3ds max high quality viewport

NoChance

Is there a way to turn high quality rendering on in the viewport of 3ds max like in maya? basically a way so that I can see my normals without having to render.

Xoliul

http://www.laurenscorijn.com/viewportshader
just what you need.

PredatorGSR

You can turn on high quality mode by turning on DX shaders in the preferences in material editor. Then you see the blue checkerbox in the material editor to show map in viewport? Click and hold on it, and you'll see a pink checkerbox pop up next to it. Select that, and it will use DX shaders in the viewport. FYI, it doesn't play nice with alphas, so I had to use normal shaders on alpha stuff.

Or you can use custom shaders as Xoliul posted.