AMD X2 4800 and GTX7800 versus Quadro3000 with Opteron

[Anonymous]

the subject line sums it up.
is the dual core setups surpassing workstation technology finally?

i can buy and run two 7800 cards in tandem for the same price as one
Quadro 3000 card. so why doesn't anyone run benchmarks in CAD/Modelling with desktop systems versus workstation systems?


i should mention i use AC9 and Cinema4D

[Anonymous]

Better yet, soft modify your existing geforce 6800gt into a Quadro FX 4000 with a software program called RivaTuner.
Apparently this soft mod will completely unlock AGP 6800's "professional capabilities or pro-caps" but not PCI-E and not any 7800's.
That second website contains a decent amount of benchmarks also.

I am in the process of assembling components for my new system and I have a pretty tight budget.



http://firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_6800_unlocking/

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=122413&highlight=6800+quadro

[Aaron Bourgoin]

Previous generations of nvidia cards were able to be soft-upgraded to Quadro Cards and I suppose it was only a matter of time before the full potential of the 6800 series cards was unleashed.

A word of caution to the rank amateurs like myself however as I see two conflicting pieces of advice in the two articles cited: one counsels the turning on of pixel and vertex pipelines, but NOT the "conversion" to Quadro staus, while the second one appears to suggest that even that is possible.

I have a factory overclocked 6800 card and worry about any modifications to it save for the pixel/vertex pipleine tweaks. There's an awful lot of heat coming out of my Shuttle box already.

Anyone care to put my mind at rest about the rest of the Quadro mod?

[Anonymous]

Hi Aaron,

After reading you post I can understand the how those two links might be confusing. I could be wrong but the reason why they (firingsquad article) does not recommend unlocking quadro capabilities is because that would actually lower the card's performance for full-screen gaming. They are coming from the gaming side (Home of the Hardcore gaming) and not a CAD point of view, so my thinking was I could provide resorces from both users of geforce products and understand similaries (actual hardware) and differences (drivers).

Anyway, I should probably get back to work...

[Anonymous]

IMHO I think the SLI dual PCI-x cards is a waste of cash.
Unless your doing CG for George Lucas.
AC 9 and my AGP 6800GT 256mb screams. I've modded my card into the Quadro FX4000 and noticed some performance increases and it also gives you some more" tweak"s for 3D work in the properties tabs.

Id save your money and put it into more ram, SATA HD, or another LCD monitor.