Quadro FX 4600 versus GeForce GTX 280?

[computer_freak_8]

I'm trying to figure out what the big deal with the Quadro FX series is.

At Nvidia Online Store - Product Information nVidia sells the Quadro FX 4600 for $2000.
However, nVidia links to NewEgg for sale of the GeForce GTX 280 Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1280-AR GeForce GTX 280 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards for less that one-fourth of that price.


Here are the specs, though:

Quadro FX 4600:
768MB GDDR3
384-bit
67.2GBps

GeForce GTX 280:
1GB GDDR3
512-bit
141.7GBps


So, is it just me, or is the GeForce GTX 280 better for less than one-fourth the price? What am I missing?

[azianai]

Quadro line is mainly for work stations, for people who are doing CAD and DCC as the geforce line is for us gamers.

[gvblake22]

What azianai said is exactly correct. The Quadro series cards are engineered (and marketed) for a totally different audience and use than the GeForce series. Quadro cards are really not meant to play games and will never perform well, so make sure you are looking at the GeForce cards if you are playing games. Kindof like the difference between the FireGL and Radeon cards from AMD/ATI.

[screwballl]

plenty of information from nvidia here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_geforce.html

granted it is from 2003 but still applies

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

What azianai said is exactly correct. The Quadro series cards are engineered (and marketed) for a totally different audience and use than the GeForce series. Quadro cards are really not meant to play games and will never perform well, so make sure you are looking at the GeForce cards if you are playing games. Kindof like the difference between the FireGL and Radeon cards from AMD/ATI.

That's not true at all. Quadro and GeForce are the same, except for the unlocked functions.
Quadro FX 4600 = GeForce 8800GTX
Using RivaTuner and a strap you can unlock certain cards to function like Quadro cards.

[screwballl]

the Quadro is for high detail/high resolution usage but sucks as a gaming card.. consumer based Geforce cards are for high performance fast calculations, but if you use it for workstation/CAD type duties, it will be slow.
2 completely different architectures, like Opteron and Athlon

[computer_freak_8]

Okay, I guess I forgot to mention something.
I get the fact that one is for work and the other is for play.

But what is different about them? How do they each compensate for their intended use compared to the other? Is the 4x price difference justified?

I'm also not sure I understand CAD. I believe it stands for Computer Aided Drafting, but how is needing graphical power for that different from needing graphical power for an intense First-Person Shooter? If anything, I'd think you'd need more for the FPS...

[theburan]

I think alot of it boils down to the drivers and the stability... these work station cards are probably engineered so that once you install them, they will not break or crash during a calculation or something like that, no matter what, and also the drivers are probably written to focus on different things more important to cad/workstation type stuff.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by computer_freak_8

Okay, I guess I forgot to mention something.
I get the fact that one is for work and the other is for play.

But what is different about them? How do they each compensate for their intended use compared to the other? Is the 4x price difference justified?

I'm also not sure I understand CAD. I believe it stands for Computer Aided Drafting, but how is needing graphical power for that different from needing graphical power for an intense First-Person Shooter? If anything, I'd think you'd need more for the FPS...

CAD is really different than a FPS, it's much more complex and uses specific functions.

Edit: theburan: There's nothing to them other than the fact they're detected as Quadros rather than GeForce. A simple BIOS flash won't fix this however, it's not so simple. That's why people mess with the drivers to make them believe they own a Quadro instead of a GeForce. It works relatively well, and you'll agree with me it's much cheaper so it's a somewhat great solution for CAD beginners which can't afford a Quadro or a Fire GL.