Quadro vs 8800 Series

[Kampfire]

I don't know if this has been asked before but, I was wondering what the differences are between a 8800 series card and nvidia's quadro line up. At my work we use FX3450s for our CAD workstations. My question is why wouldn?t you just use say a 8800 GTX instead. It seems that in almost every category the GTX is better at just about half the price. Is there some features on the quadro cards that make them that much better for CAD and FEA?

 

[Gamingphreek]

Among some various software Optimizations and Enhancements the only difference is that the Quadros support Line (Wire Frame) Anti-Aliasing.

-Kevin

 

[Wags1974]

I dont know the why either.

My new rig which has a 3ghz clocked core2duo and a 8800gts is piss poor in solidworks 2007 3dmodeling compared to my several year old 2.6ghz clocked 3200winchester with a 6800gt softmodded to quadro.

The 8800 series seems to bite the weenie when it comes to cad.

 

[lambchops511]

seems like professional cards have MUCH better drivers compared to regular cards

 

[Nightmare225]

Originally posted by: aznium
seems like professional cards have MUCH better drivers compared to regular cards

Try playing games with a professional card... :disgust:

 

[NatePo717]

Originally posted by: Nightmare225

Originally posted by: aznium
seems like professional cards have MUCH better drivers compared to regular cards

Try playing games with a professional card... :disgust:

Pro cards are designed for accuracy and precision unlike gaming cards which are designed for speed. The drivers for a Professional card are excellent for what they are designed for but trying to make them do something they are not designed to do will give you performance losses. Same goes with gaming cards, good for speed/bad for precision.

Wags: Have you checked to make sure you aren't using Software OpenGL in SolidWorks? I'm not 100% sure but I think SolidWorks will turn on Software OpenGL during installation if the graphics card being used is not recognized. G80 was not out when 2007 was in development (plus we haven't done any performance testing with G80 that I know of yet). Software OpenGL option is located under Tools > Options > Performance > Use Software OpenGL.

EDIT: We haven't done testing with G80 cards yet. All of the cards we have tested can be found here.

 

[Wags1974]

NatePo- Yep just checked and I am not using software open Gl as that box is not ticked. Should I be? Anyhow the main slowdown is when I use autodimension and drag the dimensions it stutters a little, which sucks because my old machine does it all flawlessly.

Assemblies chug too compared to the old system. Please let me know if there is something I can do which will improve the performance of Solidworks on this PC.

Thank You!!

 

[NatePo717]

Hmm. We don't have anything in our databases about the 8800 series so I can really only make a few suggestions (don't have any of these cards to test with). Check under display/selection and make sure AA edges/sketches is off. You may also want to try going under Doc Properties > Image Quality and turning down these settings. Normally I would suggest setting your drivers to use the SolidWorks profile but since you are not using a Professional card you don't have it.... There's also a possibility that the NVIDIA drivers are not yet mature enough with regards to OpenGL.

You could also try the Software OpenGL option. It should work fine with small to medium sized/complexity parts and could help your performance.

 

[Wags1974]

Yep using software open gl is actually smoother. I hope nvidia does release some better drivers soon. I kind of mistakenly expected the performance on the 8800 to be equal to the performance on my old 6800gt.

 

[MacAttack]

Games on a Quadro suck. I only have the FX1500, but it is very laggy in Oblivion. They are designed for Cad work imho.

 

[Wags1974]

Who wants to play games on a Quadro? That would be a huge waste of expense.