Real difference in cards?

N

nateisgreat9

New Member
Alright, so I am going to make my first computer, and Solidworks (a program i need to run) says it will work with a nvidia Quadro 370 which is 256mb. But the GeForce GT 8800 is 512mb and I would prefer the the GeForce. Or is the Quadro just actually better. Any info would help.

Oh, and I have know idea if the GeForce will work with solid works.
 
They are two completely different line up of cards. Quadros are workstation cards and the 8800GT is a gaming card. If your program requires the Quadro 370, DO NOT get the 8800GT.
 
diduknowthat said:
They are two completely different line up of cards. Quadros are workstation cards and the 8800GT is a gaming card. If your program requires the Quadro 370, DO NOT get the 8800GT.
Click to expand...

Do you know how they are different? And do you think I could still game with the Quadro?
 
I ran Solidworks on my 8800GT for my engineering class. It was a free student license version, but I don't think that would impact the system requirements. As far as I'm concerned, it ran wayy faster than my friends programs who ran it on laptops. As far as I know, workstation cards are pretty expensive. I don't know a whole lot about workstation cards, but that's my two cents. It ran fine on my 8800GT.
 
Quadro-series cards are sort of fine-tuned for CAD and similar applications, but are mostly build on the same chips as GeForces. 8800GT beats FX370 easily, so I don't see any point for you to overpay for a Quadro.
 
If you really want to read all this:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-23018-Graphic-Cards-Workstation-vs-Gaming.html

Basically workstation cards have better rendering support and stuff designed for CAD work etc. More stable drivers, I would just go with a high end gaming video card. Chances are it will be insanely cheaper and you will be able to play games. Workstation video cards cannot play games, or at least very well since they are designed for CAD. All of my friends ran Solidworks on their laptops, of course the 8800GT ran it way smoother, just to give you an idea.
 
solid works is more cpu intensive, i think anyway(not sure, ran decently on the p4's w/integrated graphics at school) anyway, your mainly paying for a completly different list of programs that it supports/runs, and completely different drivers
 
if you want to do games, get the 8800 (or any GeForce for that matter)

if you do extremely intense CAD, go for the quadro
 
nateisgreat9 said:
Do you know how they are different? And do you think I could still game with the Quadro?
Click to expand...

the ONLY difference between the geforce and the quadro line is drivers. thats it. if you can figure out a way to get the quadro drivers to work on the geforce, then you are in business
 
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