[MOVED] Hacking NVidia Cards into their Professional Counterparts

[Rasz]

I had a gtx 960 chinese fake card sent to me from a friend who bout it, then got a refund.
it's really a GTS450 gf106 192 core, 783 Mhz clocked card with a funky bios eprom that nvflash doesn't read or write to.
gpu-z can read the card, but the bios save fails.

[gjarkko]

Thanks to this thread, I too managed to swap the resistors on my GTX670-DC2-2GD5 to make it appear a GRID K2 card for ESXi 6.5 in my home lab.

Pity to find that vGPU isn't recognized, but passthrough is already quite a good start. Users were reporting success with vGPU in XenServer, but I guess VMWare drivers are different somehow?

The one step I haven't tried is reflashing the card vBIOS with altered PCI ID - any idea if that's worth the effort?

[kosta]

Has anyone managed to get the Quadro part of the Nvidia control panel working on a Geforce card? Or any ideas about it. I know this is hardware related here, and I'm looking for a sofware hack, but I couldn't find any info about my intent better than here.

Quadro cards have a "Workstation" section in their control panel, showing a system topology and allowing for some EDID override functionality. Something purely software related that would work just as well on any and all cards. But it's disabled on all cards except Quadro. I tried a simple INF hack, but that didn't make that part show up in control panel.

I have a 1060 in a laptop, so hardware mod isn't even feasible and I don't wanna risk instabilities doing it, as I only would like this extremly simple functionality.

Any ideas or links to a more software related hack forum? Thanks!

[jacdyxu]

Hi-
Well I ended up getting Two EVGA 04G-P4-3687-KR GeForce 4GB GTX 680. Core Clock 1084mhz and Boost Clock 1150mhz.
The boards are the same as the GV-N680OC-2GD except mine are 4GB. I modded both of them to Quadro K5000 (Thanks old Playstation 3 for the resistors  )
I ran the latest Nvidia 314.22 drivers and Quadro 311.35. It seems the 314.22 drivers are a little bite better so I'm using those.
I did some benchmarking to compare the cards before and after the mod's.
                                                   GTX 680 #1   GTX 680 #2   K5000  #1   K5000 #2
3DMARK 11                                      9022                   8987           9077           9016
Passmark 8 (3D Graphics Mark)     6044                   6091           6025          5996
PCMark Vantage (Gaming)             19336                 18956         18880        16177
PhysX                                         10158-166 fps   10003-165 fps    10176-167 fps   10123-166 fps
SPECviewperf 11
   Catia-03                                       6.05                       5.98               5.9             10.20
   Ensight-04                                  32.20                     32.23              32.20         32.27
   Lightwave-01                             13.23                      12.84            13.14           13.22
   Maya-03                                     12.77                     12.73             12.86           12.85
   Proe-05                                       0.96                      1.00                  1.00           0.99
   Sw-02                                         11.09                    11.37                11.36         12.78
   Tcvis-02                                        1.01                      1.17               1.02             1.02   
   Snx-01                                         3.42                      3.37                 3.40            3.42
As you can see all the scores between stock and modded cards are about the same. The problem is with the SPECviewperf 11 scores. This is  the benchmark for Graphic and CAD programs. This is what the Quadro cards were made  for. The scores for the modded K5000 should be MUCH higher. Take a look here.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/nvidia-quadro-k5000_4.html

It looks to me that just because the computer thinks it’s a Quadro K5000 does not mean that it will act like a K5000.
I even tried this benchmark with the Quadro drivers and got the same results. Hopefully It's just a driver issue and not a hardware issue.

Hi,  I also have this card, but I can't read and update the BIOS with nvflash as now, could you please let me know how to update the BIOS with nvflash or use another software? Thanks a lot.

[beur]

Hi, guys. I'm from wild siberia! I have Palit GTX660 2Gb. Mb - GigaByte h61m (uefi bios) and Asus Z170p (also UEFI). My first app - SolidWorks (SW). Sometimes Autocad.
SW, by default, on game card don't allow nice, but useless display mode - RealView and antialiasing (AI). Everyone can easily unlock this features by add graphic card's id to SW whitelist in registry (known as realhack). Fullscene antialiasing looks very good, but drops fps even on small assembles. On ati card same deals. 960 CUDA cores more then enought to 3-4k simple parts, but AI fails on 50 simple lines. Once time, i read on SW forum, that quadro gift free (for fps) AI! Non-smooth mode works like game card. And some cookies on drafts.
I buy Quadro K620 and open most heavy model. This is impossible! Same fps (no meters, my feelings only), as GTX660, plus AI! GPU-Z don't show more 30-50% GPU Load on GTX, but they freeze. K620 charges to 90-100% without hangs.
I think about hardmod GTX..
Some questions.
1. Would hard-modded card work on UEFI-BIOS system? What kind of problem can i face?
2. May be, somebody, who have hacked card can test AI on SW? I can give heavy model, if you need, of course.

[aqarwaen]

just out of curiosity has anybody successfully hacked their titan v?or had able unlocking additional features what are locked without hacking/modding.

[EndRU]

Tried to find resistors for Asus 1050ti. Have not found    Probably this is impossible.

[showler909]

Hi folks!

I have a bizarre issue regarding a GIGABYTE GTX 770 WindForce 3X OC 4 GB Rev. 2. It is actually recognised as a Tesla K8 by my system bizarrely with device ID 1194 rather than 1184, as a gtx 770 is. I have looked on the board and I do not see any evidence of anyone tampering with the board. It will display fine but it won't run any games. if someone could assist me with perhaps identifying the necessary resistor to change so the device ID becomes 1184 that would be greatly appreciated.

I have attached the gpu-z reading. I'll upload hi-res pcb shots later today

[amatrix85]

Hi there,

GV-N650OC-1GI (Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650) hacked successfully (but only partially).

On my card BIOS was unlocked out-of-the-box.

R1=R574
R2=R571
(both near the U502 chip)

I'm not sure about R3 and R4. Probably they are R583 & R582 but value of R583 is 30k Ohm instead of 35k.

R3 is R130 (below GPU at the opposit side). About R4 still not sure, but it should be near R3.

Anyway, the card now detected as Quadro K1100M (or as GRID K1 NVS USM without R2, for probable installation in ESXi hypervisor I've lately broke R2 circuit with jumper pins). There is no problem in Linux in both positions but in Windows I have to change SUBSYS part of Device ID in INF. Hackintosh also refuses to start - seeking for solution works after reloading DSDT via Clover.

[profile53]

I don't know if anyone's still following this thread, but how did you guys locate the straps? Was there anything specific to look for? Now that the Tesla K10 is fairly cheap, I bought one and wanted to try my hand at modding it into a Grid K2 but the straps seem to be in a different location than the GTX 690 reference model's.

[brzez]

Has anyone converted a card to a GRID K1 or K2 and been able to use it as a vGPU under Vmware ESXI 6?

[tordef]

help me 
Resistor
GTX770 OC 4GB

[axonic]

I just modded my EVGA 660 Ti FTW which is on the board used for 670/680 cards. The horizontal row of resistors above the red boxes, and a row on the rear above U504 are the PCI ID resistors. I know there's over 50 pages to this thread, but browse through it and you should find everything needed.

I recommend you start with these links for reference, and practice on parts of the same size on a scrap board. You may need to obtain resistors from another board or order them to get the right values. In my case, I only had to solder a 40k onto empty pads and remove a 20k, I got my resistor from a radio transceiver. There was only one 40k on the board, and I dropped it. The next day I found it in my soldering tip cleaning sponge after picking all the debris from it for a long time.

Reply #81 on: March 25, 2013, 07:10:07 pm
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/hacking-nvidia-cards-into-their-professional-counterparts/msg207550/#msg207550

Reply #84 on: March 26, 2013, 01:08:47 am
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/hacking-nvidia-cards-into-their-professional-counterparts/msg207638/#msg207638

[axonic]

Firsties? One EVGA GeForce 660 Ti FTW modded to report Tesla K10. Thanks to all the work and sacrifice of people who went before. This card is built on a similar board to the 670/680 lines, so you'll find diagrams of those cards useful. Simply removing the 20k resistor (4th from the left above U504 on the rear of the card) is fine since the absence of a resistor seems equivalent to a zero in the ID bits. If you want to be sure you can also solder a 40k resistor (which translates to a 0) on the third resistor from the left in the row beneath the Y1 oscillator to ensure the pin isn't left floating electrically.

This card now reports that it is a Tesla K10 as predicted. I upgraded the BIOS to a UEFI version from EVGA before the mod so the hardware ID would be correct for the firmware tool, and kept the resistor for later reversal. Could add user selectable hardware ID... But I got a rover to finish building first.

[IanMacdonald]

You've got balls for taking a soldering iron to a GTX-690!

I thought you used reflow for those. 

[spookyvow]

hi，I want a BIOS of K2. I didn't find it .Thanks.

[alexnissan]

Hello!
I was trying following
I get gtx690 and replace memory chips from 2gb to 4gb onto second gpu, then i take
tesla k10 and bios from this to flash into gtx690 and get error with bar1 client8 and so.
Help me please upload yourself screenshot when do this command: lspci -vv,
I want differ this info between different vga cards.
Very thank you ladies and gentlemens!

[brzez]

I got a hold of a Tesla K10 for cheap and was was hoping to convert it to a Grid K2 using just softstraps -- the cards look identical from the back (no idea about the front since I've not taken it off)


But after dumping roms and device ids it does not look like it is possible:

Device IDs and ROM straps.

<1> Tesla K10            (10DE,118F,10DE,0970) H:03:SP8 B:04,PCI,D:00,F:00
<2> Tesla K10            (10DE,118F,10DE,0970) H:03:SP16 B:05,PCI,D:00,F:00

50 81 08 00 95 01 00 E0 50 80 08 80 02 00 00 00


<1> GRID K2              (10DE,11BF,10DE,100A) H:03:SP8 B:04,PCI,D:00,F:00
<2> GRID K2              (10DE,11BF,10DE,100A) H:03:SP16 B:05,PCI,D:00,F:00

50 81 08 00 95 01 00 E0 50 80 08 80 00 00 00 00



The device ID in binary for the K10 is:
1000110001111

For K2 it is:
1000110111111

So bit positions 4 and 5 differ but the softstrap guides only go from bits 0 to 4.

That fifth bit may only be modifiable by resistor changes.

Any other ideas anyone?

[rulebreaker]

Hello, guys.
Does someone know how to change device ID of Asus gtx 780 dcii to gtx 780 ti?

[storepool]

Same here as brzez

got hold on a cheap k10 (100$)
purpose : using it a as a vsphere accelerator
either native vsphere console
or also within vdi/vnc
mainly for education

but
using it on shuttle h67 which has no vt-d

driver I use: NVIDIA-VMware_ESXi_6.7_Host_Driver-410.68-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922.vib

Story short:  its not working
"ALERT: NVIDIA: module load failed during VIB install/upgrade"

I am sure it has to do with the missing  vt-d

but it still should be usable in sVGA mode but there it should run as grid k2

and here my questions:

so I learned
-have to apply code Id: 10DE 11BF (one resistor out, one changed from 25k to 40 k)
-have to flash k2 firmware

-1) which and where are the 3 resistors located on k10 board ?
-2)where to find the k2 firmware (is not on https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/  only k1 is)

will report back with any progress ..right now the board is on desk, waiting for soldering.
cheers from Wiesbaden

ps:
adding bottomLayer for a (searchLocationR) start

found somthing..:
NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility
Version 5.151g
GRID_UPDATE_K1_K2
so is it possible K1 and K2 share the same bios ?

[brzez]

Thanks for the info storepool.

ESXI 6.7 does not have support for GRID K series:
https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=sptg&details=1&releases=369&partners=68&page=1&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

ESXI 6.5 does and works fine with my K2 in vGPU mode. I've never tried sVGA. K10 is recognized as well but not available for sVGA or VGPU. I can pass both cards directly (pci passthru) to the guest OS.

VT-D is most likely needed.

I have not taken apart my K2 since I've been testing it under VMWare  so I do not know the resistor differences. Been meaning to do that but have not found the time.

The resistors on the K2 and K10 boards I have are the same for the middle portion of your picture (as far as I can tell). I suspect the resistor differences may be on the front.

I do have a saved firmware from my K2  and can email it to you (tried posting it here but it gets rejected). Supposedly nvlfash v5.206  can be used to flash it.

I have that firmware update utility too but have not tried any updates.

I can take some high res pictures of my K2 if you'd like.

[storepool]

Ohh brzez  thanks a lot.


I welcome the firmware
and by what you write, I look forward to be able to locate the resistors, can you hint me the location ?

regarding thr 6.7 support
maybe that explaines the driver not beeing loaded.  but I had the same issues running 6.0
and somewhere I read, that in 6.7 all drivers are in one vib.
maybe testing 6.5 now (again)

basicaly the road map stays,
I can not run this vt-d mode so I need to get the gridk2 firmware on this board.
and yes please send me that firmware
so basicaly I only need to locate the 2 resistors ,
will do this beside running the flusher so I can check the ID changes.
thx

Polly

[maxias]

Has anyone successfully modified a GTX 10X0 into a Quadro?

is it only possible with GTX 500 / 600 / 700?

cheers

[trailro]

Hi guys,

I also have a handful of tesla k10 cards - any luck in modifying them to be seen in esx 6.5 as grid k2 cards?

Thanks.

[maxias]

Hello together, i have got a Gainward GeForce GTX 670 Phantom. it has a lightly different layout to the cards showing at this thread.
the bios chip is not on the back.


i have checked the resistors and maybe someone knows how to address them. especially the R3 i cannot find.