Nvidia quadro card

[DrBunsenHoneyde]

I have a question for all the new macpro owners. Has anyone ordered a mac pro with the quadro card in it AND what do you plan to do with such a card.

Just a further question of what spec of mac pro do you plan to run with this card......

thanks for answering my nosey question

 

[newtech]

Ah, the quadro. The overpriced answer to the question few ask, "how can I throw away $2800.00 and get little in return."

 

[yesthisisapc]

Ah, the quadro. The overpriced answer to the question few ask, "how can I throw away $2800.00 and get little in return."

Tell that to people who do CAD on their Mac Pros.

Or, more specifically, me. The only reason I'm going with the 8800GT is for the reason of "Hey, I like to game sometimes and need to do some realtime work as well." The Quadro is great for stuff like Maya and 3DSMax, programs I have to use on a daily basis.

 

[newtech]

Given that a quadro is 95% the same as its consumer analog, I hardly see the $2800.00 price tag as warranted or worthwhile. That 5% being minor ROM mods and 3D glasses output ( oh and yeah those glasses will set you back another $400.00 as well ).

 

[Cromulent]

Given that a quadro is 95% the same as its consumer analog, I hardly see the $2800.00 price tag as warranted or worthwhile. That 5% being minor ROM mods and 3D glasses output ( oh and yeah those glasses will set you back another $400.00 as well ).

Well the increased graphics RAM is a pretty big difference. 1GBs extra makes a huge difference to some people.

 

[snickelfritz]

The difference is between the cards is basically the hardware overlay plane rendering and the drivers.
It ain't worth $2800.

I don't own a Mac Pro, but if I were using DCC apps on a regular basis, I would do it on a Windows PC with a GeForce 6800 hacked to enable the Quadro functions. (<$150 for the card, plus free RivaTuner utility for unlocking it)
I have a 6800/12/5 pipes, that successfully unlocks to Quadro 4500/16/6 pipes, IIRC.

I would just get the Mac Pro with the standard 256MB videocard, 16GB of RAM and 4 HDD.

 

[Umbongo]

The difference is between the cards is basically the hardware overlay plane rendering and the drivers.
It ain't worth $2800.

I don't own a Mac Pro, but if I were using DCC apps on a regular basis, I would do it on a Windows PC with a GeForce 6800 hacked to enable the Quadro functions. (<$150 for the card, plus free RivaTuner utility for unlocking it)
I have a 6800/12/5 pipes, that successfully unlocks to Quadro 4500/16/6 pipes, IIRC.

I would just get the Mac Pro with the standard 256MB videocard, 16GB of RAM and 4 HDD.

It is to someone who can make use of it.

Also it's the quadro fx 4000 that the 6800 softmods to, just for the sake of providing full information. Which is out performed by the $170 FX 570 now.

 

[newtech]

7800GTX softmods to FX 5500, presumably the 8800GT would softmod to FX 5600.

 

[Umbongo]

7800GTX softmods to FX 5500, presumably the 8800GT would softmod to FX 5600.

I know the 8800GTX can be modded to have the FX 5600 ROM, I'd assume something can be done with the 8800GT.

The thing is since the introduction of the 7xxx series cards you can no longer turn them in to real Quadro cards. There is a hardware lock now that hasn't been overcome, to my knowledge, making the 6800 the last GeForce card that actually fully turns in to a Quadro.

 

[Cromulent]

I know the 8800GTX can be modded to have the FX 5600 ROM, I'd assume something can be done with the 8800GT.

The thing is since the introduction of the 7xxx series cards you can no longer turn them in to real Quadro cards. There is a hardware lock now that hasn't been overcome, to my knowledge, making the 6800 the last GeForce card that actually fully turns in to a Quadro.

Plus the fact as I have already stated that they lack the RAM found in the Quadro cards means that the Quadro is still viable for the market it is aimed at.

 

[Firefly2002]

Tell that to people who do CAD on their Mac Pros.

Well, I did that, and they got pretty pissed off, and started making excuses. But then they admitted I was right =-]

Or, more specifically, me. The only reason I'm going with the 8800GT is for the reason of "Hey, I like to game sometimes and need to do some realtime work as well." The Quadro is great for stuff like Maya and 3DSMax, programs I have to use on a daily basis.

You know, I actually emailed Rob at BareFeats about this a few weeks ago.

Here's part of his response... (some of it has been said):

Since that time, I did some testing with Maya 7 using Quadro and
GeForce cards with comparable clock speeds. Nothing we tried on Maya
ran faster on the Quadro. At first the Maya folks claimed that the
Quadro supported hardware rendering while the GeForce did not. We
proved them wrong.

I spoke with the Maya guru at the Supercomputer center about my
findings. He said there are a few obscure hardware features that the
Quadros support that are missing on the GeForce cards. He went on to
say that the main advantage of the Quadro (and FireGL) workstation
cards is the way they handle overlay planes. The memory amount and
memory management scheme on the Quadro is superior to the GeForce. The
user will sense this as slow redraws of a complex 3D model --
especially when you have four views of the model in Maya. (I should
mention something about this in the current article.)

I'm not saying his results were 100% accurate or that they represented the entirety of the situation... just putting it out there =)

Given that a quadro is 95% the same as its consumer analog, I hardly see the $2800.00 price tag as warranted or worthwhile. That 5% being minor ROM mods and 3D glasses output ( oh and yeah those glasses will set you back another $400.00 as well ).

Actually, the minor tweaks are to the ROM/drivers and core of the GeForce card... they purposely cripple them so they can charge an arm and five torsos for the Quadro

Ew, man the GeForce FX 5600 was one of the worst cards in.... ever. Was its Quadro counterpart any better? =/

 

[snickelfritz]

It is to someone who can make use of it.

Also it's the quadro fx 4000 that the 6800 softmods to, just for the sake of providing full information. Which is out performed by the $170 FX 570 now.

Can the FX 570 flashed or modded to function in a Mac Pro?
I guess I'm confused about why anyone would purchase a $2850.00 DCC videocard for the Mac Pro, when DCC-certified cards are available for a generic PC for $170.00?
ie: for the price of the 5600 alone ($2850.00), you could build an entire PC that passes all certification standards for DCC apps.
ie: you would have two complete computers; one Mac Pro, one PC for the price of a single Mac Pro/5600!

I'm sure the Quadro5600 is wonderful, and worth every penny of it's price to the right person though.

 

[faumble]

can the fx 6200 be turned into something better?

 

[Umbongo]

Can the FX 570 flashed or modded to function in a Mac Pro?

I doubt under OSX, but are there drivers for the Quadro FX 4000 either?

I guess I'm confused about why anyone would purchase a $2850.00 DCC videocard for the Mac Pro, when DCC-certified cards are available for a generic PC for $170.00?

Maybe they want to work in OSX?

I doubt many can justify it, though I'm sure someone close to Apple asked for it and with their (stupid) 3 card policy they made it the only option. I'm sure more could have justified the FX 4600, which offers the same or slightly less performance (depending on Application) but is half the price or the FX 1700 which has similar performance to the older FX 4500 for $500.

Hopefully the raw power of the 8800GT will offer enough for most users.

 

[kittiyut]

I have a question for all the new macpro owners. Has anyone ordered a mac pro with the quadro card in it AND what do you plan to do with such a card.

Just a further question of what spec of mac pro do you plan to run with this card......

thanks for answering my nosey question

I ordered it (and got 20% off using student ADC), and it caused my
shipping date to delay by 3-5 weeks What do I plan to use it for?
Don't know yet - Aperture perhaps?

KK

 

[kiwicolin]

I have the 5600 and love it!
You should see how Motion/AFX/Aperture and Lightroom run