmodding, then that's good. But it is still far from being a quadro.

Over and out.


PS. People make the claim that quadro cards won't improve gaming performance. But, on the other hand they never say that Quadro cards reduce gaming performance.

[cybereality]

You know I would be interested to see if this softmod hack will work with the stereo3d drivers. That could be an interesting "work-around". Still, its a bit dangerous. You risk frying your vid card and there's no guarantee it will even work. Although if anyone wants to gamble with their gear I fully support that.

[UndeadD3vi1]

Soft-Mod = Software Modfication, generally Safe other than Software Issues (I.e. BSOD on every boot unless Safe Mode) Thats not to say there aren't weird and unpredictable reasons why your card would explode by doing it. Its just very unlikely as all you doing is modifying a few bits of info on the GPU. (Which you can change back at anytime)
Hard-Mod = Physical Modification, if you screw it up the board would fry as Cybereality said.

I'm keen to hear if this works, if it does work then we have fully working Stereo 3D on Windows XP on most Series 8+ cards with all types of Shutter Glasses. No more fighting Post Processing, etc. (FYI you wouldn't believe how many people I've seen using new 3D Vision drivers and following the nVidia Recommendations, in some cases these recommendations are for the old Stero3D drivers and the person is turning off effects that work fine )

So does this work on a Soft-Modded GeForce, and does the Stereo3D work in DX and OpenGL. A question that looks to remain un-answered for the time being.

Budda, do you know anything about SoftQuadro? Alot of people who state better performance in CAD-apps are using it. I'm wondering if it does Emu on CPU to account for the improved results? (I can't find its home page on Google to find out what it does!)

[Okta]

Not so much fully working s3d. Just page flipping and Anaglyph i believe. Dont forget all the other modes are missing.

[UndeadD3vi1]

Sorry I should have made it clearer that I meant generally. We allready have iz3D for every other type. We just need working Page Flipping.

[Okta]

Cant agree there unfortunately. A rough 2/3 of games i try with various methods of iz3d drivers wont start at all. Many others have acknowledged this. It seems only Anaglyph and iz3d modes are properly supported.

Not a viable solution to me at all.

[UndeadD3vi1]

A rough 2/3 of games i try with various methods of iz3d drivers wont start at all. Many others have acknowledged this. It seems only Anaglyph and iz3d modes are properly supported.

You could say the same thing about nVidia though. nVidia's drivers have issues in games that usually work perfectly via iz3D. (Artifacts, and other weird graphical issues)
iz3D constantly improves compatability. Can the same be said for nVidia if its not a very populare game? I'm not dis-agreeing with you, right now I have a couple games that refuse to loan when iz3D is enabled, but several months ago that list was much larger! (Unreal Engine 3 didn't work, included the alleged UE2 game BioShock)

[Okta]

Generic active stereo? Do we take this to mean our old shutters and HMD's will work with this driver? Cmon guys, surely someone has an 8+ series card with xp they can try this out with.