Using Geforce drivers on Quadro?

GotNoRice

[H]F Junkie
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I just picked up a laptop that has a Quadro K4100M in it (Kepler based, GK104). Currently I have the latest Quadro drivers (v426) installed, and everything works fine.

The last time I used a workstation GPU in one of my personal computers was years ago when I used a FireGL card, and back then you could get a significant performance increase in games by modding it to use Radeon drivers instead of the stock FireGL drivers. IIRC it was just a matter of modding the INF file and subbing in the device ID for the FireGL card into an entry for a similar Radeon card.

Now with this Quadro, I wonder if there would be any benefit in trying to do something similar? Other mobile GPUs like the Geforce 680M were also based on Kepler GK104, so I it seems like the INF mod might still be possible. I'm just curious if it would even be worth the effort compared to just continuing to use the Quadro drivers, or if it would even work at all.
 
IIRC, having had one of those not long ago, the only real difference is that you have to wait for the WHQL drivers for a release - they're otherwise identical (plus some added precision options for Quadro). Performance is the same now for a given driver release.

Again, this is IIRC - I did that testing... 2? 3 years ago? With the same chip. I'll wait for others to chime in though too.
 
I know it's not a Quadro, but my Radeon W5700 (PRO/Workstation) card has no performance benefit modifying Adrenalin drivers to pretend it's a RX 5700/XT/etc. I imagine it's probably similar with nVidia cards.
 
The Quadro drivers are the main value prop over the GeForce line... they're more stable, supported and better tested. I'd stick with the Quadro drivers even if there was a mild performance improvement with GeForce drivers.
 
The Quadro drivers are the main value prop over the GeForce line... they're more stable, supported and better tested

Stable in what sense? Supported by what? I've never had issues with Geforce driver stability and that even includes niche configurations like the 3x GTX680 in SLI that I still run in my backup computer. The GPU in this laptop won't be used for anything other than gaming, so I don't care if some random CAD software supports it or not.

From what I'm reading here and elsewhere, it's sounding like the Quadro drivers won't gimp my game performance much if at all, which is nice. But then there is also the fact that the newest Quadro driver available is the 426 driver. My GTX680 cards are also kepler based, and the newest Geforce driver for them is 472.12. The driver is over a year newer.
 
I just picked up a laptop that has a Quadro K4100M in it (Kepler based, GK104). Currently I have the latest Quadro drivers (v426) installed, and everything works fine.

The last time I used a workstation GPU in one of my personal computers was years ago when I used a FireGL card, and back then you could get a significant performance increase in games by modding it to use Radeon drivers instead of the stock FireGL drivers. IIRC it was just a matter of modding the INF file and subbing in the device ID for the FireGL card into an entry for a similar Radeon card.

Now with this Quadro, I wonder if there would be any benefit in trying to do something similar? Other mobile GPUs like the Geforce 680M were also based on Kepler GK104, so I it seems like the INF mod might still be possible. I'm just curious if it would even be worth the effort compared to just continuing to use the Quadro drivers, or if it would even work at all.

Pretty sure you can just install the geforce drivers as long as the driver supports kepler. At least the last time I tried I could with my quadro m2200 (gtx 965 moble)
 
Stable in what sense? Supported by what? I've never had issues with Geforce driver stability and that even includes niche configurations like the 3x GTX680 in SLI that I still run in my backup computer. The GPU in this laptop won't be used for anything other than gaming, so I don't care if some random CAD software supports it or not.

From what I'm reading here and elsewhere, it's sounding like the Quadro drivers won't gimp my game performance much if at all, which is nice. But then there is also the fact that the newest Quadro driver available is the 426 driver. My GTX680 cards are also kepler based, and the newest Geforce driver for them is 472.12. The driver is over a year newer.

Pretty sure that's because mobile kepler drivers were eold.
 
Pretty sure that's because mobile kepler drivers were eold.

I didn't know that they cut driver support for mobile Kepler parts earlier. If so, that's a shame. My previous laptop had a GT630M which is a Fermi part. It got it's last driver in 2018, but that perfectly aligned with the same date that the desktop Fermi parts (Geforce 400, 500 series) also got their last driver.
 
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