Nvidia Quadro VS Standard/Gamer Graphic cards

[3LP]

Hi there,
I was looking for a new configuration and was wondering what was the difference between a professional graphic card and a standard/gamer one.

Until now, I was working on standard/gamer graphic card, and I would like to have your feeling about professional graphic card. Does it really matters ?

I have heard that for quadros, there was some special drivers that where released.

Anyway, I thought it would be useful to have some of your knowledge about that
I was thinking putting about 500€ in a graphic car, so it would be :
Quadro NVS 420 VS X295? Any idea ?

ps: it would be only to do 3dsmax/zbrush/after effect and so one, not for playing some games

Thanks

Stan

[joconnell]

The quadro cards have a lot of benefits for engineering and industrial design work - if you've got a cad model that you want to machine / manufacture then you can't afford to have any display problems in your viewports - 3d work for media isn't quite as reliant on the viewport quality and it's only renders that matter so in that regard the geforce bits are cheaper and pretty much as fast. I'd be inclined to spend your money on a better processor or more ram.

Quadros used to have a "maxtreme" driver that gave them a speed up and lots of options for 3ds max but they haven't been developed recently. I've never really been impressed with any of the workstation cards I've used - I wasted €950 on a fire GL card a few years back and replaced with with a geforce soon after. The wildcat and quadro cards never blew me away either.

[3DMK]

Quadro are overpriced!!!

Worked in many architect/Viz studios and Quadro are certainly over-priced for what you get.
From what I see they are making money off the fact that most Architects & engineers don't know much about the hardware they use...unlike gamers.

Most of the money nvidia puts into developing graphics cards goes to game style cards [Geforce] as that's where they make all their money...common sense for anyone running a business.
The game card industry also has a lot of competition so they are forced to give the best value for money.

Recently a company I worked for bought some mid-range quadro cards for around $1500 [AUD]. At the same time I bought a High-end gaming card for around $800 [AUD] to use at home.
The difference was truly unbelievable with the gaming card blowing away the Quadro in all areas....at half the price.
The quadro also only had 256mb texture memory which is a joke for any serious 3D VIZ artists.


As mentioned earlier by

joconnell The quadro cards have a lot of benefits for engineering and industrial design work - if you've got a cad model that you want to machine / manufacture then you can't afford to have any display problems in your viewports

if you need absolute perfection in your viewport then quadro is good , although high-end quadro cards usually cost more than the computer it will run on.

All in all Geforce will give you much better value.

Cheers
Jamie

[3LP]

Thanks a lot for you answers !

That's great news, and now I will not have to buy a high end card that will cost me a leg and see that I had wast my money.

I own you a beer