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First post, by Munwele

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Hello 😀

I recently got an HP xw4600 with a Core 2 Extreme, 8GB of RAM, and a Quadro FX 4600.
I've read that this card's GeForce equivalent is an 8800. I've looked up both cards and there seems to be a significant difference between the clock speeds of the Quadro FX 4600 and 8800.
Physically, the Quadro looks very similar to the 8800GTX, so I am <<assuming>> that if the 8800GTX cooler can handle those clocks, so can the Quadro (I could be wrong, obviously).
I haven't found anything related to my specific scenario. Every thread that's been made about this is always full of people telling OP they should sell the card and do that and do blah blah blah without actually helping.

If I were to flash this card to an 8800GTX, would it be able to handle the higher clock speeds? Is this even possible? I might not gain much performance-wise, but I still want to try it because it's something I've always wanted to do.
I'm asking here in case someone has done this (doesn't have to be these 2 cards specifically) and can share how it went for them.
And I mean an actual BIOS flash, not a softmod.
I can buy another one for cheap if it dies, but I still wouldn't wanna ruin it.

Thanks for reading.

Reply 1 of 3, by Munwele

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UPDATE: For anyone actually willing to do this, well, I suggest you don't. I flashed the card and bricked it.
Wasn't too worried because I happen to have many other workstations and PCI graphics cards laying around but if you only have one system, make sure it allows you to switch the GPU from PCIe to PCI, because this particular system didn't have the option for it. I had to chuck everything in another workstation (Fujitsu) to flash it back to the original BIOS.
For those interested, I managed to softmod it and even overclocked it. The card handles the overclock like a champ.

Reply 2 of 3, by repaxan

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You can also modify the original bios instead:
The story of the QuForce FX 5800 Ultra...

I was able to convert my Quadro FX 5600 into a 1.5gb '8800 GTX'
https://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/5743245

But I also tried to convert a Quadro FX 4400 into the equivalent GF 6800 Ultra and I couldn't figure it out, so YMMV.

Reply 3 of 3, by darry

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repaxan wrote on 2020-04-25, 06:34:

But I also tried to convert a Quadro FX 4400 into the equivalent GF 6800 Ultra and I couldn't figure it out, so YMMV.

I seem to recall reading at the time that additional safeguards were put in place in that generation to prevent Geforve to Quadro conversions. I imagine that also affects conversions in the other direction .