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The QUADRO FX 4500

Mr. Anderson

Mr. Anderson

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Nov 1, 2001
22,568
7
VA
So, $1650 more for a graphics card is pretty steep. I do 3D illustration and animation, so I'm thinking it might be worth it (especially with 512megs VRAM).

So I was hoping to hear what other people who have need of better pro cards have to say and if anyone has a link to a good overview of this thing being used in a Mac (it might be a bit early for that, I know). But but the time they start shipping in a month or less, there should be some word on it.

D
 
I've got a Quadro FX 1300 in my PC here at work and it's nice. Doesn't help out much for Photoshop and such, but when I need to work in Pro/E it is very quick and responsive. The PowerMac G5 Quad with a Quadro FX 4500 would be...mind blowing!
 
Hmm, that's a good point - as a photographer as well, I use photoshop extensively - and even with Lightwave there are all the texture maps. I don't imagine its that big of a deal in terms of performance with images when the machine is fast enough though.

And the specs and links make it really sound great.....hmmm, now I'm leaning towards getting one - although, I'd love to see one in person or hear some real world mac comments.

D
 
well, this may not be that helpful, but from apple's website, the difference between the quadro and the 7800 (not yet available?) is really minimal. So unless the 7800 is similarly priced, it would be a good alternative to consider.
 
Blowing $1700 on a video card that becomes obsolete in 18 months is a pretty steep price to pay unless you are making a ton of money with that card. I remember buying a $500 OpenGL FireGL1 card back in 1997 for 3D animation work. I ended up using it for games, instead. :p
 
Lacero said:
Blowing $1700 on a video card that become obsolete in 18 months is a pretty steep price to unless you are making tons of money with that card. I remember buying a $500 OpenGL FireGL1 card back in 1997 for 3D animation work. I ended up using it for games, instead. :p
Click to expand...

Ah, but if the card lasts for a couple years, it would be worth it. I had my last computer for 4+ years and having that much memory on board would be great especially when I'm working with complex scenes.

I will wait and see about the other card, though. If the price is significantly less and not that much difference in performance, its worth the wait.

And it looks like the PC version is running at around $500 - so that would mean $200-$300 extra instead of $1650? That might do it for me - just one more reason to wait a bit and see what happens.

Then the big question becomes when do we see this 7800 card available.

D
 
so my question is now that the 7800 will be out for Mac will this make the 6800 drop a lot in price, or not because 7800 is PCIe and 6800 is AGP?
 
eva01 said:
so my question is now that the 7800 will be out for Mac will this make the 6800 drop a lot in price, or not because 7800 is PCIe and 6800 is AGP?
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Its out? I haven't seen anything on that yet - do you have a link?

D
 
eva01 said:
so my question is now that the 7800 will be out for Mac will this make the 6800 drop a lot in price, or not because 7800 is PCIe and 6800 is AGP?
Click to expand...

ah but from what it says on apples website, the 7800 GT only supports one 30" monitor, while the 6800 ultra, and GT support two.

so that means that is you want two 30" monitors you need to now fork out $1650. for a graphics card... that IS steep.
 
camomac said:
so that means that is you want two 30" monitors you need to now fork out $1650. for a graphics card... that IS steep.
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It is, but not at all out of line for that particular card. Newegg, for example, has the similar FX 4400 for $1760, and a quick Froogle search turned up 4500s selling for around $2500, which is apparently standard--based on that, Apple's offering a VERY good deal (though no SLI option).

Also interesting to note that the 4500 has a port for 3D goggles, a first for anything on the Mac in years (wonder if it works with Nanosaur...), and I don't believe something that's on the 7800. Hopefully a sign of things to come.

[Edit: But, I now see you can get one for about $1500 from Dell, so it's only close to on par with their prices... not that that's a bad thing.]
 
Mr. Anderson said:
Ah, but if the card lasts for a couple years, it would be worth it. I had my last computer for 4+ years and having that much memory on board would be great especially when I'm working with complex scenes.
D
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Hi,

On the other hand if you spent less on the graphics card you could upgrade sooner and get a faster machine AND a faster graphics card a lot sooner.

Best Wishes,

Mitch
 
The card will lose half it's value in the first 6 months. Pretty much obsolete within 3 years. Computer subsystem architectures change every 4 years or so.
 
After looking into it all, i'm not sold on the 4500 - I'm going to wait and see when they come out with the 7800.....

I'm not running or ever planning to run 2 30" screens.

D
 
I can think of a lot of persons who would use that to their advantage, Animation (SP?), Video, 3D Graphics - if you work with like 10,200x10,200 Photoshop files - OMG that's like 4GB I think. One sec - *opens up fireworks* OK SO I EXAGURrated, its 400MB.

Oh, I'm adding this one to my signature:
What would a Windows user do with a Dual-Core, Dual-Processor G5 2.5GHz machine with 16GB of RAM and 512MB Video Card PCI-express and 250GB HDD if it was a Windows OS? - Play solitaire

BTW rough cost of that is almost $20,000 USD
 
I think that spending $500 on the 7800GT would be a better idea than spending $1500 on the Quadro. The specs (other than the Stereo 3D Port) are VERY close, and the 7800GT will give you better rounded performance (games, pro apps, etc) for $1000 less. That way when they come out with the NV8300 (or the like) you can upgrade and still have saved money over the Quadro.
 
The Quadro is a workstation card, the 7800 is a consumer card. My impression with workstation cards is you're paying a premium for guaranteed compatibility and reliability. Usually software makers specify officially supported video cards, and your consumer 7800 wouldn't be on there. But what programs on OS X would do that?
 
I was wondering about the 7800 myself, since the difference in price between the stock 6600 and the quadro was just too much for me. So I called the dutch online Apple Store. They told me that they had recieved an email with nVidia claiming that the 7800 will not be released for the mac.. The guy even offered me 100 euros of the quadro, but I skipped it and took the 6600. He gave me iWork for free!

I also think it is not worth the money, and I do 3d stuff for a living. I don't care if it takes my video card 0.15 seconds instead of 0.1 to update the contents of the viewport. And no card is fast enough to give a realtime opengl preview of complex animations. I just render the opengl preview to disk, which is very fast, and watch it there.
 
crazzyeddie said:
I think that spending $500 on the 7800GT would be a better idea than spending $1500 on the Quadro. The specs (other than the Stereo 3D Port) are VERY close, and the 7800GT will give you better rounded performance (games, pro apps, etc) for $1000 less. That way when they come out with the NV8300 (or the like) you can upgrade and still have saved money over the Quadro.
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I've been doing a lot of research on this and I've found that there is an issue with Apple and OpenGL 2.0. I think one of the reasons for the delay on the 7800GT is because of that. Especially since I went to the online Apple store and selected the single dual core processor and modified the order to add the 4500 and the ship time went to 2-3 weeks.

We'll see....

D
 
Yeah, I was told by the UK Apple Store that the 7800 was no-longer an option and that it would be removed from the various pages that mention it. Maybe we'll see some ATI options after all.
 
sam3k said:
Yeah, I was told by the UK Apple Store that the 7800 was no-longer an option and that it would be removed from the various pages that mention it. Maybe we'll see some ATI options after all.
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really - hmm - that's odd

it will be interesting to see if it ever becomes an option. I think what might have happened is that Apple knows people will wait for that card since it will be a significantly cheaper option than the 4500.

I'm just hoping to hear how well the OpenGL does with Lightwave....

D
 
Apple should have included an option for the ATI Radeon 1800XT 512MB. Retail on the card is around $549 and the PC version is coming out in about 2-3 weeks (November 5). It would be a nice surprise if Apple offered this card and the Nvidia 7800 GT in the next few weeks.
 
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