Quadro or Gforce?

[thepineman]

the news last year Geforce 7800 GTX (SLI) is the fastest graphics card. Now, i'm not sure if they have surpassed that speed with the new Quadro. I use geforce and it is very good.

I think Quadro is ideal for visualization purposes in terms of speed and display/colour accuracy. While, Geforce is good for games; though i dont play much anymore- games as I have outgrown that. So, either one you choose is totally okay. But if you are rendering 3D work for a highly superb quality then go for Quadro and there will also some difference with the price.

[DanSilverman]

Frankly, both the GeForce and the Quadro cards use the same chip sets created by Nvidia. The only real difference (in most cases) is the drivers. In some cases there are some hardware differences (such as the number of graphics pipes), but in most cases even this difference between cards may simply be turned on or off via the drivers. Therefore, basically, there is no real difference between the quality of the two cards. I would simply look at the stats for the cards and get the one that is suitable for your needs (and within your budget). I have constantly used GeForce cards for professional 3D work and have experienced no problems.

BTW - Do a search for this subject. It has been discussed to death with the last year to six months, I believe.

[ntmonkey]

Stability Stability Stability

-Lu

[SheepFactory]

Stability Stability Stability

-Lu

Seconded. Get the quadro.

[Kabab]

If your planning on using Maya use a Quadro :) there is a reason why its certified.

[UrbanFuturistic]

http://forums.cgsociety.org/search.php?searchid=3863981

[ntmonkey]

Sorry for the vague reply. There's been a bad string of bad experience amongst close friends who have thought about using the 7800, and wind up being shelved in favor for the Quadro. All of them seem to have a problem with stability. Can't say anything about the other GeForces, but the 7800 especially have caught my attention as big no-no for 3D.

I've used a Geforce 4 Ti4600 for years without issue for Maya and XSI. But I really like how the Quadro FX in my new machine holds up without a single flutter. Use at your own risk I guess. I'd rather my video card glitch on a $50 game than a $7000 3D app that I depend on to make a living. I play games on my brother's computer when he's not looking. :D

peace,

Lu

[sambath]

if price for the quadro is a concern, just wait for them to appear on ebay and buy from a guy with good rating. you can get a 3400 or 4000 for like half the price. I used the 7800gtx then switched over to quadro and have had no regrets. Just don't bother with anything sli right now.

[Goon]

I have absolutely no graphics related issues with maya and my geforce's. I've had a ti4400, a fx5200, and a 6600gt. All in all, I've had a very bug free experience, and see no reason to move up to the quadro level until I start using maya professionally. But if you can reasonably afford a quadro, then yeah, sure, why not.

[L.Rawlins]

Just thinking out loud here, but would it be possible to benefit from both? I mean, if you had a Geforce and a Quadro linked in some awesome 'Quadforce' configuration?...

The Geforce card taking the helm for gaming, and the Quadro for when CG is to be done. Since dual cards in a system is the 'in thing' at the moment, surely you could get the best of both worlds somehow... :shrug:

I was just reading about laptops that run onboard graphics for battery longevity and when plugged into the wall, the meaty and fully fledged GPU takes over, which lead me to this thought about alternating cards in desktops.

I don't know how feasible it would be, but it would be damn handy. :)

[FunkyCowie]

I bought one of these recently and its rock solid in Maya

Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GS+ SILENT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP)
- GeForce™ 7900 GT GPU running at 450MHz+ (Great Overclocking Potential)
- 512MB 1250MHz+ high speed GDDR3 memory (Great Overclocking Potential)
- Superscalar 24-Pipe GPU Architecture
- SILENT Cooling solution
- High-Speed DDR 256-bit Memory Interface
- Dual 400MHz RAMDACs

It overclocks nicely without any issues, there are similar cards that you can get that are PCI-E, I really don`t see much of a difference in stability between my Quadro and my Geforce.

[DanSilverman]

I am currently running a 7800 amd was running a 6800 previously. The new 7800 (as well as the 6800 before it) runs flawlessly in MAX, Modo and Silo. It is a very speedy card able to0 truly push the polygons around and its color display is great as well. I have not experienced any bugginess at all (no stability problems).

As far as the Quadro/GeForce arguments go, the only thing I find in favor of the Quadro is the certification (if you need it). If not, then I see no advantage. As stated, the chipsets are the same. As shown in previous threads on this forum, most mid to high-end GeForces can be modded to become Quadros (i.e. a Quadro BIOS can be used on a GeForce card to unlock Quadro features ... if they are already not unlocked). Secondly, even without a mod, apps like RivaTuner can unlock the Quadro features allowing you to take advantage of them on your Geforce cards. I have to say that I did not do this with the 7800 that I am currently running, but I did with my 6800 and it worked flawlessly.

Other than certification (if you need it) there is no reason I can see to go for a Quadro card when you can essentially get the same thing for hundreds less. In some cases, the GeForce will even push more polys and more textures through its pipeline than the same Quadro in its class (same chip set) and may even feature a faster GPU and faster RAM.

[Sheldyn]

Thanks everyone,
I have done lots of searching on the subject as i've stated and all the info is great, but there seemed to be many varied opinions.
Can i ask which Quadro that is not too pricey,my budget about $400/500 ozdollars (300/400US) and which would you choose out of the 6800 or 7800gforce cards apart from the price.I totally agree that stability is the key issue here,but then again Dans comments are also very interesting, thanks agin.

Shelydn.

[ambient-whisper]

Stability Stability Stability

-Lu

i get apps crashing on quadros all the time. a often as on geforce cards. so theres no benefit as far as stability goes at all. ofcourse if your using an app like houdini, youll see some benefits as the menus use a few quadro specific calls. though if you are going to go quadro anyway, then get one of the older ones as they are still very good. even the quadro 4 980xgl which doesnt cost too much, but its an agp card.

at work i worked for a while with the quadro 4 980xgl and it was very solid.
worked on a quadro fx 3000 it was ok but i found that the 980 worked better.
now i got a quadro 1400 and its fast too.

at home i got a geforce 7800gtx and i notice no difference in speed from the quadros ( except in houdini :/ )

stability is pretty much equal between all these nvidia cards.

[DoubleSupercool]

The thing is, AFAIK, a low range Quadro card will cost you the price of a good-great gaming card and the performance will be . . . "quaint".

I got a quadro fx1100 with my computer bundle about 2 years ago as they had some left over from a promotion and got it for a great price, but next computer I will seriously debate whether I should spend the money on a Quadro or save the cash and buy some other gear. They are MUCH more expensive than a gaming card.

Still, I might have a Mac next time so who knows?!?!

ETA: to directly contradict myself, there is an FX4000 on ebay Aus for $600!

[dvornik]

i get apps crashing on quadros all the time. a often as on geforce cards. so theres no benefit as far as stability goes at all.

True dat - double true...

[DuttyFoot]

i was checking out the same thing last night. i am thinking of buidling a new system so i wanted to see what nvidia has to offer. i went to nvidias site to just compare some specs of the gforce 7900gtx and the range of quadro cards. what i noticed is that the specs of the 7900gtx and the quadro 4500 is about the same. other than a huge price gap, what is it that really sets them apart from each other.

i currently have a quadro 4 750 in my pc which works without any trouble. while in school we had gforce fx 5700's in all the pcs. and we never had any trouble running maya. none at all. so i really dont see what the difference is other than the certification of these cards for use by software companies.

i will try to gather a bit more info on what it is that makes the quadro card that much different from the gforce fx cards.

hey sheldyn i think the quadro mid-range 1500 card might be in the 500 range, but why get that when you can get the 7800 gtx for about the same price.

i think you should visit nvidias site if you haven't done so as yet and compare the quadro and gforce cards before you buy.

GeForce 7900 GTX Graphics Bus Technology PCI Express Memory 512MB Memory Interface 256-bit Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 51.2

Quadro 4500 Graphics Bus Technology PCI Express Memory 512MB Memory Interface 256-bit Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 33.6

[Sheldyn]

Thanks Duttyfoot,
I'll have a look, by the way what are the specs for your new machine.

[ademation]

I have a quadro fx4400 in my workstation at home and at the office we have the gf 6800 Gts i and i really see no difference in speed. if you say you are a beginner in maya and max i would say buy a geforce and spend the money you would pay for the qaudro on more ram;)

cheers
dressta

[DuttyFoot]

i haven't built my new machine as yet, but i am looking at the amd dual core x2 4800 processor, the asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe, or the A8N SLI Deluxe with 2 gigs of ram. oh and lets not forget the Gforce 7900 Gtx.

dont have a whole lot of cash to play with right now, so i will be buying things a little at a time.

I am probably just going to swap out what i have in my case now, and replace it with the new parts.

[dvornik]

I have a quadro fx4400 in my workstation at home and at the office we have the gf 6800 Gts i and i really see no difference in speed...
dressta

You see no difference because there is no difference. If you want to know more about how much difference there isn't you can check Maya SpecAPC benchmarks in this article on CGSociety (ignore Specviewperf - they are useless):
http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3321&page=3

Now Max is a bit of a different story cause there are custom drivers for it... that nobody uses anyway...

[Kostadamus]

Maxtreme drivers are next to useless like the above poster said, I get better performance out of D3D in both shaded, and shaded/wire.

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