Tesla M2090 6Gb gaming fun

[masterdeejay]

So i bought an old M2090 tesla card for cheap. It was 29 usd on ebay. I know it is not usefull for any gaming but i like to experiment whit it.
I tried to run games on it but i didnt found a solution until now. I switched the card working mode to WDDM. mode switch
The problem was to force the games running on the card. The card not have any video output. (it is like an headless GTX580 6Gb card)
I have an s1366 dual socket workstation, and that has two R9 380 AMD cards. I sell them and i bought a gtx1070ti.
Suprisingly i simply installed an old driver that support old fermi cards (which is the tesla) and the newer gtx. it is the 391.35-desktop-win10-64bit-international-whql
Now i have much more options in nvidia control panel. I can use the tesla for cuda, and physix calculations and like an opengl accelerator. Turning ECC on-off.
However the performance is very bad.
To run an opengl game, i simply right click on the game exe and select the tesla card to run.

It displayed as dx11 card.

Vintage story is an opengl minecraft clone.
I tried the old call of duty united offensive that runs 100-200fps like an old geforce4 ti card, still low and not very efficient for a 250w power card.

And the next was to run explicit multi gpu dx12 ashes of singularity escalation (dx11 card can work dx12 mode) . The fps numbers is very low 10-20fps on 1080p extreme.
It is clear the tesla card holds back the gtx and make fps much lower. Another thing is the card runs only on pcie 4x slot because the gtx takes 2.5 card slot so i cant use the another 16x slot. If i swap the cards to use the 16x slot i cant cool it down, the custom fan not fit between the cards.

I made all of this for fun, summary is that the this old tesla is not usefull for gaming. I will try the card for physix, maybe its better than nothing.

 

[THEDOOMEDHELL]

Hm I kinda want to buy one and try it out. I mean technically, this card is pretty similar to the GTX 580 so after some bios modding it could potentially have better performance...
I'd love to see this thing decked out with an E-power setup and liquid cooler or something. I wonder if it'll hit 1000 core... second besting it is getting a 580 3GB that should run *some* 4k titles lol

 

[madao]

I am successful convert Tesla M2090 to Quadro 7000 with adding of DVI output. Hardware: Just DVI port added.

But, it is not all. Because M2090 has ROM, which it is not for running as graphics card. No sign from DVI.
Flashing with GTX580 ROM image -> graphic fail. (Of coruse Tesla M2090 use P1030 board, GTX580 uses P1021 board)
Nobody have Quadro 7000 ROM image and i start next try with C2075 ROM. -> Successful

M2090 show with C2075-rom good pictures, but yet M2090 device ID -> I change their staps with nvflash to Quadro 7000.
nvflash --index=0 --straps 0x7FFFFFFF 0x00002C00 0x7FFFFFFF 0x00000000


Here a proof: I have use C2075 ROM, this is why modded M2090 has 448 instead 512 shader units..
3D performance is after change of device ID much better.

Now is gaming fun good

BTW: i am looking after C2090 or Q7000 ROM

Greetings
Matt

 

[silentbogo]

I was just watching Level1Tech on his K40 adventure. Pretty cool.
I'm eyeing a pair of K80's for my new rig (cheap and local), though I'm not sure if getting 600W worth of compute oomph(and without active cooling) is advisable right at the beginning of summer
Might need to use these with a custom shroud, and hope that my neighbors won't call the police:

Spoiler: they are as loud as weedwhacker, and as powerful as class 3 tornado. Pulled from 2U Supermicro chassis.

 

[madao]

K80 for mining.... not worth.. to much less hashrate over openCL and too low CUDA compute version.
I have pile Quadro K serie (K4000 and K4200 )
Mining with GPU make sense since pascal-generation. (Maxwell is capable, but bad hash rate)
This is why, Pascal-Geforce/Quadro is in europe really expensiv (used card)

Now, i try to converting Tesla C2050 to Quadro 6000.
Convert to Quadro 6000 is successful, but nvidia driver refused him (probably is 3GB instead 6GB memory a reason)
Now runs C2050 as Quadro 5000. (Quadro 5000 has orginal 352 shader and 2,5GB memory ) and 448 shader is useable (cuda-z & fillrate )

Change of config straps of C2050 to Quadro 5000.

nvflash --index=0 --straps 0x7FFFFFFF 0x00002000 0x7FFFFFFF 0x00000000

 

[silentbogo]

K80 for mining.... not worth.. to much less hashrate over openCL and too low CUDA compute version.

Definitely not for mining(already have that coverted).
Just want to make a multi-user virtualized workstation, and since Nvidia hid vGPU functionality behind a licensing paywall, I was hoping that dual-GPUs w/ recently-unlocked GPU passthrough would work.

 

[user899]

Very new to the game here, I have several questions if anyone would like to answer please.

Just DVI port added.

I've heard of cards advertised with no output that just had the display outputs hidden behind the backplate, but what exactly do you mean in this case, that you had to physically solder a DVI port onto the card?

Flashing with GTX580 ROM image -> graphic fail. (Of coruse Tesla M2090 use P1030 board, GTX580 uses P1021 board)

How exactly does one find out the board used for a particular graphics card? I checked out this website's gpu database for those 2 cards and it doesn't seem to specify p1030 on the m2090 page or p1021 on the gtx580 page.

BTW: i am looking after C2090 or Q7000 ROM

Like this one? https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/169437/169437 or have you already seen it? Or is unverified typically undesirable?

Greetings,
Anon.

 

[JinuIslife8]

*visible Confusion* what...??, How??, ..... Why?? I'm surprised you managed to get that tesla to even work and get to game a bit.

 

[madao]

@user899
DVI port, yes one DVI port adding with solder work. My M2090 hasn't slot bracket.

P1030 is pcb design. Somewhere is P1030 printed. Pleas see rear side of this card. "Model P1030" is printed near FCC logo.

NVIDIA Quadro 7000 Specs

NVIDIA GF110, 651 MHz, 512 Cores, 64 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 6144 MB GDDR5, 851 MHz, 384 bit

www.techpowerup.com

P1030 is used by big Fermi-Quadro (5000, 6000, 7000 and all Thermi based Tesla )

And P1030 is stored into bios

Thanks for link with Quadro7000 ROM
I'll check it soon.

Why i convert Tesla to Quadro.
It was a bet, which, i can convert Tesla without monitor output to grahpics card.

 

[madao]

One ask me about forwarding of try with Q7000 ROM.
Q7000 ROM from link is useable, verified.



before, with C2075 ROM, pleas see connection (single DVI) and 448 unified shader)
Tesla C20xx is unique Tesla, because, it show life from DVI, but 3D performance is terrible.

now with Q7000 ROM, two DVI and full 512 unified shader.
AND now is IGP from old M3N-HT highend motherboard disabled.
It means: Now works M2090 as graphics card very well

Howto ?

downloading nvflash ( I use old nvflash for fermi generation Ver. 5.105)

nvflash --list

Look after index for M2090 or other tesla. example "0 M2090 (1091.10DEblablah )" It means Index=0 .

nvflash --index=0  Q7000.rom -4 -5 -6

(then nvflash ask you, want you override ID? type YES or y )
Restarting. Now , tesla should show life on DVI port.

nvflash --index=0 --straps 0x7FFFFFFF 0x00002C00 0x7FFFFFFF 0x00000000

(Only for M2090 to Q 7000 , other Tesla Model requires other AND0 & OR0 mask, pleas ask me.)
This step change soft-strap of Tesla card to Quadro. (Change of softstrap to Geforce GTX580 is possible, i haven't check it )

Now you have a Quadro card based Tesla.
Pleas give attetion about cooling of tesla M2090.

of coruse is solder work neccesary for adding of DVI Port.

Have fun
Matt

 

[Aleksey.PR]

Best regards, Matt
Have you changed the firmware from DOS?
In WIN7 (64) the firmware does not end, did you use the original firmware or did you change something in it?

 

[madao]

I use nvflash under windows. Of coruse is flashing with DOS eviroment very recommend. Very important: Firmware and nvflash should be in same folder.
I didn't change firmware. download Quadro 7000 firmware from https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/169437/169437.

Greetings
matt

 

[Aleksey.PR]

That's just the point, the replacement of the straps occurs. The firmware is abutting. I'll try it today from DOS. I took the firmware myself at techpowerup. I have installed all the video outputs and the fan header. The fan runs without any firmware.

In DOS mode there is also an error. Maybe I need to flash the version for c2075 first? Or am I missing something.

 

[Schaka]

I just wanted to give an update on what I've done with my Tesla M2090 and as some questions to unlock its full potential. I got the card for 20€, strapped a 120mm fan to it and it never gets hotter than 45°C.

Here's what I did (you need a Haswell CPU with iGPU or any newer generation for this to work).
- installed iGPU (Intel HD 4600 drivers)
- installed Nvidia drivers 391
- added nvidia-smi to my PATH variable
- executed BAT file with following content

nvidia-smi -acp 0
nvidia-smi -fdm WDDM
nvidia-smi --auto-boost-permission=UNRESTRICTED
:: AdapterType causes Tesla to not be recognized as high performance GPU
:: REG QUERY HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001 /v AdapterType
REG DELETE HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001 /v AdapterType /f


- went to Windows graphic settings, chose system application, chose the path to Nvidia Control Panel and select High Performance GPU (Tesla M2090)

As seen in the picture attached, I was then able to render on my Tesla - without telling Windows explicitly which executeables to render on the Telsa.
Unfortunately I'm nowhere near GTX 580 performance. For comparison:

Model	Core	Shader	Memory
Tesla M2090	651 Mhz	1301 Mhz	924 (1848) Mhz
GeForce GTX 580	855 Mhz	1710 Mhz	1002 (2004) Mhz

Unfortunately, MSI Afterburner can't overclock Tesla. Unfortunately NiBiToR does not recognize the Tesla VBIOS, so I cannot overclock here either.
That's a shame, as I'm sure performance in eSports titles would surprise quite a few people, especially for the low price of 20€ for a card with 6GB of VRAM.

So here's my final question:
If I flash the Quadro 7000 vBIOS, will I still be able to use my Tesla M2090 as a high performance GPU and render on it, but send video out through my iGPU?
If yes, will I be able to overclock the Quadro 7000 vBIOS to reach 580 performance (or higher)?

If this turns out to be possible, that'd be a perfect little playground project for me.

 

[matosi]

Another new player here and first post too

I'm defenitely not a gamer but for a similar price I decided to accept the challenge and WOW it works pretty well !!!
I spent almost a month playing/gaming with this new toy and considered the ongoing speculation in the GPU market I couldnt be happier.

the most tricky part obviously is the dvi connector solder - that - in some case could be avoided too. some softwares/games have no problems using the card with no monitor attacched : in my case, once enabled the wddm mode and with the monitor connected to the iGPU, Watchdog2 worked very well


good cooling is mandatory, I ended up tying two 70mm fans on top of the heatsink with the help of those 6 holes in the black base plus another settled on top of the backplate (with spacer) to cool down the ram

In the past few weeks I learnt this kind of operation is not new to the scene - but - in the past year people usually tried to convert consumer card to professional counterpart to gain access to tcc so what we're doing here is really fun

actually I'm trying to solve out these questions:

- rollback: in case I would like restore original firmware (from backup I made), bios flash with ID overrride is enough? ad/or soft straps are needed ?
- despite the loose of tcc I'd really would like to try GTX580 'mode' (nvidia released DX12 driver for Fermi based cards with version 384.somewhat, those drivers unfortunately refuse to install on Quadro7000 ). madao do you already tried bios/softstraps for gtx580? will we loose the extra RAM (the biggest 580 has only 3 GB)?
(running cyberpunk 2077 on a 30 bucks card... priceless lol )
- a better way to read temperature (hwinfo reads *only* chl/ir pmbus temp (and other values) from VRM module - the card doesn't expose gpu core temperature)

next tests, usability/performance in virtual machine (vmwar player/esxi / virtual box)

actual test rig i5 3rd gen / legit q4000 / q7000 (formerly m2090) / another m2090

 

[Schaka]

If I change the strap to Quadro 7000 and install the correct drivers, can I overclock in MSI Afterburner?
As it stands right now, I flashed the Quadro 7000 BIOS onto the Tesla M2090. However, even after BIOS modding, it does not actually increase in clock speed (afterburner shows the speed, but it never clocks to it). I mean, I also wouldn't be able to adjust voltages, so really the original Tesla M2090 BIOS has been the strongest in terms of pure performance so far.


I wish more BIOS mods were possible, but the usual shader/memory clock doesn't work.

Edit: GTX 580 BIOS gives code 10/code 43 and doesn't work.
Quadro 7000 BIOS is much slower (25-30% lower score in Heaven) than original Tesla BIOS. (Didn't change straps - so no Afterburner OC either)

Edit2: Tesla C2075 BIOS on the M2090 (without strap change) can take overclocks through Afterburner. I can take it to 745 Mhz on the core and 2004 on memory.
Purey based off of my score in Heaven, that's about a 10-15% bump in performance. If anyone has a C2090 VBIOS lying around, I'd love to have it. Should allow GTX 580 performance on the Tesla M2090 through Afterburner.

For reference:
Quadro 7000 BIOS with/without Quadro straps: 590-650 pts in Heaven
Tesla M2090 BIOS, Tesla drivers, 800-900 pts in Heaven
C2075 BIOS (745/2004 Mhz) with Quadro 7000 straps and Quadro drivers, 1125+ pts in Heaven

I would like to try GTX 580 straps with GeForce drivers, both on the C2075 bios (really wish we had C2090) and M2090 BIOS (clocks higher by default, more cores but not OC'able).

 

[matosi]

I would like to try GTX 580 straps with GeForce drivers, both on the C2075 bios (really wish we had C2090) and M2090 BIOS (clocks higher by default, more cores but not OC'able).

straps to gtx580 0x6FFC3BFF 0x00000000 0x7FFFFFFF 0x00000000, gpuz OK , driver 391.35 OK

tested with both c2075 and q7000 bioses unfortunately without desired results (dx12 app crash/not working, possibly dependant from host system (w10x64 1909) not fully updated, offline )
in some cases apps thrown these errors
- typed uav load
- resource binding tier 3

switched to q7000 bios to reflect 580 core/shader count

@Schaka
can you test in unigine or other dx12 compliance and/or against those instructions ?

 

[Aleksey.PR]

Tested straps to gtx580, memory remains 6GB

 

[Aleksey.PR]

Unfortunately, so far the card does not want to work as a leader. As a slave it works, but only a DVI output. I will continue to try to run it fully.

 

[Schaka]

New update:
- Quadro 7000 BIOS with GTX 580 straps (6GB VRAM stays), can't overclock - with VBIOS mods, it's possible to up the clocks and in Afterburner it does show (on idle it's 850Mhz and highest memory clock) but clocks down under load
- C2075 BIOS with 580 straps - can overclock without limits, though voltage is still so low that we can't reach 580 clocks - fails at DX12 at high clocks
- TimeSpy in DX12 works with Quadro 7000 BIOS + GTX 580 straps + GeForce drivers and stock Quadro clocks

The best results (with DX12 compliance) I got as following:
- Take Tesla M2090 original BIOS
- change vendor id, etc in NiBiToR
- reopen BIOS, make changes for OC (they don't take for some reason, idk)

- Quadro 7000 BIOS remains the worst
- C2075 BIOS is pretty good due to being able to overclock in Afterburner, however purely based on 3D Mark, I get worse results than with M2090 stock BIOS (probably due to missing shaders)

My conlusion:
Unless someone figures out how to ACTUALLY BIOS mod the M2090 and Quadro 7000 or how to apply an overclock with afterburner, our best bet is to get our hands on a C2090 VBIOS file.
I've looked everywhere to see if I can find a used one. I suspect the C2090 was never actually produced. So maybe there's someone out there who can reverse engineer the Tesla M2090 BIOS and figure this out.

 

[Aleksey.PR]

The operation of the DVI ports has been tested. Everything works on firmware from 7000 kvadras. Both ports, if installed, operate in analog mode, that is, through DVI-VGA adapters.

 

[Aleksey.PR]

Hi, does anyone have a strap for transferring to the Quadro 6000? I want to check something.

 

[BLRandome]

someone know if i can use it in slave mode with igpu processor?
I try to put the dvi module but i have problems with the tin in the gpu

 

[elpepe]

I just bought a tesla m2070, can someone confirm if I can also change the bios to a c2075?

 

[Schaka]

someone know if i can use it in slave mode with igpu processor?
I try to put the dvi module but i have problems with the tin in the gpu

I have used the M2090 exclusively for rendering with Intel iGPU (Haswell+) to create my benchmarks in this thread. I eventually sent it to the YouTuber zWORMz for benchmarking.