List of Quadro to GeForce equivalents

so which will be my next GPU for maya?

I made this list for myself, maybe others will find it useful, or can spot any mistakes

FX 370 -------- G84 -------- 8600
FX 570 -------- G84 -------- 8600
FX 1700 ------- G84 -------- 8600
FX 4600 ------- G80 -------- 8800
FX 5600 ------- G80 -------- 8800

FX 370LP ------ G98 -------- GT100
FX 380 -------- G96 -------- 9500
FX 580 -------- G96 -------- 9500
FX 1800 ------- G94 -------- 9600
FX 2700 ------- G92 -------- 9800
FX 3700 ------- G92 -------- 9800

FX 3800 ------- GT200-192 -- GTX260-192
FX 4800 ------- GT200-192 -- GTX260-192
FX 5800 ------- GT200-240 -- GTX285

 

is it that simple,dont Quadro's have different architecture ?

 

rather, its all to do with Device ID's which are able to use different paths in the drivers, the extra hardware is usually just some more ram, the GPU's are just different binned geforce chips. Which is pretty much why Quadro drivers are just Higher quality Geforce Drivers.

 

yep, it's mostly drivers

and I don't even think they bin the chips or anything: it's exactly the same chips, in basically the same cards, sometimes with more memory, or with some additional connectors, but what you pay for is drivers (or, as someone said, for the deviceID that makes the "good" drivers work on a particular card)

 

so in essence, you are paying for service support and reliability of component architecture as well as the different driver functionality. - that's interesting, as I bought a genuine quadro card a couple of years back - a 4500, and have been thinking about whether to re-invest in a quadro or go for a regular desktop card and look to perhaps mod as my 3d modelling isn't my job, just a hobby.

 

well... what kind of software are you using? because it seems like CATIA and other engineering programs do benefit from quadro/firepro cards, but maya doesn't need it at all anymore:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=307873
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=307466

we still don't have results for 3dsmax, but this guy reached conclusions similar to ours (i.e. get a geforce/radeon card and stick to xp):
http://area.autodesk.com/forum/auto...quadro-benchmarks-40actual-tests41/post-0/#p0

 

Norman, I use CATIA and AliasStudio currently running under Windows 7 x64.
I know that all of the Autodesk family is undergoing a revolution with regards to their graphic card requisites at the moment, but Dassault is very set in its ways - i'd love to be able to spend on a supreme spec geforce card rather than a quadro as I know however much I spend i'll have change left over!

 

if you're interested in CATIA performance, look at CADCAT's comments here:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=275174&page=20

he's getting some good CATIA performance from a modded radeon, so a 2GB HD4870 would be a good choice right now (I think generation 5 is still not moddable)

 

Thanks Norman for the link, which I read with interest.

I've always been an Nvidia boy, never having had an ATI card.

However, the GTX285 looks interesting, has anyone had any success with one of these to date?

Also, sorry for my ignorance, but do they retain their normal geforce capabilities when modded to a quadro solution?

 

@Sev: Nope, they're closer to their Quadro counterparts now. Lower performance in texture-eating games, but higher performance in vertex processing and the like.

Any luck with flashing a GTX 260 C216 (55nm) to an FX4800? Unfortunately, the one FX4800 BIOS I found causes VRAM related issues (successfully flashed back to the regular GTX 260 BIOS). It's a lost cause though.

 

Here's one: http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/GR...dro-FX-4800-Video-BIOS-62006A0004-Rev-A.shtml

And you can try to find more here: http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,26/func,select/id,58/

There doesn't even seem to be a search function for the files. I tried through their forum and found squat.

I'd try flashing mine to an FX 5800 but I'm pretty sure it will blow up in my face. I thought I read somewhere that there is absolutely no way to mod modern cards into Quadros. What happened to the good old days where you could click a button to softmod your GeForce into a Quadro. :cry:


Norman, for working with 3D applications wouldn't having more RAM (your specs say 2GB) help you more than a new video card would at this point?

 

the modded geforce@quadro should be just as good to play games as before the mod

I used to have 4x1GB, but then I bought a second system and split that to 2x1GB on each, did some tests, and found out that, for what I was doing at the time, it didn't make a difference; maybe that has changed now, I'll have to reunite those 4 sticks again and check with the MayaCarBench to see if there's any difference... but for that I need both systems to be idle, and that hasn't happened at any point in the last couple of weeks!

in any case, take into account that I'm on xp.32, so I'd have to get myself a licence of xp.64 if I wanted to use the full 4GB, otherwise I'm moving from 2GB to a bit below 3GB of usable memory, maybe that's why it doesn't make a difference


edit: and, by the way, I do 3D, but I'm not a pro; the reason I'm so interested in this is, first, that I like doing 3D, and, second, that I'm the unnoficial hardware advisor for a couple of friends who DO make a living on 3D and VFX (one of them may get to spend some HUGE amounts of money on hardware and software in the coming months)

 

I'm curious about one thing: in the case of the FX 580 and up (not the 380, pretty certain), 1800, 3800, 4800, and 5800, the cards have the ability to output 30-bit color over DisplayPort. I dont believe any Geforce could do that so there are circuitry differences in some cards, correct?