G73 5870 softmod to firepro 8800

[smile_gerard]

I've been looking for driver alternatives ever since i got my G73, today i found one so i'm sharing with the rest of you the process.

For those who are not aware, Ati makes cards for gaming (radeon) and professional graphics (firegl, firepro) cards. But fact is, their more or less the same card. Just that they have different drivers.

Credit goes to schoko of guru3d forums.

Pros:
Better viewport performance in 3d softwares such as 3dsMax, Maya and also CAD softwares.
I notice my text looking more crisp (my opinion don't quote me on this)
Basically its a softmod to convert a gaming card into a professional workstation card. Well its not a 100% convert but close enough.

Cons:
Gaming performance isn't as good. But its not that bad really.
You loose overdrive
You loose video hardware acceleration. (you tube will just give a green screen unless u disable hardware acceleration)

These are my results using specviewpref11:

radeon 10.5 driver.
Specviewpref 11 64bit
Asus G73
Mobility 5870
8gb ram
i7-720qm

catia - 4.81
ensight - 3.07
lightwave - 17.43
maya - 5.68
proe - 1.51
sw - 14.74
tcvis - 3.52
snx - 6.96


This was my earlier results with firepro softmod

Specviewpref 11 64bit

Catia-03 - 5.74
Ensignt - 3.12
Lightwave01 - 17.63
Maya 03 - 31.27
Proc 05 - 2.79
Sw 02 - 18.01
Tcvis 02 - 13.12
Snx 01 - 18.70

I just did a test with specviewpref10 "Run viewpref 1280x1024 x64" with radeon 10.5 drivers and this was that i got:

SPECviewperf10
1280x1024

3dmax 04 - 17.49
catia 02 - 13.93
ensight 03 - 26.99
maya 02 - 29.46
proe 04 - 11.75
sw 01 - 29.67
tcvis 01 - 6.87
ugnx 12.57

Softmod
1280x1024

3dmax 04 - 43.59
catia 02 - 34.84
ensight 03 - 57.93
maya 02 - 214.50
proe 04 - 40.91
sw 01 - 89.54
tcvis 01 - 35.56
ugnx 01 - 55.68

As far as the mod goes, i see improvement all across the board. A drastic improvement in maya. I also notice that with this driver UDV is disabled. It could be related to why we can't use hardware acceleration in youtube and stuff.

First of all these are the files we need to download

Riva Tuner
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

Firepro 8.723
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...e_win7-64.aspx

atiogl.xml
atiogl.xml (credit snuggles0220 of guru3d forums)

This is the patch script from schoko which i edited the details for our 5870
Paste this into a notepad then rename it with the extension of rts. To be used with riva tuner later.
A crash course on how to do this if you do don't know how to change the extension.

1 - Open a folder any folder (win7 should be same as vista. Xp is similar but i don't remember.)
2 - Click on "organize" in the top left hand corner
3 - Select "folder and search options"
4 - Click on "view" tab
5 - Untick "hide extension for known file types"
6 - open a new notepad
7 - copy the script from below and paste it in.
8 - when you save your notepad file for example "gerard.txt" just rename it to "gerard.rts"
9 - a prompt will appear, select "yes"

[Common]
SrcFile = atikmdag.sys
BakFile = atikmdag.sy_
MakeCRC = 1
Packed = 1




; script for win7_x64 driver 8.723

DstVar0 = force ATI Mobility FireGL V8800 capabilities

Src0 = B8 94 00 00 00 E8 86 5B 00 00 3B C5 74 46
SCM0 = FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 FF FF FF FF FF 00
Dst0 = B8 94 00 00 00 E8 F2 6D 00 00 3B C5 EB 46
DCM0 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF 00 00 00 00 00 FF

Src1 = B1 46 38 0B 75 B4 48
Dst1 = B1 46 88 0B 90 90 48



Src2 = BA 2E 00 00 00 48 8B CB E8 36 BA FF FF 85 C0 0F 84 88 00 00 00
SCM2 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
Dst2_0 = BA 2E 00 00 00 48 8B CB E8 36 BA FF FF C7 03 68 A0 00 00 90 90
DCM2 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

(If it doesn't work for you, try swapping the deviced ID in the 2nd last line. From "68 A0" to "A0 68" By right it is suppose to be "A0 68" but i don't know why but "68 A0" works for me.)
Ok let us begin patching the drivers.

1 - extract the firepro drivers

2 - C:\AMD\FirePro_8.723_Win7x64_98793\Packages\Drive rs\Display\W76A_INF.
the file is called: C7_100464.inf (open with notepad)

3 - edit

"ATI FirePro V8800 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_EvergreenGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6888"

to

"ATI FirePro V8800 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_EvergreenGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0"

(68A0 is the device ID of the card it should be the same for all of our g73)

4 - use riva tuner to patch atikmdag.sy_ in the B100148 folder (use the notepad file you made earlier) Install rivatuner first, then double click the file. A window will pop up, click "continue" change files of type to "atikmdag.sy_" then navigate to the folder you extracted to. And patch it

5 - replace the atiogl.xml in the same folder

Ready to be installed (have disk method - refer to link)
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/top...ndows-7-vista/

Problem is windows 7 64bit has driver enforcement crap.
So we need to do this extra steps unless you want to press f8 each time you start.

Here are the steps

1 - Disable driver signing (do before installing from a clean driver install)
http://www.killertechtips.com/2009/0...ing-windows-7/

2 - download dseo 1.3b
3 - run dseo - enable test mode
4 - restart pres f8
5 - select disable driver signature enforcement
6 - run dseo - sign a system file
7 - (c:\windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys) Paste into the dialog box
8 - Your good to go. There will be a water mark at the bottom right corner.
9 - Optional http://deepxw.blogspot.com/2008/12/r...-20081210.html (to get rid of the water mark i used the 1st method)

10 - disable windows update because windows always thinks the radeon driver is the better driver.

As for control panel just install any radeon CCC of your choice. Powerplay function all are there. I personally went for the 10.6 ccc. Just don't select to install any drivers.
If you have no sound when u use hdmi to a tv, u need to enable the hdmi audio. For me it played through the laptop speakers unless i went into "sound" (right click volume icon - sounds) i then just made the ati hdmi the default while connected to the tv and it worked just fine.

I haven't fully tested it but its definitely running on my G73. One issue i've come across is youtube doesn't play. But there is a work around. Right click and disable hardware accleration. It should then work, if it doesn't i installed a grease monkey script called "Youtube enhancer" it works very nicely after disabling hardware accleration.

Do let me know if any changes or mistakes are made and i will change them. This won't benefit those who want gaming performance. It is more for people using softwares such as Maya.

[apachehavok]

this is great! What catalist is the fireGL driver based on?

[DCx]

This is one of those "If you don't know that you need it, you don't need it" scenarios. But you might want to explain it to people (like me) that don't know WHY they don't need it. (please?)

[E30kid]

Originally Posted by DCx

This is one of those "If you don't know that you need it, you don't need it" scenarios. But you might want to explain it to people (like me) that don't know WHY they don't need it. (please?)

The Radeon line is for games, the FireGL line is for CAD and stuff like that. If you mainly play games, you want to keep the 5870 as it is. If you are a design pro or an engineer, you're going to want to use the card as if it were a FireGL card.

[DRevan]

And the design softwares will really run faster after this method?

[smile_gerard]

Its more of asking you to compare a 5870 and a 8800. You will find your answers there. But we have to know that it is still just a softmod so don't expect it to run like an 8800 perfectly. I haven't gotten it tested fully because SPECviewperf11 doesn't seem to download for me. But i did run one round of 3dmark and i actually got abt 122** points. I don't remember the last two digits. What this would do is speed up the rendering of viewports in the softwares. Its hard to explain the difference between the two. Like tmacfan4321 mentioned, the radeon line is for games where else the firegl or firepro line is considered professional graphics. A radeon will cost a few hundred a firepro would cost u a few thousand Whether you need a firepro or not, that really depends on you. If you don't use any design softwares, stick to the radeon drivers. That will be my advice

[smile_gerard]

Originally Posted by apachehavok

this is great! What catalist is the fireGL driver based on?

The driver itself is 8.723
CCC that i installed is 10.6 radeon mobility. (The exact same one that your probably using. Just install the CCC and not the driver)

Do note that all i really am doing is taking the information i acquired from guru3d and applying it to the G73, as and when there are updates to the script the source is still from guru3d. Took quite a bit of searching to get everything working thou.

Their the same software for the CCC. Its just that it has different options compared to a radeon installation. For instance my overdrive tab is gone.

But i get "video converter, workstation and hydravision"

[smile_gerard]

Originally Posted by DCx

This is one of those "If you don't know that you need it, you don't need it" scenarios. But you might want to explain it to people (like me) that don't know WHY they don't need it. (please?)

If you have never heard of Graphic card terms such as Firepro, Firegl, quadro, then you won't have a reason or need to use this. Radeons are the gaming line of cards. Their more focused on speed and direct x (correct me if i'm wrong)

The firegl or rather firepro for this instance is a professional working graphic card line. Their more focused on precision, faster viewport rendering in 3d, their more focused on opengl (correct me if i'm wrong again).

But like i mentioned in my original post, their the same cards just different drivers. Kind of like choosing between a supercharger and a turbo in an engine. The radeons being the turbo where else this is the supercharger.

It will still work for games just not as good. This i've yet to comfirm because i ran 3dmark06 and it gave me 12.2k which is about the same as i did before on the radeon. I also ran L4d2 for a few mins just to see the fps and i still got the same rates as before which was 100+ (vsync disabled)

[smile_gerard]

Originally Posted by DRevan

And the design softwares will really run faster after this method?

You'll have to do a search on the softwares that you use to see if they benefit from a firepro card. I know 3dsmax doesn't really benefit as its directx based. Where else maya benefits a lot from this. I've also read of it helping out in premiere pro cs5. I need to search more on this to comfirm.

Edit: correction my 3dsmax performance doubled according to SPECviewpref10.

[smile_gerard]

Played 3 campaign straight of L4D2 and no GSOD so far... This may be an alternative fix. Anyone else gave this a try?

edit: Ok the 1st GSOD came. Gona clock it up a little to see how it goes.