lundi 23 septembre 2013
Xen 4.3.0 VGA passthrough / GTX 680 (GV-N680OC-2GD) successfully hard-moded to GRID K2
Par david techer, lundi 23 septembre 2013 à 22:29 :: Xen


Gigabyte GV-N680OC-2GD
- http://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/hacking-nvidia-cards-into-their-professional-counterparts/75/
- http://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/hacking-nvidia-cards-into-their-professional-counterparts/90/
For GV-N680OC-2GD it is doable and only doable for this model
- Removing those resistors ( 1 and 3 ) could be done easily without soldering iron. Those SMD resistors are the easiest components to remove. I did it using a screwdriver, a knife and a candle. Tweezers and a fire source should be a better choice instead of a knifer and a candle.
- this card was sold with a BIOS version with size < 64 KB limitation. The 64-limitation is well known under Xen for VGA Passthrough. If you bought this card and want to have a try then check that the current BIOS size on the card is < 64KB. Use
nvflash --save backup.rom
to backup your firwmare. Else you can download the expected firmware from and restore it usingnvflash
Notice: if BIOS size is > 64KB then there is a way to shrunk to 64KB. I have never tried this method
Pros
- No patch required for Xen!
- I can restart both my Linux domU 32/64 or Win7 64 without restarting dom0.
- RAM can be set over 3GB without any problem for domUs Linux 32/64 or Win 7 64. While setting RAM > 3GB on domUs Linux 32/64 or Win 7 64 is doable then it is enough for my own projects
- High resolution (Dual Link DVI) works pretty well with my ASUS monitor (Resolution: 2560x1440)
Cons
- Only domU Win XP 64 is limited to 3GB of RAM else this domU gets slower. Setting RAM < 3GB for domU Win XP 64 is enough for my personal projects.

nvidia-settings in my virtual machine -- Ubuntu 12.04 --.