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I'm looking for a new graphics card for a CAD / 3D modelling workstation. I've seen the Nvidia Quaddro FX 4600, but it's not exactly cheap at around £1100. I was wondering if a top-end gaming card might do the same job for less dosh - any recommendations?
Not sure if its still doable......
You used to be able to buy a standard GeForce card and re-flash it to the Quaddro variant.
I believe the differences between them are how the firmwares are optimised for different tasks. Why they feel the need to charge so much for the same silicon with a different firmware is a bit daft but probably justified by supply and demand.
Might be worth digging around to see if its still possible.
As far as I understand it, it's not just the firmware, the FX 4600 has different drivers plus some CAD-specific applications included, specifically optimised for better OpenGL compatibility.
Get an ATI HD3850/HD3870 and softmod it to a FireGL card!
Softmod HD3870@FireGL8600 with 8.44 - Guru3D.com Forums
Depends on what CAD software you're using. Most gaming cards don't have full open GL support but will do the job ok.
I've seen the latest incarnations of Inventor & Wildfire running perfectly well on a 9800GTS. If you're running Autocad, then go nVidia as they're partners. Solidworks or any Dassault s/w go ATI.
Again horses for courses doing a lot of ray tracing & rendering then a good workstation class card would be beneficial.