Geforce vs Quadro for CAD Workstation.

PC Hardware & Gaming Graphics Cards & GPUs
1

Iam planning to get a new PC & the main usage would be for CAD using Autodesk Inventor 2012. Iam confused whether to choose a Geforce based card or a Quadro based card for it. As of now iam planning for a Quadro 2000 based card or a 560Ti based card.

I would like to know whether investing on a Quadro 2000 based card is really worth the money put in or a 560Ti which would cost just half of the Quadro 2000 would get the job done.

Rest of the config: i7 2600K, ASUS P8P67 Pro, 16GB Corsair Vengence, 120GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Corsair VX550 SMPS.

2

#vinaycm

It does not mention whether it has CUDA support. Anyways, would suggest to go for a AMD 7750 GPU.

Read up here : http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/firepro-v3900-review-benchmark,3153.html#xtor=RSS-182

3

Get the Quadro 2000, if you are serious about working only on this RIG, if you want to game as well I recommend you go for the MSi GTX 560Ti Twin Frozr II ~13300/-.

Whether CUDA makes an actual difference OR not is not really tangible as rendering is still a CPU intensive task and GPGPU render engines are not very popular OR for that matter available to the most end users.

Also nVidia owns most popular render engines [MentalRAY, I-Ray] so develops better plugins for the same.

Hope this clarifies, Cheers!!

P.S. → cofessions of an animation student.

4

MSI GTX560 Twin frozrii-Rendering+Gaming,Quadro 2000-Only rendering no gaming .If op has the budget then he can also go for MSI N560GTXTi Twin Frozr II 2GB OC-16.5k

5

Thanks for the suggestions..

#vivek.krishnan I will be mostly working on sheet metal and medium sized assemblies (less than 1000 components). So i think the 560Ti would suffice.

#ALPHA17 I plan to game a bit on the PC too, that’s why inclined towards the 560Ti.

#Jakob Yes, Rendering + Gaming is my choice, so would be going with the 560Ti mostly..

6

the quadro card will be the best for you.. the 560gtx will be a pittance compared to the 560 if you do a lot of autocad.. you can also consider amd firepro cards however the supported cards list must be referred to..

recently an article came out showing the fact that intel hd graphics inbuilt in several sandy bridge cpus actually outperform lower quadro cards in autocad functions.. an interesting fact to note

7

Previously was using an i3 2100 with inbuilt display and the AutoCAD performance was really poor. The performance was much better on my laptop with first gen i3 & nvidia graphics..

8

the hd graphics in question is the hd 3000 associated with 2500 and above..

however that was just something i read.. the main gist however is that quadro/firepro will be better for you.. however mention your maximum budget.. because if it is less than 15k than the lower quadro/firepro cards are not that exceptionally great compared to the geforce lineup

9

So a quadro does the following in hardware which a geforce doesn’t

  • line antialiasing

  • logic ops on geometry (basically constructive solid geometry)

  • two sided lighting

  • more than 6 hardware clip planes

  • quad buffered stereo

Also it comes with better tested drivers for all professional apps.

Do the above mean anything to you? If so, get a quadro else a geforce will do.

10

Quadro should be the only choice if money is not a problem, but I seriously reject 560ti. Instead a 6950 would thrash it. Check this - http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1483844&postcount=21

11

I doubt whether CAD really requires a Quadro. Even the el cheapo Quadro cards are legendary at rendering and texture accuracy (from what I’ve heard), but would all that be required in CAD?