Dual GTX 580 v's Quadro 4000

[GLASS-CANVAS]

Now that Max2012 has an entirely new viewport system - Nitrous - it would be interesting to see some side by side Quadro Vs GeForce FPS tests. In the past there was a dedicated Maxtreme driver written by Nvidia to speed up the viewport in Max, but this is now effectively obsolete, as Nitrous bypasses it.

It could be that using a gaming card in Max makes even more sense now than it did before.

[ChrisL]

Hi All

I am just about to buy 2 new workstations, one my work are paying for and the other I am paying for. My supplier is also advising I buy the Quadro 4000 rather than 2xGTX580's and I would like a second opinion if someone would be so kind.
After reading around am I correct in thinking it comes down to Memory & Viewport Display(quadro) vs Speed(Gtx).

What will the extra memory give me? How much memory do I really need? My common tasks for work are single product renders that are around 200,000 ploys at the most, it’s rare but I have done some 50million+ poly scenes but using V-ray Proxies brings that down to the 200,000 polys anyway.

I have been working with a FireGL 5600 at work & 2xGeforce 8500gt's at home for the past 3 years so whatever I get will be better than those but a 50million poly scene was no problem for me on those and I can't see me needing to go beyond that.

My main requirement is that I need to speed up my workflow as much as possible as I am always on around a 3-5 hour deadline at work, so my thinking is speed in RT for setting up lighting and materials would favor me more.

I do a lot work in AutoCAD, After effects, Photoshop and I would like the opportunity to max out the settings on my games at home but these machines are primarily for 3DS Max, V-ray, After Effects & Photoshop.

Each computer will be on for around 7 hours a day and not always a maximum load.

My thoughts are to go for the 2xGTX580's in both. Or perhaps I should get one Quadro 4000 for work and 2xGTX580's for home so if it turns out the Quadro is better I can swap them over

[renderfarmer]

I recon the only people that might really benefit from a Quadro work for corporation with giant IT departments that will tell them so. For everyone else: buy a gaming GPU. I personally think the ATi cards work better for interactive viewport work, but I ended up using Nvidia GTX cards because like yourself I'm eager to exploit RT/GPU's potential.

What will the extra memory give me? How much memory do I really need? My common tasks for work are single product renders that are around 200,000 ploys at the most, it’s rare but I have done some 50million+ poly scenes but using V-ray Proxies brings that down to the 200,000 polys anyway.

For what it's worth, a single GTX 580 is 3 times faster than a Quadro 4000 in Vlado's RT/GPU benchmark scene and you can get one with 3GB of RAM if that's useful to you - but unless you've hit that wall, you likely will do fine with whatever RAM you've had in the past.

[ChrisL]

Well as my company are now paying for both these machines (Thats nice of them) I am getting one with a Quadro 4000 for work and one with 2xGTX580's for home as I like my games. I am torn between these cards I have read a lot about both setups and I have no real definative answer so getting both seems the only option. I personally think from reading around the 2xGTX580's will work better for my needs but we shall see. I will post my findings as soon as I have worked with them for a bit. I cant wait for them to arrive they get ordered tomorrow.

Thanks for the reply renderfarmer.

[trajic]

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