nvidia Quadro FX3700 vs. Geforce 310

[Brodie Geers]

I've got the quadro in my current computer and I'm replacing the computer with a totally new one, but the new one has a Geforce 310 in it. I'm trying to decide whether I should keep the 310 in right now, or if I should replace it with the Quadro. Any advice?

 

In terms of what I use it for, I primarily use SketchUp with a bit of 3ds Max and AutoCAD thrown in occasionally. I also use After Effects and Premiere from time to time. And a good deal of Photoshop.

 

I understand that based on my Autodesk use I could go with the Quadro simply for the performance drivers but I'm not sure if perhaps there's something with the 310, being a much newer card, that might outweigh the fairly small gain of the performance drivers.

 

-Brodie

[AJLynn]

The 310 is really quite pathetic. The Quadro is a couple generations old but it's a Quadro'ed Geforce 9800 series. I bet the Quadro is (a lot) faster.

[Brodie Geers]

I've had a difficult time finding comparable specs between the two. One thing I noticed was that the quadro supports OpenGL 2.1 whereas the Geforce 310 supports 3.1. Any idea what difference that might make for viewports? I think 3ds max uses OpenGL by default if I'm not mistaken and I know that SketchUp does.

 

-Brodie

[AJLynn]

The last few Max versions use Direct3D by default and the performance drivers use Direct3D, and the 3700 supports Direct3D 10, so it will be fine. Sketchup uses OpenGL but I bet OpenGL 2.1 is fine. Go ahead and test it but I can't imagine a Geforce 310 outperforms an FX3700 in either of those apps.