I have to say that the THG, Anandtech and even Guru3D sites/forums really don't have much info at all about Quadro cards and cards for work purposes.

I need to make a decision today about which to get out of the two. The rpgrams mainly used are VectorWorks (CAD prog) and 3D Studio Max

This is what I understand from my research so far.

I've seen mentioned somewhere that the newer version of 3D Studio Max use Direct 3D instead of openGL so that's I why I was thinking that I might not need a quadro since they as far as I understand it are optimised for better performance in OpenGL.

The Quadro FX 1500 is the best priceerformance professional 3D card for work (as opposed to gaming) I've seen some benchmarks to support this and was impressed with the results.
http://features.cgsociety.org/stor [...] 321&page=3
the Quadro 1500 performs in between the 1400 and the 4400 in the above link.
Another review:
http://www.deskeng.com/Articles/Ha [...] 11091.html

Here's the system I'm planning on putting together so far:

Intel Core2 Duo 2.4GHz (4.8GHz) 4MB Cache - Will beoverclocked to run at approximately 3.0GHz
4GB Corsair XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 CAS 4 (performance RAM)
640MB PCI-Express X16 nVidia GeForce 8800GTS graphics card
150GB WD Raptor 10000 rpm, 16MB Cache, 4.6 ms
580W HiperPower Type-R Modular Black PSU Quiet Dbl Fan aPFC
16x DVD+/-RW/RAM SATA
Microsoft Windows XP Pro x64 SP2b

I'm in the final stages I just need some help with the graphics card but if somebody notices anything stupid then please do mention.

I really appreciate your help and will keep you updated on any other findings.

Well if you aren't doing any gaming, I think the choice is clear: Quadro. Quadro's have specialized drivers that take advantage of almost all CAD programs.

What is 4.8Ghz?

Some people add up the two cores clock speeds which isn't correct. You have two cores running at 2.4Ghz. The only reason I think he might have added it up would be CAD is multithreaded.

hah, thats what i figured. I wanted him to explain it just cause I'm mean like that

Quadro. Something about their architechure makes them much better with the scales and... other stuff... that's in CAD and DCC. Not sure what it is, but it matters quite a bit.
-cm

Guessing that the OP's software is optimised for multi-core processers.
Using bouth cores would put him at near 4.8GHz effective, or 6GHz after the overclock.

Sorry I have never used a Quatro based card, but I would think that it is a better choice for you.
Mainstream cards are optimised for gaming, where as the Quatro cards are designed and optimised (drivers and hardware) for the apps you will be using.

Woops
Guess a few posts happend while I wasen't looking

Hey you just broke 100 posts! Nice picture! [/excited in a vague way]
-cm

Hatimh,
I just ordered all the components today for a very similar build. I tripped-out when I saw your post. I design using SolidWorks. It's similar to Vectorworks. In my research for my build, I found it difficult to get a solid answer to the question you have ask regarding Quadro vs. GTX. The answers posted here seem to be about as good as it gets. I have not looked at the bench-marks you found. The bench-marks coupled the confirmations you are receiving here, may be enough for you to make a decision.

I chose the Quadro-1500 for my build. This will be my first computer with a Quadro card. I always used gaming cards before. The main reason I chose Quadro was because SolidWorks only approves Quadro's, when it come to the Nvidia line.

Now a friend of mine is about to build a new CAD-box, and he's going to use the 8800GTX. If time permits, well do some vid-card swaping, and hopefully learn a little something.

For the type of designing I do, video has not been my bottleneck - cpu and lack-of-ram has been.

FYI, for my build I went with the Core-2-Extreme-6800. I'm not up for overclocking. I also settled for only 2GB-ram.

I hope you don't mind, but I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask you:

(1) Are you are using XP-Pro-x64 for the purpose running 4GB-ram?

(2) Have you ever used XP-64 before? Have you used it with 4GB-ram before? Does everything work ok?

Good luck with your build.

Hi all,

I'm sitting here laughing, honestly I've posted a couple other posts and while there were a few helpful replies they trickled in slowly and even on one thread there wew no decent replies. I may check again after this though. I left it for a day or two and have been researching and now I put together a half decent post which shows I've been doing some work researching etc and then everyone posts all in one go!

So, thanks for all your replies etc.

To address some points questions.

The reason I was adding up the speed of the two cores was to make it sound better for the person I'm building it for, I've seen it done before so I thought it would be ok. But now that I know that can only apply for progs that are multi threaded I'll watch out for that in the future. Thanks

The machines are not for gaming at all, so I think I may go with what you guys say and get the Quadro. They cost double the price of the GTS but I wonder if they will double the performance in vectorworks and 3d studio.

The reason I went for XP64 is because I want to make use of the RAM fully and plus where I'm buying it from give me a free upgrade to vista too which is a bonus. Unfortunately I've never used XP64 before or not known anyone that has.

I chose 4GB to reduce the chance for any swapping to occur which would decrease performance.

I chose a sata dvdrw because I thought sata cables would be neater than ide and the performance maybe better and also hear a few people had problems with their ide optical drives running in PIO mode (slower) when running sata hdds.

I've been building systems for ages but in the last couple of years things have changed so much that this time round it seems so hard to make choices.

Does the build look ok so far, I'll see about changing the grafx card. Thanks for your input so far people. I was nearly going to start this thread with some swearing in my first post in disbelief at why I couldn't get some conclusive answers. But it really is about doing research and you start to realise things yourself. But that's no good when you ned a quick answer.

Hi hatimh,

How is going with your computer setup? 8) I look forward to your experience. I have ordered a Quadro FX 1500 which I will get it in 21 days.

Regards
Leigh

SmoothArm: I have my two quadro FX 1500s I'm ordering the rest of the parts for the PC tomorrow and when they arrive and I put it all together I'll tell you what I have and perhaps do a specviewperf benchmark. What's your setup and do you have any benchmark results?

Hi hatimh,

Thanks for reply.

I am still waiting for my card. I did not buy other parts until I get my card.

Here is the setup I plan to buy.

Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 2.0 http://www.pricespy.co.nz/c_532.html?d=8779
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400, 2.13GHz, LGA775 http://www.pricespy.co.nz/c_583.html?d=8689
Corsair PC2 6400 DDR2-800 2GB TWIN2X http://www.pricespy.co.nz/c_567.html?d=8589
Seagate 400GB 7200rpm Serial ATA
Thermaltake W0116RAD Toughpower Cable Management 750W ATX Black/w PFC/silent Fan http://www.ezonecomputers.co.nz/pr [...] r%20Supply
Thermaltake Soprano Mid Tower Case Window Panel http://www.nzoczone.com/product_in [...] cbf4d93a90

Regards
Leigh