Is this awesome configuration possible?

G

gentrinity

n00b
Joined
Sep 18, 2006
Messages
18
Hi everbody! First off, im new to these forums. Im trying to find out if the set up I wish to have is possible at all. Here it is;

I am going to buy a workstation. It will be used for web development, video editing, animations with after effects and maya/lightwave.Obviously included will be photoshop and illustrator and flash.

After studying benchmarks and various forums, I have come to the conclusion that I should stick to a pro card. The Quadro 560 is in my price range and has a breakout box which will serve me well.

I WANT TO GAME!!!!

I will fist test out the gaming performance of the card, and see if its good enough to play games on a resonably high quality. If its not, then I plan on doing this configuration;

1.) Buy a motherboard with 2 PCIx16
2.) Buy and install a Quadro 560 and a Geforce 7900GT
3.) Buy two 21" monitors
4.) I already have a projector
5.) Create a dual boot, one with XP pro 64bit(work/quadro) and the other with 32-bit(play/geforce), each with the appropriate drivers.

I can leave both monitors connected to the Quadro for work, and then use my projector for gaming. Only problem is that my projector is a entry level home theather projector and doesnt have dvi, only has vga, so I probably need a converter. If the quality sucks, ill switch monitors whenever I game, no biggie.

PLEASE NOTE: I do not want to run both cards at the same time in SLI. I am pretty sure that that is impossible and useless, unless someone has tried it and can prove me otherwise, which would be freakin awesome if im wrong. I plan on running them seperately. Each for their individual purpose.


The big question is, IS THIS POSSIBLE?!!?!?

I am not hard headed, if you can convince me to just get a gaming card, go ahead. Keep in mind though that I have done a lot of research and Im pretty much convinced that a pro card is best for pro applications. If you are going to try and convince me, I would appreciate it, as I always look to learn something new. Just make sure you come with excellent resources like benchmarks and reviews. This seems to be a very knowledgable forum so I eagerly await some responses. Thanks in advance!!!
 
Should be possible. Completely different operating systems for completely different functions makes the problem all that much easier to solve.
In XP64, disable the 7900 in device manager. In XP32, disable the Quadro in device manager. If the card is disabled, the nVidia drivers shouldn't detect it, and therefore won't display on the incorrect card.
 
the 7900gt is going to perform close to that old quadro, even with the performance cap. I think you should try and grab a quadro FX1400 *at least*, if you are going to go through the trouble of running two installations.
 
Thanks a lot for the answer banGerprawN

@Yashu
I have tought of that. But not the 1400, its more expensive and an inferior card to the 560, plus no breakout box. The 1500 would be the appropriate card, which would improve both the gaming performance and pro apps, with a break out box.

The difference in costs would be the following;
Quadro 560 $270 + 7900 GT $270 = $540
Quadro 1500 = $600

Currently, the Quadro 1500 is selling open box on newegg.com for $540 and if I get my credit card approved, as well as get a limit over $600, I might consider buying it before they run out.

I still havent seen gaming benchmarks for any of these new cards. I have only seen gaming benchmarks for the 540 and the 1400, which are both inferior to the 560, much more inferior to the 1500.
http://www.lostcircuits.com/video/quadro_fx1400/

From these benchmarks, you can see that the 1400 can play more or less on par with a 6600 GT, which is moderate for gaming. The 560 and 1500 are supposedly based on the 7600 GTs GPU (the G73), if thats true, then I might expect similar gaming performance to a very respectable card, but alas I havent found the proper specs or benchmarks to confirm this. All I have been able to go on is word of mouth in the forums. If anybody here can help me with some benchmarks to the 560 or 1500, I woul really appreciate it!
 
Oh, and Id like to mention that I am probably switching from a 7900 GT to an X1900 XT, the 256MB one, I think this would be the better choice since its cheaper.
 
I thought the 560 was based on the older geforceFX chipsets. I think this is where I was getting mixed up. So if what you say is true then my comment made no sense!

the fx1500 looks attractive... this is what I would go with. at $540 that is a good deal, relatively. that is a about the best bang for the buck it seems.
 
:eek: I've been thinking along these same lines. the 8800 cards are calling to me but I need to be able to work with 3d models too. I guess I need to see if the 8800 would handle the stuff that I'm working on (x1800xt sure doesn't). If it does, then problem solved but I have a feeling that I'm going to need a quadro card for CAD stuff.

I would be looking at just having both cards installed and running seperate monitors (or multiple monitors on each one)

I really don't want to have to do two different computers for my working/gaming pleasure.
 
the 8800 is going to be capped in workstation apps... but it will not have any graphical glitches that the ATI cards do.

So if you are able to deal with the capped performance it *will* work.

I imagine the 8800 based quadros are going to come out eventually and be super expensive but way faster then the current best even when they are in SLI.

They will game just as well as the regular 8800's I am sure... maybe 5 fps less, but at those speeds 5fps is nothing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top