Differences betwee nvidia's Quadro FX series vs. GTX 280 series

farbs

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I dug a bit deeper and have found that most architecture 3d software prefers the nvidia quadro FX series as its GPU.

I really dont understand the differences between the two video cards?

How would a GTX 280 perform differently?
 

meodowla

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Quadro FX cards are equipped with heavy rendering capabilities than GTX280.... So they are much capable for high end Video editing applications...

Some of the features that Quadro FX card have are:
- 128-bit color precision
- Unlimited fragment instruction
- Unlimited vertex instruction
- 3D volumetric texture support
- 12 pixels per clock rendering engine
- Hardware accelerated antialiased points and lines
- Hardware OpenGL overlay planes
- Hardware accelerated two-sided lighting
- Hardware accelerated clipping planes
- 3rd generation occlusion culling
- 16 textures per pixel in fragment programs
- Window ID clipping functionality
- Hardware accelerated line stippling

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/250013-33-quadro-1700-geforce-9800


 

V3NOM

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the architectures are different... one is optimized for CAD etc the other is for GAMES. it would be foolish to get a quadro FX for gaming purposes because

1: does it have directx support?
2: if so, it wouldn't be optimized for games anyway
3: for that amount of money you could get a real gaming card configuration (ie more than one) that would blow its socks off :kaola:

end of thread?
 

farbs

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I never said I wanted to get a Quadro FX for gaming purposes.

I need a GPU for architecture software that I am going to be using for graduate school.

I dont expect you to read every thread but I posted early tonight asking about ATI HD 4870's and GTX 280s, SLI, Crossfire, etc.

I want to build a machine for the architecture software I use, but like I said, I am an occational gamer. I didn't know that the Quadro was the prefered card until I made this post
 

meodowla

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All Gaming GPU's are developed from Quadro's.
The Chip of Quadro FX 5800 is used in GeForce GTX 280 (240 shaders).
The Chip of Quadro FX 4800 is used in GeForce GTX 260 (192 shaders).

According to nvidia Officials:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_geforce.html

All Gaming cards are designed for their speed of rendering... while Professional cards for the capability of high resource handling.... they produce precise images than gaming/consumer level GPU's..
So for a gamer, no need of Professional cards...
I think, games can't be played well in Quadros...

Difference is like Xenon Workstation and Core2Extreme...
 

farbs

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Thanks for the reply.

So Im trying to figure out if the money on the Quadro FX1700 card is worth it (~$450). I am entry/mid level right now for most ofo the 3d autodesk software.

Otherwise, a GTX 280 is ~$100 less and a HD 4870 is ~$200 less.

Since the 280 is based off the FX chipset, maybe its a better all around choice
 

jzsang

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I can't really say how the card will perform, as I don't own one and cannot find gaming benchmarks.

Nevertheless...

I did discover that the Quadro FX 1700 is based of the G84 process. Notably, this process also spawned the 8600 GTS, 8600 GT and 8400 GS. Given this information, coupled with your question regarding gaming performance, I am speculating that the FX 1700 performs at a level similar to that of its relatives.

Lastly, while I could not find gaming benchmarks for the FX 1700, I did find these for other Quadro and FireGL models...

http://hothardware.com/Articles/Ultra-HighEnd-Workstation-Graphics-Card-Shootout/?page=13 (note - link contains $1000+ cards)

http://pcquest.ciol.com/content/search/showarticle.asp?artid=79831

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/quadrofx-vs-firegl_17.html#sect0

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/quadro-fx5600-fx4600_13.html#sect0



 

stasdm

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Really there is very little (mostly cosmetics) difference between "pro" and consumer cards. The only difference is in drivers and, really, consumer drivers are more complicated (and so, more expensive in development) than professional ones. But both nVIDIA and AMD are cheating professionals because the HAVE to have faster (fatless) drivers.

Really "pro" drivers run nicely on any consumer card (after some hacking - replacing pro models codes for consumer ones in the drivers check-up procedures).
 

Geeerard00

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Soo Say i wanted a laptop used for gaming and for Cad is that possible with a GTX260m or do i have to buy a quadro fx card
I plan on buying alienware laptop i no its specialy made for gaming but will it run Cad too?