GPU 4 gaming vs GPU 4 CAD real difference?

Hi,

I need help to understand the real difference between these 2 kind of GPU.
Is there a test that shows the comparison?
What makes the gaming is not so good for 3D and why Quadro type is not so good for gaming?

I'm thinking to build a desktop pc, if I bought a gaming GPU like Nvidia 9800 or ATI 4850, in the future, would it be possible to swap it with an Nvidia Quadro without changing the motherboard? Or do I have to change anything else?

The reason is Quadro is kind of expensive right now and my 3D CAD skill is not that great yet. So I''m planning to use the gaming GPU first and maybe in 1 year if possible, I'll exchange the GPU with Quadro type.

Thanks,

 

Its basically down to drivers.

They are the same as the gaming cards, but use a different software which makes them more efficient at rendering 3D scenes e.t.c

 

They're the same hardware. Get the GeForce because it's cheaper. Then, just install Quadro drivers and it's the same thing.

 

I dont know much about this gaming vs cad cards business, but I really doubt the only difference is the drivers. if there is not difference in hardware at all, who is dumb enough to pay 3x the price for a cad card?

 

A workstation/CAD card is virtually the same as a gaming card that has the same specifications. They are overpriced because people are naive enough to pay for them.

The drivers, of course, are different. But you can use CAD card drivers on a gaming card and vice versa.

 

Totally wrong information....
GPUs for professional graphic works have many other hardware features that a consumer GPU doesn't have.
Next time try to do bit of research before posting.
A quadro GPU can use Geforce drivers, but not the other way around.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=80145

 

Glad I wasn't the only one about to call out the mis-informed people here...

 

Um, Han Bao, your own source says the real difference is the drivers. The only hardware difference brought up is that:

So, as long as they have the same specifications (including the memory type), they do indeed have similar performance. I'm not saying the workstation cards are literally rebranded gaming cards, but a workstation/gaming card with such and such core and memory and clock speeds and interface and bus and whatever will perform like a gaming/workstation card with the same core and memory and clock speeds and bus and interface and whatever as long as you install the right drivers.

The stability and optimization differences are all done in how the drivers operate.

 

It's also a stability thing and the optimization of the GPU for 2d or 3d apps, respectively.

 

the difference?
believe it or not its driver support.
Hardware is the same (amybe only a few differences in memory GDDR type etc). so people are paying far more than they should for quadro.

If you install a quadro driver on a geforce card, that isn't enough to turn it into a quadro without more hacking, the driver would still not detect Pro apps as well as it should.

The hacking of making geforce cards detect quadro apps is much easier on XP than it is for vista where you'd have to mod the nvcpl.dll.
(Yes I have done this....)

You can make driver detection of quadro apps on geforce drivers or quadro, obviously you'd get better results making geforce detect pro apps with native quadro drivers.

 

It's more than just a driver support. Hardware accelerations and OpenGL optimizations are disabled on Geforce GPU. Hacking driver isn't enough really.

 

Thanks for the info.

So it seems for sure that I can change the driver on Quadro to perform like a gaming card FX but not always true on the other way, am I right?

Back to my other question, if I want to exchange my GPU, let's say an FX, in the future with a Quadro, will it be easily done without replacing anything else?

Thanks,

 

A good thing is always going to the source

www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_geforce.html this document will tell you something about the diffrences... Tho it comes from nVidia, I would take their words to be true, as they are the ones making the cards... I know its a fairly old document, but I would suspect, that the diffrences between Quadro and Geforce to be somewhat the same as it states...

Main differences, taken from that document, says that Quadro is optimized for OpenGL, Antialiased points, Lightning, Multiple Viewpoints and such... I know hacks have been talked about, but, it seems that its impossible to unlock all features of the quadros in a geforce, atleast with 8-series and above...

Tho, unless your a hardcore 3D CAD designer, making animations on pro level or something like that, the geforce should do the trick, specially when talking laptops, as most laptops, simply wount do as a rendering station yet (5 secs simple rendering in solidworks takes my lappy several minutes... If you really wants to render, get a Xeon/Quad-Core desktop still) Ive not had problems with any 3D CAD programmes I use (Which mostly is SolidWorks), using a Geforce

As a little sidenote, 3D CAD programmes, highly relays on CPU/Memory power, thats why I would recommand you looking for a desktop workstation for these programmes, as these tends to be able to hold more/faster memory and better CPU's...

 

they are disabled because the geforce driver doesnt enable it
hacking the quadro driver to support geforce cards and for the driver to detect pro apps for that gpu makes that geforce gpu preety much a quadro, no?

 

DoxLV2GO: It might detect it as a quadro and give you some of the abillities of a quadro, but to get the full out of it, there seems to be a need of some hardware modding aswell. I cannot confirm this, other than what ive read on forums here and there. Also this seems to only be true for earlier series, before 8-series...

From my point of view, keep it seperated as quadro for pro workstations and geforce cards for everything else, if you gotta have nVidia that is, ATi is still not dead

 

DOxLV2GO's point is that the reason the hardware doesn't work is because the software doesn't allow it. If I'm reading him correct it's not like there are some shaders or pipelines disabled on the hardware itself, the software just isn't utilizing some of the optimizations.

I don't know any of this one way or another, just clarifying what I'm reading.

 

yes thats exactly what I'm saying.
Whatever nvidia says they are just trying to make a tidy profit.
The extra AA and opengl performance and all the rest is the the quadro drivers!!!

 

I get your point and ive seen that the driver hacks works to atleast some extend (which I also writes ) so im with you so far There are charts confirming that you will get a performance boost in 3d apps as CAD's and such, using these software mods. But ive still not seen any real comparison between a quadro card and a softmodded quadro card... from what ive read, taken a guy who claims to have more than 14 years of experience putting together workstations (still not seen any real results, so cant confirm it) quadro cards will still do the job better than softmodded quadros...

If ive missed something, please give some links/info/docs (not just the spec charts of both cards, I know that quadro and geforce is based on same chip, ie. FX 3700 and 8800GT is based on the G92 chip, talking desktop cards here) which can confirm 100% that there are NO diffrences between a softmodded quadro and a real quadro