Video card dilemma...

[chotto69]

I'm building my new PC which will be based on E6600 Dual Core, Asus PW5 DH, 2 Gb Corsair. As for the video card i am not sure whether to get a Quadro FX (1500, 3500 or even 4500 since on eBay often you can get them quite "cheaply") or a high end gamer card such as nvidia 7900, 7950 or ati 1900XT. I'm not into games (even though i might enjoy a game occasionally) and i'm using my pc mainly for video editing (PP2), after production effects (AE7 and Combustion 4) and i just started getting into 3D with Lightwave. I have a dual monitor configuration but i'm running both at 1600x1200 (i know the Quadro cards can do twice that resolution).
Do you think that i'd see a major improvement in performance (mainly speed) using a Quadro FX card instead of a consumer 7950? I can get a 1500 at the same price of a 7950 (or ATI 1900) while 3500 or 4500 ar quite pricey though.
Thank you for any advice you can give me!
Alessandro Manciani

 

[JAG87]

The decision is simple. If you use plenty of Direct3D applications (ehm... most games) the GeForce is your choice. If you do mostly 2D and OpenGL (most 3D design software, and a few games) the Quadro is your choice.

However, if you decide to get a Quadro, the performance will be so horrible in D3D applications that you will hardly be able to play any games at 1600x1200. On the other hand it will be a LOT faster in OpenGL rendering applications. Faster gaming, or faster working, that is the question... if you need help in italiano pm me perche parlo italiano. By the way you english is very good.

Welcome to the forums!


EDIT
by the way, this goes in video not in general hardware.

 

[chotto69]

Originally posted by: JAG87
The decision is simple. If you use plenty of Direct3D applications (ehm... most games) the GeForce is your choice. If you do mostly 2D and OpenGL (most 3D design software, and a few games) the Quadro is your choice.

However, if you decide to get a Quadro, the performance will be so horrible in D3D applications that you will hardly be able to play any games at 1600x1200. On the other hand it will be a LOT faster in OpenGL rendering applications. Faster gaming, or faster working, that is the question... if you need help in italiano pm me perche parlo italiano. By the way you english is very good.

Welcome to the forums!


EDIT
by the way, this goes in video not in general hardware.

Hi, thank you for the quick reply (and for complimenting my English!)
I thought the same but i was only wondering how much worst a game would look (say at 1024x768) and especially how much speed i'd gain say in a rendering...

 

[JAG87]

The game is not going to look worse, its going to run slower. I would say compare to a 7950GX2 its going to have less than half of the performance. So if in a game lets say you get 100 fps with a GX2, with a quadro you will get less than 50. Sometimes it can be as bad as a quarter of the performance in D3D, so 25 fps. keep in mind this is proportional to 100.

On the other hand the Quadro can perform up to 4 times faster than a GeForce in rendering. So if something renders in 100 seconds on a 7950GX2, it will renderer in 25 seconds on a quadro. Worst case scenario it will renderer in ~50 seconds (half the time).

So as you can see the roles are reversed. I would take a look at some Lightwave benchmarks and find out on which card the program renders faster.

 

[chotto69]

Thank you again for your reply JAG87, i'll look at some benchmarks as you said. I think i've almost made up my mind to a quadro card (amost...) since i'm not a big gamer (i've got a 6600gt right now and i've read somewhere that a quadro at least performs like a 6800) and i'll be doing a lot of renderings with my new rig.

 

[JAG87]

well I forgot to mention you can softmod a 6800 to a quadro FX 4000.
so before you go spending you money on a quadro, try and get a hold of a used 6800 GT or Ultra that you can tamper with and follow these intructions line by line

 

[chotto69]

Thanks again: i'll check it out if i can find a used one at a good price:thumbsup: