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Pro vs Desktop Graphics Help

J

jsteinm1

Weaksauce
Joined
May 8, 2011
Messages
101
I'm helping a friend build a new PC, which for the most part would be classified as a consumer grade PC with the exception of him using Adobe Suite (Photoshop/InDesign/Premier) and Solidworks on it. He is also considering putting in a TV Tuner card and get some of the HTPC function out of it as well. For a $1000ish budget, we've got about $150 or so to work with for the graphics card (on a Z68 mobo to take advantage of LucidLogix Virtu)

Initially I was looking at a Radeon HD 6870 1GB card, but after reading some on the net I've seen that nVidia is more or less in bed with Adobe and support Cuda that will optimize those apps, so I am looking at a GTX 460 more now. I'm still torn on the idea if he would be better off with a professional card such as a FirePro V4900 or comparable Quadro card for Solidworks.

His use of these pro apps will be personal as well. This is by no means a workstation that he will be using professionally.
 
I'd stick with a desktop card- cost of the workstation cards is huge compared to the performance. For those particular applications, I'd go GTX 460, though the 6870 will be a bit faster in games (6850 is more or less equal performance to the 460).
 
I didn't explicitly mention in my OP, but he doesn't play games so if that performance suffers some its fine. On the nVidia side, would there be any appreciable difference between the GTX 460 and 550 cards? I'm seeing 550 cards in the same price range as the 460s.
 
Isn't there a way to "persuade" adobe products to use a regular nvidia card? or do they straight up support cuda?
 
jsteinm1 said:
I didn't explicitly mention in my OP, but he doesn't play games so if that performance suffers some its fine. On the nVidia side, would there be any appreciable difference between the GTX 460 and 550 cards? I'm seeing 550 cards in the same price range as the 460s.
Click to expand...

Go 460- faster than a 550.
 
A gaming card for Solidworks is a complete waste. It will offer nothing over most integrated graphics.
The professional cards have hardware accelerated points and lines but the gaming cards do not. This matters because most people will be viewing parts and assemblies in shaded mode with edges shown. The edges being shown are a big help when working, and having those lines hardware accelerated means that rotations will be smooth. With a gaming card the edges do not look as nice, and rotations are not smooth, there are lags. You can get work done with a gaming card, but you are in a different league with a pro card.
Look for a Firepro V4800 used on ebay. Sometimes you can get those fairly cheap and they perform well. They are the pro version of a 5670 and have 1 GB of RAM. The pro drivers are the main thing you need and it does a good job for a low price.
 
jsteinm1 said:
I'm helping a friend build a new PC, which for the most part would be classified as a consumer grade PC with the exception of him using Adobe Suite (Photoshop/InDesign/Premier) and Solidworks on it. He is also considering putting in a TV Tuner card and get some of the HTPC function out of it as well. For a $1000ish budget, we've got about $150 or so to work with for the graphics card (on a Z68 mobo to take advantage of LucidLogix Virtu)

Initially I was looking at a Radeon HD 6870 1GB card, but after reading some on the net I've seen that nVidia is more or less in bed with Adobe and support Cuda that will optimize those apps, so I am looking at a GTX 460 more now. I'm still torn on the idea if he would be better off with a professional card such as a FirePro V4900 or comparable Quadro card for Solidworks.

His use of these pro apps will be personal as well. This is by no means a workstation that he will be using professionally.
Click to expand...

Quadros are almost the exact same card to their consumer counterparts, GeForce.

The only real difference are the drivers and firmware.

For $150, you will only be able to afford the weakest, and crappiest Quadros.
Go with the GTX460, you and he will be much happier, even if you don't game.

I would not honestly consider any Quadro seriously under $600 as you can get the equivalent GeForce for around $100, nor are the Quadros at that level reliable and have much lower performance.

Also, the Adobe suite will only work with the Quadro FX6000 and a few other specialty, $1500+ models, the lower-end Quadros will operate the exact same as their much lower-cost GeForce counterparts.

The professional cards have hardware accelerated points and lines but the gaming cards do not. This matters because most people will be viewing parts and assemblies in shaded mode with edges shown. The edges being shown are a big help when working, and having those lines hardware accelerated means that rotations will be smooth. With a gaming card the edges do not look as nice, and rotations are not smooth, there are lags.
Click to expand...
A Quadro capable of seriously handling that will be over $1000, any models below that do not have sufficient processing power.
What you said is also dependent on the software supporting that functionality as well.

The OP and his friend won't find anything like that, even on ebay, for $150 and even if they did, I would not trust the sale of a $1000+ graphics card being sold at such a lowly price.
I would know something is wrong with it or the seller.

Isn't there a way to "persuade" adobe products to use a regular nvidia card? or do they straight up support cuda?
Click to expand...
Adobe Premiere and Photoshop will automatically support almost all of the modern, $80+ GeForce cards and most AMD cards as well for the Mercury Engine and GPU acceleration respectively, as long as the graphics card has more than 768MB of VRAM, so cards with 1GB+ are golden.

It does not matter if it is a GeForce or Quadro however as both will perform the same, though one can obtain a much more powerful GeForce for $150 than a Quadro for $150.
 
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A gaming card for Solidworks is not a good idea like others have said.

If you do actually go with a Pro level card, you can generally get a lot more performace for your money with an AMD/ATI Firepro card.
 
You could just get a consumer grade card and "force it" to think its a Pro card with a bios flash and and driver download. As far as I know the pro cards are not any different from the consumer cards as far as hardware other than they usually contain more memory. Other than that it's just a bios and the respective pro card drivers. There are others far more experienced with doing this sort of thing than me though. So I'll let your GoogleFu do the rest of the figuring.
 
cyclone3d said:
A gaming card for Solidworks is not a good idea like others have said.

If you do actually go with a Pro level card, you can generally get a lot more performace for your money with an AMD/ATI Firepro card.
Click to expand...

Not for $150 you won't.
I would be one thing if they could spend $800, but $150 Quadro/Firepro is the equivalent to a $40 GeForce, you get what you pay for.
 
B^gD^ddy~CF~ said:
You could just get a consumer grade card and "force it" to think its a Pro card with a bios flash and and driver download. As far as I know the pro cards are not any different from the consumer cards as far as hardware other than they usually contain more memory. Other than that it's just a bios and the respective pro card drivers. There are others far more experienced with doing this sort of thing than me though. So I'll let your GoogleFu do the rest of the figuring.
Click to expand...

This hasn't worked in years, not since the Series 8 or before if I remember correctly.

No, the cards are not exactly the same, though they are indeed similar.
 
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