NVIDIA Quadro is better than GeForce...right???

[sdpcuser2010]

I am a professional video editor who uses Premiere CC and After Effects.
I have been looking at the nvidia quadro k4200 as a good upgrade from what I currently have.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1077250&is=REG&Q=&A=details

but I just saw the GeForce GTX980--and the specs are better--and it's cheaper!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1085204&Q=&is=REG&A=details

On Nvidia's site, the quadro series are considered the professional level cards--ie: better than GeForce level cards..
Any thoughts on this?

 

[xDarkxIdealsx]

I am a professional video editor who uses Premiere CC and After Effects.
I have been looking at the nvidia quadro k4200 as a good upgrade from what I currently have.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1077250&is=REG&Q=&A=details

but I just saw the GeForce GTX980--and the specs are better--and it's cheaper!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1085204&Q=&is=REG&A=details

On Nvidia's site, the quadro series are considered the professional level cards--ie: better than GeForce level cards..
Any thoughts on this?

Go with the GTX980, yes the Quadro's are the cards specifically designed for workstation editing and stuff, but the GTX980 is made with the new Maxwell architecture which means it's more efficient, uses less power, and has better specs. Take a look at these benchmarks,

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-Quadro-K4200-vs-Nvidia-GTX-980/2838vs2576

You'll see that the Quadro loses in every single category regarding specs, it has ~1,300 cuda cores vs ~2,000 on the 980, it's more expensive, has less of several of the various texture/graphics/rendering etc.. units that gpu's use. Overall the GTX980 will run after effects and whatnot at least slightly faster than the Quadro, probably around 10-12% faster, 5-6% at worst even if you got the weakest 980 there is, and due to the cheaper price it would be a better deal.

Not to mention if you plan to do ANY, and i mean ANY!!!! gaming at all then the 980 is definitely the card you want. If you plan to do video rendering and editing professionally though, and your time is money essentially; and if you can afford to splurge a bit i would reccomend that you get the Nvidia Geforce GTX TITAN BLACK or if you can find one used or on sale get the TITAN Z. The TITAN series cards were actually the most powerful Quadro card that Nvidia planned to make, but they turned out to also be very good for gaming so they decided to sell them for $1,000. You can now find original TITAN's for $400-500 on ebay easy, and TITAN BLACK's can still be found in places for ~$700-750 used or open box etc.. and even full price the TITAN Z is about $1,400-1,500 and it is actually TWO of the GTX TITAN put together on one card, so you would have the fastest rendering/editing card in the world with one of the TITAN Z's.

Here's a used original GTX TITAN for auction currently at ~$300 bid

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-GTX-Titan-6GB-GDDR5-Excellent-Condition-In-Box-/321662429971?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ae4932b13

and here's a TITAN BLACK superclocked (newer version of the original, quite a bit better) for $600

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-Titan-Black-Superclocked-SC-6GB-/151579471645?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item234ad72f1d

Or a refurbished TITAN Z going for $800 currently (as i mentioned the Z is two TITAN BLACK's put together)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-TITAN-Z-12GB-GDDR5-PCIe-3-0-GPU-Graphics-Card-/321659141170?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ae460fc32

Hope this helps

 

[sdpcuser2010]

Thank you SO much for your expertise, and time you gave on this. This confirms my thoughts on the comparison, and then some. Such great knowledge to share. Again--thank you.

 

[xDarkxIdealsx]

Thank you SO much for your expertise, and time you gave on this. This confirms my thoughts on the comparison, and then some. Such great knowledge to share. Again--thank you.

Sure, no problem. You can't go wrong with any of the cards mentioned, a 980 if you want a new card on a budget, or a TITAN if you want more power for rendering and don't mind going used, or a TITAN Z if you want the absolute best of the best. That's essentially the short version of things. I've got two GTX970's and it runs Vegas and after-effects, cuda programs, CAD etc.. quite well, and the 970 is just a cut down version of the 980 so you should have similar performance to mine. It really saves alot of time rendering long or high resolution video with effects and stuff.

 

[RobCrezz]

Thank you SO much for your expertise, and time you gave on this. This confirms my thoughts on the comparison, and then some. Such great knowledge to share. Again--thank you.

Quadros and Geforce share almost identical hardware, you pay a lot more for quadros for certain support in programs and certain things that are crippled or disabled in geforce cards, like FP64 performance.

 

[xDarkxIdealsx]

Thank you SO much for your expertise, and time you gave on this. This confirms my thoughts on the comparison, and then some. Such great knowledge to share. Again--thank you.

Quadros and Geforce share almost identical hardware, you pay a lot more for quadros for certain support in programs and certain things that are crippled or disabled in geforce cards, like FP64 performance.

Yeah that's true, but that's a small loss for the overall newer tech and better overall performance that a GTX980 would give over a K4200.

And that's also why i told him to check out a used titan/titan black/titan z, the GTX TITAN was actually supposed to be called the Quadro K6000 but they found out it was good for gaming too so they gave it GeForce Drivers and labeled it as the GTX TITAN. I imagine if you modified the BIOS and drivers to have the same ones that like a Quadro K5000 series card would have it would be an absolute MONSTER for rendering, more than it already is. So because of the TITAN being a Quadro K6000 it has better FP64, CUDA, CAD etc.. performance than other GeForce cards do, honestly the TITAN BLACK is probably the best card out there for a professional renderer who also likes to game. Or if they plan to go with 3 or 4 way SLI the TITAN Z actually becomes a good deal since it's two TITAN's for only $1,500 and you can always SLI it with a single TITAN for 3 way iirc.

 

[caj]

Quadro are basically workstation gpu for cad or heavy desigining etc. Those drivers are highly designed for work or bz purpose. Sure u can go for 1 but they tend to be pricey. Wherea on the other hand u have the gforce cards ranging from the 7 series 770, 780ti to 970 or 980 or if uour bank allows titan black whichnis a hybrid gpu built with gaming and rendereing capabilities .

 

[RobCrezz]

Thank you SO much for your expertise, and time you gave on this. This confirms my thoughts on the comparison, and then some. Such great knowledge to share. Again--thank you.

Quadros and Geforce share almost identical hardware, you pay a lot more for quadros for certain support in programs and certain things that are crippled or disabled in geforce cards, like FP64 performance.

Yeah that's true, but that's a small loss for the overall newer tech and better overall performance that a GTX980 would give over a K4200.

And that's also why i told him to check out a used titan/titan black/titan z, the GTX TITAN was actually supposed to be called the Quadro K6000 but they found out it was good for gaming too so they gave it GeForce Drivers and labeled it as the GTX TITAN. I imagine if you modified the BIOS and drivers to have the same ones that like a Quadro K5000 series card would have it would be an absolute MONSTER for rendering, more than it already is. So because of the TITAN being a Quadro K6000 it has better FP64, CUDA, CAD etc.. performance than other GeForce cards do, honestly the TITAN BLACK is probably the best card out there for a professional renderer who also likes to game. Or if they plan to go with 3 or 4 way SLI the TITAN Z actually becomes a good deal since it's two TITAN's for only $1,500 and you can always SLI it with a single TITAN for 3 way iirc.

It depends entirely on what you are doing.

Some programs are simply 10x faster on a quadro than on a geforce or Titan.

Autodesk Maya for example, is extremely well optimised on Quadros, and if you are doing that work every day, a Geforce, or a Titan simply wont cut it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-8.html