Quadro FX 5600 benchmarks

[barefeats]

We were blessed to borrow a Quadro FX 5600 from AppleMacanix. Though we know this is optimized for particular Pro 3D apps like Maya, we thought it would be interesting to run it through our series of 3D Game tests.

It was slightly faster than than the GeForce 8800 GT running our six 3D accelerated games.

In another session, we performed a RAM Preview render on 15 Motion 3 templates. The Quadro FX 5600 (and GeForce 8800 GT) were slower than the Radeon HD 2600 XT in 14 out of 15 tests. The Radeon X1900 XT beat the nVidia cards rendering all 15 templates.

Tomorrow we will post results on our Windows Vista 64 tests (Prey, Doom 3, 3DMark06, etc.). As a preview, the Quadro was faster than the Radeon HD 2600 XT but slower than the GeForce 8800 GT running Prey and Doom 3. In the 3DMark06 benchmark the Quadro was faster than the GeForce 8800 GT.

In our posting, we will include results for the GeForce 8800 GTX and Radeon HD 3870 X2 -- both of which smoke the Quadro.

 

[yeroen]

That should do to quell some of the initial agitation X1900 owners felt over the unavailability of the 8800.

 

[Emerson]

Barefeats,

Looking at the numbers what video card would you suggest to someone who has no intention of playing games on the mac, but was getting the 8800GT for the Pro Apps? From all of your testing it looks like the ATI 2600 XT is card to get for Pro Apps, pretty darn confusing. Thanks

Chris

 

[Pressure]

And reinstates how crappy NVIDIAs drivers are for professional applications.

Good thing I have the plain jane Radeon HD 2600 XT.

 

[Weepul]

And reinstates how crappy NVIDIAs drivers are for professional applications.

You do realize that there are professional applications that benefit from 3D acceleration, I hope? If and when BareFeats conducts a Maya viewport benchmark we'll get some valuable information about the 8800's and Quadro's utility.

 

[TyleRomeo]

Barefeats,

Looking at the numbers what video card would you suggest to someone who has no intention of playing games on the mac, but was getting the 8800GT for the Pro Apps? From all of your testing it looks like the ATI 2600 XT is card to get for Pro Apps, pretty darn confusing. Thanks

Chris

It does seem confusing but barefeats makes a great point about OPEN GL performance with the 8800GT. In OPEN GL tests the 8800 is very impressive. It's core image/video that needs a driver update. This is what plagues the ProApp benchmarks. I'm hoping that a ProApp upgrade comes to all apps in the Final Cut Suite, especially Motion and Color. Color has a MAJOR problem with the 8800GT since it can only handle 8bit and float rendering. The ATI cards can also do 10, 12 and 16 bit. For serious color grading you need to be able to render in 10 or 12 bit video. I'm really hoping Apple is hard at work at fixing these bugs on a very promising card.

 

[Everythingisnt]

It does seem confusing but barefeats makes a great point about OPEN GL performance with the 8800GT. In OPEN GL tests the 8800 is very impressive. It's core image/video that needs a driver update. This is what plagues the ProApp benchmarks. I'm hoping that a ProApp upgrade comes to all apps in the Final Cut Suite, especially Motion and Color. Color has a MAJOR problem with the 8800GT since it can only handle 8bit and float rendering. The ATI cards can also do 10, 12 and 16 bit. For serious color grading you need to be able to render in 10 or 12 bit video. I'm really hoping Apple is hard at work at fixing these bugs on a very promising card.

Very true. Color nearly killed the 7300 GT I had installed before I switched to the ATI card.

Also, I think it's kind of disappointing to see the Quadro's cost and then look at those rather underwhelming benchmarks.

At this point I guess I'd like to ask: is all you are paying for when you get the Quadro is the increase in VRAM and the stereo-3D capability?

If I understand correctly, doesn't the Quadro have two separate processors for graphical rendering, similar to the projected Nvidia 9800GT?

 

[TyleRomeo]

Very true. Color nearly killed the 7300 GT I had installed before I switched to the ATI card.

Also, I think it's kind of disappointing to see the Quadro's cost and then look at those rather underwhelming benchmarks.

At this point I guess I'd like to ask: is all you are paying for when you get the Quadro is the increase in VRAM and the stereo-3D capability?

If I understand correctly, doesn't the Quadro have two separate processors for graphical rendering, similar to the projected Nvidia 9800GT?

Yeah it seems like 3x the VRAM and 3D capability are the main selling points. I don't know about the two separate processors. But I have yet to see any major performance gains from a Quadro compared to the Geforce NVIDIA card put out by Apple.

 

[Pressure]

You do realize that there are professional applications that benefit from 3D acceleration, I hope? If and when BareFeats conducts a Maya viewport benchmark we'll get some valuable information about the 8800's and Quadro's utility.

Indeed, I am the happy user of Motion.

Hopefully they get their act together and produce a driver that is wortwhile.

 

[Cindori]

Could you please check if it works in old Mac Pro's?