"Upgrading" GTX 680m to Quadro K3000M? (p150em)

Is it possible, and how possible? I've never looked into anything other than gaming cards, so I know really nothing about the compatibility and usability differences.

Also, is there any good mobile Quadro reviews/previews, by someone who knows why Quadro exists in the first place? Aka someone who doesn't say "it's on par with gtx blabla" because well duh, you're doing it wrong.

 

Quadro are the pro grade GPUs, but then you could have found that out with a simple search.
Why would you want one given what you have is so much better?

It is an option on your laptop, so resellers might be able to get hold of one for you if that's really what you want.

 

Like TImets stated, it's a professional card. Designed around workstation use for Graphic Design work such as CAD, 3D modeling, etc... for gameplay the 680 will be treating you much better.

 

...that's why I want it. And that's why I put quotes on 'upgrade'. And that's why I want a review from someone who doesn't just benchmark it in gaming like an idiot.

I'm spending less and less of my time in gaming, and more in 3D/Photoshop/etc, so I figured a Quadro card will suit me much better, because it's not exactly terrible in gaming either should I want to do that. I haven't even had any 3D games installed for a month or something, and haven't spend time playing them in another couple months.

 

This is the review from Notebookcheck.net HERE

Not a whole lot of info there but it's a start.

 

Your best option will depend on the program and your budget.

 

You have a 680m, so unless your software workflow REQUIRES certified drivers, the 680m is a better raw compute engine then the K3000m at this point. And it should be able to accelerate most software packages that can be accelerated, as I said the only caveat is that if you NEED certified Quadro drivers then off to quadro land you go

 

If you don't know, and your asking to upgrade to a Quadro, then yeah, you're doing it wrong I think is a great response It's a fantastic response. Just an FYI, Quadro cards are the most expensive computer products out there IMO. Other than possibly the monstrous 42" 10bit IPS LCDs.

 

It really depends on which Pro tools you are using and what games you plan to play with. K3000M can handle 3D pro tools/Adobe tools without breaking a sweat but in terms of gaming it's a little weak for some games like Battlefield 3/ Crysis 3. You said that recently you haven't installed any 3D games and been spending less of your time in gaming, but what kind of titles do you play when you are going to play a game?

 

Well it's not exactly a review since notebookcheck basically copypastes the same thing on every card and edits it a bit to make it more appropriate. But it does help a bit anyway yeah.

I was thinking about selling my GTX 680m, so the expenses of this upgrade aren't quite as astronomical as it may seem. A new K3000M is "only" a couple hundred more than a new 680m from what I've seen so far.

Are you serious? From what I've heard, 680m is crap for compute compared to other cards in simlar range, worse than much older cards from previous architectures in fact, while Quadro is designed to perform in compute. Not 100% sure about the latter, but anyway.

I don't /need/ quadro, and I don't think anyone does, but it does help. That's kind of like saying "you don't need a card better than GT 540m because it plays all games on lowest settings."

Skyrim is the only 3D game I can even recall playing this year, not counting when I first got this laptop and cycled through every single game over and over for a short period of time to test it out.

 

Just get a AMD FirePro then and save yourself some money. The mobile quadro last I checked don't have EC Memory like their desktop counterpart. And since the industry is moving away from CUDA, don't see much point with Nvidia, unless you truly believe Nvidia drivers support is superior. Considering how expensive mobile Quadro are, doesn't seem worth it to me. If you are going to spend that kind of money, put it in a desktop and just get youself a 7970M for your mobile since AMD didn't nerf OpenCL/GPGPU capability on the 7970M. You may even be able to use FirePro drivers, not sure.

 

There is nothing to believe here, this is nothing fictional. AMD's driver support sucks and newly released games are often poorly supported.

For the record, you can use Quadro drivers on your 680M too. It should enhance the 680M's performance in mentioned pro apps at the cost of gaming performance.

This would be the most recent WHQL.
NVIDIA Tesla-Quadro Driver Win8-Win7-Vista 307.45 WHQL - Guru3D.com Forums

 

what software will you use ?

I'm using maya, AE, 3dsmax, atm and zbrush mudbox , udk and cryengine later on my 7970m.
For now It's all good btw are you sure you need a quadro ?
I mean I dt know what kind of work you're producing but if you feel like it will help you go ahead buy it, otherwise save your money for something else.
Will be stupid to have it and to use "only 20%" of it's capability. But that's just my pov.

 

Thanks for the FUD. As if we haven't heard this before, rofl. Let me try and think what game was poorly supported this year.... Hmm... Oh wait, none. Good try. Not only that, there are more recent games that run better on AMD. What you just spouted is a myth and has been for years now.

 

AC3, Skyrim, BF3, RAGE just to name a few. Enduro only adds to that.
The only title that ran without 1 single issue was The Witcher 2, I will leave that one for AMD.
You obviously had a few drinks too much before booting up your Notebook. Or you simply forgot about all of mentioned titles, OR did not experience those issues since you did not own your Notebook at that time.
So question is, what games have you played on your Enduro crippled machine?

 

Seems you are drunk. BF3 and Skyrim both run on AMD fine. In fact on BF3 it runs better.

Assassin's Creed 3 is highly unoptimized, can be seen it's CPU utilization is abysmal. It's not AMD drivers at fault if the developer sucks. But keep the hate coming without proof.
Assassin’s Creed III – PC Performance Analysis | DSOGaming | The Dark Side Of Gaming
Can be seen the DX11 implementation is also bugged.

As for Rage, give me a break. The list of reasons why Rage was a terrible PC game is endless and not just for AMD users, but for all PC Gamers. You're going to blame AMD when they didn't have access to the game before release? You are going to blame AMD for not having optimal drivers for the only OpenGL game to be released in a while other than Brink (another train wreck), because Carmack has never used an AMD machine? Wow... talk about FUD.

Games I have installed with no issues. Max Payne 3, Darksiders 2, ME3, BF3, Crysis 2, HAWX, Torchlight 2, XCOM, Deus Ex:HR, Shogun 2, alan Wake, Borderlands 2. These are the games I'm currently playing. Thanks for asking, they all run great.

 

Not asking to flame or whatever but did you try the last DLC on Borderlands 2 ? The torque thing ? In arena the fps in MP is horrible /:

 

I'll fire up BL2 now and see exactly what framerate I get. Yes I completed it. Did it in MP with a buddy. Loved Torque's voice acting, much better DLC than Scarlett I thought. Yeah the slow down in the arena is due to PhysX. Got a buddy with a 680M and he reports when crud gets hectic, even with PhysX on low he gets drops in framerate. It's a PhysX thing, it's an Nvidia thing, so very nice of Nvidia to kick their own customers in the balls.

But short answer, it wasn't enough to give me issues. I also use 2xEQ SSAA in CCC + SweetFX when I play BL2. Dual gunz blazing, even if framerate drops a bit, enemies are still shredded. I use settings from this site.
http://whoisjimothy.com/public/sweetfx/

Also nice forum name. Though Maurice Moss owns Sheldor Moss plays car sims in a park while eating lunch with his headset, wheel, pedals and laptop like a boss. Sheldor could only wish he was that cool,

 

My answers in red

 

Oh I'm also using sweetfx for most of my games but I havent try the 2xEQ SSAA in CCC, I will give it a try, and what about the other setting in borderlands 2 all max out except FXAA off and Anisotropic filtering 16x?
EDIT: I'm using his setting from the link you gave me, and also his setting but I got lower fps ig, I not using downsampling and turn back the resolution to normal,
Seems like I' m doing it wrong x)
Did you also use downsampling?

 

This is getting off topic, isn't it? It's about upgrading to the K3000M pro vid card, not about 7970m vs 680m. Go start another thread if you feel there is a necessity to debate this issue.

 

Hi,

Have you got any new informations about the performance gain with a k3000M for professional 3D programs?
I read everywhere that the GTX 680M as better specs, but it's always in a gaming environment.

 

Quadro cards are generally not as powerful as GeForce cards, but their firmware is optimized for professional software.

You can find out quite a bit in this article on the differences and how the Quadro handles said software better. It's lengthy, but a good read.

 

Quadro and Geforce cards will do gaming and software but one will do said software better then the other. Thats actually why Nvidia makes two different types of cards. You'll want to pick according to what you will be doing more. If more on the software side go Quadro, but if mainly gaming Geforce will be better.

 

Quite honestly, I'd look up a little bit better what technology do your tools rely on. If it's Physx/CUDA a Quadro will definetly be better, but if it is OpenCL you won't be that much better off than with a 680m. In fact, a 7970m will outclass most desktop pro Nvidia cards on OpenCL. Seriously, just look at this:

CLBenchmark - OpenCL Device Comparison

There, it simply outclasses a Tesla Desktop card (a 2,200 dollar card xD). A Quadro 3000M is completly ripped to shreds. Thank Nvidia for nerfing OpenCL just to show how much more awesome is CUDA...

I also do a lot of 3dMax and GPGPU stuff, and simply love the 7970m on that . Check if your software's GPGPU algorithms make use of OpenCL. You can see that there are a lot of plugins for 3dMax that make use of OpenCL (thus making AMD a better choice overall). If you are not thinking about gaming, and if it suits your needs, I'd consider a 7970m. If you think you might need CUDA, that's a whole different story, go green all the way! Given the option, I'd support an open standard rather than a proprietary solution (that almost came to be an oligopoly). Hate to say it, but you should look at benchmarks. Not gaming benchmarks obviously, but the ones about the performance on the technology you might be using.

 

Yes you really have to be program specific with your professional GPU choices.

 

I had Thinkpad with Quadro, and from my experience Quadro only benefits in very rare and specific cases. Most likely your case is not the one.
In all general all-around-the-day computing Quadro is not a bad performer, but slightly inferior to more "gaming" cards. And if you account performance/price ratio, this just destroys it. In a nutshell, this is a card to buy with your company money, not with yours. Kinda like flying business class

BTW, to get anything close to 680M (same chip), you need K5000M, not K3000M. Even still, it will be *slightly* slower in games due to higer accuracy drawing and extra checks.

 

I heard that coda cores are not the spec to consider when using softwares like Maya.
Facing the GTX 680M, the K3000M seems to have lower performances in every point, so I'm not sure that it's always true, but as the hardware is dedicated to a 3D professional use with the quadros in general, some other specs (which ones, I don't have a clue..) must make the difference.

 

The workstation chips get special certified drivers for certain applications, you have to know which are you are using and what card it prefers.

 

Where can you find informations about that? How can I know, for exemple, that Maya is more powerfull with a specific list of cards??

 

I read this about the K5000M:
Ptiteloutre.fr – [ News - Dossiers - Tutoriels ] quadro k5000 benchmark

 

Google for it mate :

AMD and Autodesk speed up Maya with OpenCL | SemiAccurate

 

That's the desktop versions, not the mobile versions

 

Well Quadro cards are catching up, and thats not true that they will be "worse" for gaming. Take K5000M (it is underclocked) and OC it and see what happens. 9000-10000p in 3dmark 2011 with laptop is possible

 

Well not above 9000 since that's what the 680M tops out at.

It should not be too far behind.

 

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