Nvidia Quadro or ATI FireGL?

[maverick212]

These seem to be standard for workstations for Maya/3d Max, you know modeling, animation, rendering. While these things are really way more CPU dependent, you still need a card to handle hardware rendering, particles, whatever. So you can't just get a cheapo card in general. I'm trying to build a bang for your buck kinda station (poor college student ) so I can't go too crazy with it (higher end versions can be $500-1500) so I'm looking at these:

PNY VCQFX560-PCIE-PB Quadro FX560 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814133191

ATI 100-505136 FireGL V3400 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195010

Anyone actually use these or know more about which would be better?

 

[Abu Som3a]

Get an HD2600PRO for less than $100 and softmod it to a FireGL. It will beat Nvidia's highest end card, the Quadro FX 5600.
Google for more details.

 

[maverick212]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah google rules, a quick search and I'm getting what you're saying. Didn't know you could do that. Almost seems to good to be true (and you know what they say about that), little driver change and you're saving like 400-500 bucks