To Quadro or to GTX?

[dlthomas]

I'm trying to build the best computer I can with the budget I've got (about £800). The trouble at the moment seems to be deciding on a suitable graphics card. I was going to choose the nVida Quadro FX3800, but at £730 I would need to delay buying it (that's how much the rest of the computer costs!).

It has been suggested to me by somebody else in the forum that instead I use the nVida GTX 470. Its half the price of the Quadro, but has mixed reviews in terms of performance with programs like 3Ds Max and Cinema 4D. Its a gaming card, but apparently the power of it will make up for that?

My main priority is getting a good performance from Cinema 4D, Maya and After Effects. At the moment I've got a Macbook Pro with a RadeonX1600... which to put it politely is terrible. Some of my work is for professional purposes, but I'm still learning so a lot of it is still my own projects. What I'm asking is if you think its worth holding off a little while and buying the expensive one or buying the GTX 470?

Of course, if you have any other cards that come to mind I'd be happy to hear about them.


Just to give you an idea of the other stuff that will go with it:

Motherboard:
ASUS P6X58D-E

Power:
Corsair 650TX

CPU:
Intel i7 930

RAM:
Crucial 4GB

HD:
Samsung HD103SJ 1TB

CD/DVD:
Samsung SH-S223L

 

[dlthomas]

A thread was resurrected yesterday and I found it very interesting. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/243795-15-quadro-geforce-maya-gaming

It was comparing Quadro and GTX back in 2008. I was wondering if any of the people who joined in that discussion are still around and if you've got different/ same opinions on the latest gen?

TheGreatGrapeApe and a few others seemed to have a different opinion from what I've heard so far (People have been telling me the sheer force of gtx 460/ 470 will out weigh the quadro). You seem to have a different opinion?

izi_seth said - "Still, none of my 3D programs including maya ever used my 8800gtx. It helped in modeling itself, but the rendering would still be done by the CPU........ "

That kind of worries me and I'm wondering if this will be the case if I buy gtx 460 or 470. At the moment I've got a macbook pro that runs RadeonX1600. Its terrible, but I can animate fine.. the issue is with rendering and encoding - which takes ages. Admittedly the processor is far less powerful than the new one I'm getting.. but that's the main reason I'm building this computer - to improve my render time.

I suppose I don't mind buying a cheap gtx 460/ or 270 for now and then upgrading when I can afford it. I just want to know if you think it's worth it or not? If its not I may opt to buy gtx 4800 or something a little more substantial that will last.

 

[dlthomas]

Oh... and I'm still wondering if people have diff opinions regarding gtx 4700/4800 vs mid range quadros. At the moment I'm sold on the fact that the power of the gtxs will outweigh the benefits of the quadros?

bear in mind that I will never game on this pc