guppy Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 Hello Im thinking of getting a Quadro FX 4600 Graphics card for Architectural Visualization but saw that the Geforce 8800 Ultra XXX was way cheaper. I know its because of the whole Geforce is for gaming and Quadro optimised for renderings, but since the Gefore is faster and supports DirectX10 you can work from Direct 3D. Please can anyone clarify which card would be better for me and why I shouldnt go with the cheaper Geforce 8800 UltraXXX route. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 Actually, you'd do nearly as well with a Geforce 8800GTS card, especially one of the ones overclocked by the manufacturer like a 580MHz XFX card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 I got an 8800GTS 640 MB and it has been awesome. I couldn't imagine spending the outrageous money needed for a quadro card at this point, and up until this point I had always gone with quadros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zdravko Barisic Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 ..or wait week or two for brand new model 8800GT it will be much closer to 8800GTX than to GTS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 One reason you may need a Quadro is if you plan on using a realtime app that uses CG; these require Quadros, and the same goes for Gelato. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 True - if you are planning on doing a lot of Alias Studio work with realtime hardware rendering, get the Quadro We've given serious thought to FireGL cards for people working on large Revit projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 True - if you are planning on doing a lot of Alias Studio work with realtime hardware rendering, get the Quadro We've given serious thought to FireGL cards for people working on large Revit projects. My (new) ATI 9600 Pro crapped out on me at home a few years ago, and there was zero support -ATI basically told me to f off; at work, our 7 Fire GL128s crapped out on us (constant freezes and lock-ups), and again their support was so non-existant that they've been blacklisted here ever since (4 years now). We don't even consider Ati or read reviews, etc; it's automatically nvidia. How's nvidia's support? -we don't know because their stuff always works:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macpod Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 One reason you may need a Quadro is if you plan on using a realtime app that uses CG; these require Quadros, and the same goes for Gelato. what do you mean by 'CG' [edit] alright......Nvidia proprietary technology......booo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Movex Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Quadro still the best dudes! =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 what do you mean by 'CG' [edit] alright......Nvidia proprietary technology......booo Sorry, I should have mentioned that. It's Nvidia's shader language. For instance, Gelato uses it (you'll find it on nvidia's site), and some apps use it so they can use the graphics card to actually do the rendering, both realtime and offline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Is it used in anything that's currently useful in arch vis? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Autodesk Showcase, probably others. I assume that nvidia's site would have info on apps that use CG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Wow. wow? sarcasm, or did you find something cool? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Autodesk Showcase - I'm impressed both by the images and by the hardware requirements. The images look even better than the hardware rendering in AliasStudio and the requirements include a Quadro 4500. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceAged Posted November 1, 2007 Share Posted November 1, 2007 I find that the 8800 works perfectly well for 3D work, is more cost effective than the Quadro, and has the added bonus of being a top gaming card. I tried a Quadro card last year and could not see any noticeable viewport performance increase. Most of the GPU features are not used by 3D apps like Max, and the graphics card will not improve or speed up your rendering in any way, (in all but the most specialist software/hardware setups). Interestingly though I understand Feversofts proposed RC4 software will be taking advantage of SLI technology to boost performance. So a feature primarily associated with gaming could see more use in 3D work in the future... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhodesy Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Yeah I think quadros are overkill these days. for arch viz a top geforce is more than enough. You can save your money and put it towards a new geforce in a couple of years time if you need to instead of being left with aging hardware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamir Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 The main advantage of the Quadro cards over the G-Force cards lies in Open GL, so if your software is using open GL as its main graphics acceleration protocol (which is true for most modeling software) then the Quadro will be a better choice. If however, you are using Direct X driven applications, then the G-Force 800,s will deliver superior performance. So the real question is: Open GL or Direct X? The price issue stems from the fact that the Quadro cards are manufactured directly by Nvidia whereas the G-force manufacturing is licensed to exterior contractors who are busy competing for the market through price reductions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 The price issue stems from the fact that the Quadro cards are manufactured directly by Nvidia whereas the G-force manufacturing is licensed to exterior contractors who are busy competing for the market through price reductions. Actually, Quadros are not made by nVidia -they don't manufacture anything- but rather, they're made by PNY in North America, and others elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt McDonald Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 The main advantage of the Quadro cards is their drivers, otherwise they are essentially identical to the GeForce (where it counts anyways). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guppy Posted November 23, 2007 Author Share Posted November 23, 2007 Thanks for the awesome response. Going back to the first post. I got the Quadro Fx 4600 with 2x Xeons(what a machine). My boss was so impressed about the stability and rendering times that they got the exact same machine except for the graphics card which they opted to go for the Geforce 8800GTS. Finally, we loaded the same 3ds max scene with the same settings and placed our bets on a little RENDER RACE. THE WINNER.........Quadro FX 4600 beat the Geforce 8800GTS by 38 Sec per frame(63 minutes over 100 frames). So Im happy that I forked out the extra money for the Quadro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 That doesn't make sense. There must have been some other factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 That doesn't make sense. There must have been some other factor. I agree: it doesn't make sense, unless you're rendering with Gelato, but then the 8800 wouldn't work, so...your results must be due to another factor. Are the machines identical? -because Dell doesn't offer the dual Xeons with game cards (doesn't stiop you from putting one in though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrewH Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 I have a 8800 GT at home and a Quadro FX 3500 at work, I use Viz on both. For the most part they both handle Viz very well. I have noticed at home when I have smooth and highlights on and I attempt to rotate the image (I hold down the mouse button and rotate/pan) I get a white screen and am unable to see the image untill I let go of my mouse button. My home system has Direct X10 installed. Any thoughts on how to fix this? I should also mention that I am using Viz05, and will be upgrading to Viz08 in January/February. Maybe my problem goes away with the upgrade? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Possibly. Max/Viz's DirectX support has been getting better in the newer versions, 05 has bugs that 08 doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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