nVidia Quadro-series graphics chip

Neville Bastian · Post by **Neville Bastian** » Fri, Nov 16 2007, 9:28PM

Hi Dean,
I did a search on the forum and couldn't find the answer to my question. I might seem like a tight wad here but what are the performance differences between the low end chip and the top end chip? The price seems to go from $400 up to $2000. I have at least 3 computers to upgrade to use Ecabinets well, so if I know which ones need the performance to those who are used to edit cabinets from site measuring I can juggle my costs.

If you have answered this before please link me to that reply.
Regards

Neville

DanEpps · Post by **DanEpps** » Fri, Nov 16 2007, 10:06PM

Speed and memory capacity. Check out the nVidia comparison chartfor all the information on each chip.

Neville Bastian · Post by **Neville Bastian** » Fri, Nov 16 2007, 10:27PM

Hi Dan,
Thanks for the prompt reply.
Maybe I should rephrase the question. What would be cheaper model card that still benefits from the patch Dean has?

In real life performance with ecabinets, what model would be fine on infrequent Rendering that a foreman would use in customising for one off machining of parts to the other extreme where presentations are given to clients in full Rendering mode. The clients are present so speed is desired.

In the last question what could I get away with? I would imagine the higher the cost of the card the ultimate speed you would achieve.

Thanks for the link to the nVidia site but the spec's go right over my head.

Regards

Neville

DanEpps · Post by **DanEpps** » Sat, Nov 17 2007, 8:38AM

You should do well with any of the mid-range models (FX570, 1400, 1500).

Post by **Dean Fehribach** » Sun, Nov 18 2007, 8:29AM

Neville:

As with all things computer, to gain an additional five or ten percent in performance seems to double the price; this is the case with the Quadro FX series. The FX 540/550/560/570 are great OpenGL-optimized cards and offer significant performance gains over the GeForce and Radeon cards when used with OpenGL apps like eCabinet Systems (eCS). In fact, we use FX 540 and FX 550 cards in our training rooms. But, as I've noticed with some members' extreme jobs, the FX 5x0 cards struggle. So, you're mileage will vary depending on how complex the job is.

The FX 4500 is a fabulous card, but very expensive. We use the FX 4500 cards in demonstrating eCS at trade shows where performance is king.

If I were building a system, I'd focus on the 256MB FX 1500 and only downgrade to the FX 560 if the price is a bit too much. All of these cards require a PCI-Express graphics slot, which will only be found on very recent workstation-class PC's.

Windows XP is a requirement for our Quadro Tweak Utility to work; it's not yet been updated to support Vista and probably won't be updated for Vista until eCS v6 is near.

Neville Bastian · Post by **Neville Bastian** » Sun, Nov 18 2007, 10:48PM

Thanks Dean. That does explain the difference. I'll buy them according to the persons needs. I'll get the faster one because I need the bragging rights.
Regards

Neville