NVIDIA's Quadro FX 4800 might not be nearly the beast that the
5800 is, but it'll only run you an arm and three-quarters of a leg versus every limb you've got. The GPU gurus over at
HotHardware were able to grab hold of the 1.5GB monster, complete with a GT200 graphics processor and a sticker price around half of that shown on the aforesaid 5800 ($3,499). The board features a 602MHz GPU clock speed, 192 stream processors, an 800MHz GDDR3 clock speed, 384-bit memory controller and a PCI Express 2.0 x16 connector. So, how does the $1,999 workhorse stack up? Hit the read link for the full report, but the gist of it is this: it's a stellar piece, but ATI's FirePro V8700 was found to provide "similar performance (and in some cases, more) with a roughly 25% lower price." Choices, choices.
posted Dec 21st 2008 11:18AM
I would love to have it but can't afford it. Engadget your such a tease.
This card is IDENTICAL to the Quadro CX posted here on Engadget earlier:
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=649
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/11/adobe-friendly-nvidia-quadro-cx-gets-reviewed/
@Sea Urchin
I know, but can you handle maturity? Apparently not. It's old.
when are they going to start selling graphics cards with a mortgage
As a GTX 260 Owner ME WANT!
Does anyone here understand what a workstation card is? Even if it does have a video output it's probably equivalent to the ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 in my moms crappy compaq. Workstation cards are for things like cad and such unless your an extreme folder at home with lots of cash I wouldn't recommend this card.
-Gletob
This is what? About the same price as 5 GTX 280s? My friend is a mechanical engineer, and they just built a rendering machine with 4 GTX 260s for cheaper than one of those Quadro cards (and when I asked him if it ran Crysis, he asked me what Crysis was... Doh!)
I have to concede once having to look on wikipedia for what Crysis was...
No matter how many of the 260's he has it still won't do the same things the Quadro can... Anyways, only the processor is used for rendering... So stuffing a computer full of 260's isn't going to do much...
"Anyways, only the processor is used for rendering..."
I think that's only true for AutoCad (I only know this because he mentioned it) but apparently they use another software that does use GPUs for rendering (don't remember the name, or if he even mentioned that one to me), and they did the price/performance evaluations according to my source, and the GTX 260s were what they needed.
I don't claim to now any of this stuff, merely reiterating what a professional's (target market for the Quadro cards) opinion was.
SolidWorks from AutoDesk?
You guys understand that this isn't meant for playing games on, right?
You make it sound like the card is not capable of playing games... Also I think people foremost understand that they won't pay $2k for a video card to play video games, don't ruin their jokes (even the bad ones.)
*glances at the last comment made by Alex L.*
Bu you can pick up 5 GTX 280s for the same price, right?
"My friend is a mechanical engineer, and they just built a rendering machine with 4 GTX 260s for cheaper than one of those Quadro cards"
You just pick and choose portions of comments that fit your argument?
Sure doesnt look like PCI-e to me...
Sure looks like PCI-E to me...
I hope they put this in a macbook pro.
Have you seen the size of that thing! unless you want a macbook that's going to weigh 20pounds (with all the extra metal and stuff that apple will add in to fill in the gaps) , then go for it.
Jebus, Apple fanboys want their MP3 players, phones and computers to do everything and have everything in them.
Also, Balls.
/Slap
@ Knives_Out:
Put this in the MacBook Pro? They could put the MacBook Pro in this!
Also, does anyone else find it humorous that graphic cards keep getting bigger while everything else is getting smaller?
Nah, they actually get smaller.. They just have to make the cooling bigger...
Probably not as well as the GTX260... The bit bandwidth on this card is not enough for Crysis on the higher resolutions. And it's not a gaming card either. It's just meant to view those huge Maya scenes with 50Billion polygons without crashing.
According to the article, a Crysis GPU benchmark (1280x1024) of 50.49
Would seem impressive if I liked twitch FPSs
Yes, it can. These cards usually dont play games very well, but they can.
Looks like a nice way for nvidia to get rid of their 65mm 260 192 stream processor die, when they now have 55mm 216sp cores. way to rip people off nvidia lol
Seriously, I have a GTX 280 & I do understand what these are used for. But with CUDA you can use the 280 & 260 for stuff like that now right? The specs are almost the same as a 260 (minus the RAM of course) Anyone want to explain what makes these cards so expensive?
i think part of what makes the quadro and fire gl cards so expensive is the certification and drivers for the various DCC, CAD softwares out there. I cant justify spending that much just on a graphics card for my 3d workstation, but i'm sure someone at ILM already has a workstation with it and probably needs it to run some crazy fluid simulations and stuff with peace of mind.
But can it fold proteins at a higher and more efficient rate.
Folding@Home > Crysis
Hey
just to be clear, these cards, 4800 & 5800 are only a repackaging of tech which is optimized for OpenGL.
(as opposed to DX10 or whatever as games are)
There is NO new or higher end tech included in these that make them different then the gaming solutions.
They are generally the highest quality chips of the production runs, but they are not special fancy in anyway else.
In fact if you look around the web you can find out how to turn your gaming nVidia card into Quadro if that is what you want.
As far as Autocad and other precision engineering software, its not that there are specific hardware limitations (although some of older quadros had weirdo hardware drm on them to force people to pay for them), its the Quadro professional drivers that are signed.
These drivers include specific error correction and QOS guarantees, which are important to make sure that there is no integrity problems in your work, generated by possible visual & processing bugs in the processor or driver.
Unlike games which generate countless errors and visual defects while playing, engineering models cannot afford to have these.
nVidia has ALWAYS ripped people off with these cards.
They are not even truly halo models like in the car world. (a Mercedes McLaren SLR, is a halo car for Mercedes-Benz.)
They are just tuned versions of there mainline processors.
don't be fooled, really nothing special here.
nVidia = Scammers
yeah Nothing really Special i have a 8800 GTX 768MB turned it in to a Nvidia Quadro FX 5600 with a Bios Mod to run in my Hackintosh only Difference is Nvidia Quadro FX 5600
has double the memory.
if you want to save some money Run GTX 280 or GTX 260 in SLI and you can Do a Bios MOD so it Runs like a QuadroFX 4800.
Review of Nvidia Quadro FX 5600
http://www.beyond3d.com/content/reviews/40/1
"nVidia has ALWAYS ripped people off with these cards.
They are not even truly halo models like in the car world. (a Mercedes McLaren SLR, is a halo car for Mercedes-Benz.)
They are just tuned versions of there mainline processors.
don't be fooled, really nothing special here.
nVidia = Scammers"
Well not really...
Agreed, these cards are 98% the same as the gaming counterparts they are based on. The only real significant difference on the hardware side is that these cards are double precision processors are opposed to single precision.
However, You are really paying for the custom drivers here. These drivers are specially optimised for programs like Avid Combustion, AutoCAD inventor, Cinema 4D, 3DSMAX etc,,, I use Avid Combustion on my home PC and I have a 7900GTX in my PC. I hacked the installer for the Quadro Drivers so that it recognised my 7900GTX as its counterpart Quadro card. The difference in those apps was really quite amazing. I mean render times were the same since thats done on CPU but the preview was vastly better.
.... /slap
Consider the cost of down time of a) seismic survey vessel (cost approx $150,000 - $200.000 per DAY), b) real time drilling operations, c) oil and gas exploration ... and cross plot that with the cost of Geforce & Quadro line graphics cards.
In short : The price of these graphics cards are *non issues*. If the seismic vessel's PCs crap out then they could buy 60 of these cards JUST to cover *one day of operation*. (Now, seriously, Nvidia Quadro's are used all over the world in vessels for advanced analysis and real time visualization of terabytes of data. Not a Geforce to be found in sight.)
Cool. Way to answer my question. :)
AutoCAD as precision engineering software LOLz!!!
"Professional" graphics cards are the biggest ripoff ever! It's an industry wide collusion. Software vendors can just as easily tune thier software for DX or the card manufacturers could write better drivers for OpenGL, but such is not the case. Instead, somehow its worth 5K to piss on a videocard. Engineers don't need big expensive video cards regardless of how big or complex their assemblies are. They just need to learn how to use their software.
My prediction. ATI is gonna fuck nVidia up in this market by substantially undercutting them.
"Skyride"
I am pretty sure we agree.
They are literally charging you + $3000 extra for higher quality OpenGL drivers and the higher quality parts in their processor bins; specifically so that the previews are precise and without the flaws the gaming drivers tend to have since their focus is speed, not visual quality.
No "does it run Crysis"?! Omigah!