GTX 580 or Quadro K4000 for Blender (including Cycles) and UDK?

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Donald Bronson

Donald Bronson

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Dear Tom's Hardware Community:

I am looking for a graphics card to use for Game Development in UDK and Blender. I have seen the GTX 580 highly recommended, but have also had the Quadro K4000 suggested to me by more than one person. What are the primary advantages of the Quadro, other than double the GDDR5 and specialized drivers; and, how much of a difference does the extra GDDR5 memory make for GPU rendering in Blender? Based on benchmarks for Blender CUDA and gaming, it looks as though the 580 would be better; is there any reason I might want to consider the more expensive Quadro?

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: June 2013
BUDGET RANGE: $500-$800

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Game Development (Blender and UDK), 3D Game Testing/3D Gaming (Primarily FPS), Casual Gaming, Casual Movies

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: No current system; first build, entirely flexible. Whole-build budget is approximately $1500.

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: No current system; intending to go 2011/X79, probably ASUS motherboard.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg, Amazon.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: I live in USA, so North American retailer a plus (don't want to pay international shipping).

PARTS PREFERENCES: NVIDIA required for Blender Cycles, PhysX a plus for UDK.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe somewhere down the road

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: If I can afford it, maybe; SLI is rumored to slow Blender Cycles down, however.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: Don't have one picked out yet. Probably want at least a 1920 x 1080, I'm guessing, though I really have no idea how much monitor I need for what I'm doing (I have never purchased a monitor before).

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I would like to have some ability to upgrade for whatever setup I wind up with, whether that be SLI or Maximus; I know for a fact that I am getting NVIDIA, and I have been told that EVGA is the best maker of GTX cards. I have seen the 580 highly praised for Blender and termed as "plenty of 'oomph'" for UDK, but have had the Quadro K4000 recommended to me by more than one person. My primary concern with a 580 would be the 1.5GB GDDR5: will it be enough for GPU rendering in Blender? Also, what other advantages might the Quadro have for Blender and/or UDK, if any? Is it just the drivers that make it more desirable for 3D modeling, or is there something more?
 
Solution
Quaddro
If your application use Direct3D, then use gaming card.

Quadro is really shines in OpenGL application..like autocad and something else..and this is the weakness point of gaming card.

UDK => Direct3D
Blender => OpenGL/Direct3D
Games => Direct3D
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Quaddro

Quaddro

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If your application use Direct3D, then use gaming card.

Quadro is really shines in OpenGL application..like autocad and something else..and this is the weakness point of gaming card.

UDK => Direct3D
Blender => OpenGL/Direct3D
Games => Direct3D
 
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Solution
Quaddro

Quaddro

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if you just use 1920 x 1080 monitor, then 1.5GB will suffice your need..
but if you will use very large monitor (1440p), then 3GB series is a good option.

Just use regular cards, hydro or something overclocked will not give you huge performance boost since you're not using it for gaming purpose..
save your money to buy fast ssd..:)
 
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Donald Bronson

Donald Bronson

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I had intended to do some gaming, yes, primarily to test out levels and/or seek inspiration by playing games, but also for some fun. I'm primarily a casual rather than a hardcore gamer right now, since I've never owned a gaming rig, but it would be nice if it could play games (though not necessarily at maxed-out settings) as well as run Blender and UDK. My primary reason for going with a more expensive 3GB card such as the Hydro would be for extra memory to use in GPU rendering. I know that the Titan is especially popular for Blender because it has so many CUDA cores and so much memory (6GB), but I'm not sure how much or how little scene gets rendered on 1.5GB versus on 3GB. I know the program crashes if a render exceeds the available video memory, requiring that the job be restarted with the CPU (so it can use the system memory instead, which is larger). Does anyone know how much of a difference this will make in terms of scene size/number of triangles, etc.? Also, how much difference would there be between a regular 580 and a 580 Classified for gaming purposes?

Also, Quaddro, how big a monitor are we talking? Can you translate some of those resolutions into a guesstimated screen size in inches? I know it doesn't directly correspond, but at what screen sizes would I be starting to see those sort of resolutions offered, and at what general price points?
 
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Quaddro

Quaddro

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Titan just slightly better if it goes to 3D workstation application.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-titan-opencl-cuda-workstation,3474.html

You're in the right path, 580 is the bang of the buck..


it will not huge, since based on the same GPU..maybe around 3-10%
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/EVGA-GTX-580-FTW-Hydro-Copper-2-Review/?page=5

Well, this evga have a premium price..
like i said before, it's better to save your dollar for fast drive..



well, usually graphics card will use more than 1gb memory, if it more than 1920x1080 (1080p) in 3D games.
With 1.5g graphic memory, you still have half gigs more than you need

if you play at 2560×1440 resolution (1440p) or more, then you'll need (at least) 2gb graphics memory.
 
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Donald Bronson

Donald Bronson

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Thanks again, Quaddro. I'm assuming a program like UDK or Blender would use close to that. I have been looking around a little more and found people recommending at least 2GB memory if I want to use cycles, so it looks like I might have to go with a 3GB card (the rendering speed is much faster on GPU than CPU), especially given that I'm going to be running my display off of the same card I want to be doing CUDA processing with. Can you recommend FTW Hydro vs Classified Hydro vs Classified vs this 580?
 
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Quaddro

Quaddro

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mmm..
i've already working alot with game engine..ogre3d, irrlicht, shiva3d, unity, blizt3d (LOL), udk etc, but it's rarely touch more than 800mb when i load my entire scene..
Of course it's depend on optimization from your (low poly) model and texture..

if i were you, i'll take the cheapest one..
Somethin more than US$400 for this old king is not really worthed..
Since it based on same gpu, it will not give you "huge" performance boost between the cheapest one and the "almost" 600 dollar cards, which is cooled by water..
Maybe around 3-10%..

but of course it's up to you..
if you have plenty money in your pocket, then grab the best.. :)

btw, in my country, used GTX580 (which is still cover by warranty), just cost around US$180-US$225
 
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Donald Bronson

Donald Bronson

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Thanks, Quaddro. I think I'll go with the 580, and all that remains is for me to pick a specific manufacturer and model of it. I'm seriously eyeing that 580 Classified Hydro, which I find particularly appealing because it would be silent; however, I'll have to figure out if I can budget that much into my build.

I have summarized everything I've discovered for anyone who might have this question in the future:
• The Quadro K4000 is optimized for just about everything except Blender (at least as of right now; I heard NVIDIA might be looking to write a special driver for Blender soon.
• Because UDK uses the same interface as games (DirectX), it makes sense to use a graphics card designed for gaming, rather than a more expensive workstation card.
• Blender is confirmed quite recently to render a benchmark scene faster with the GTX 580 than with the Quadro K4000.
• As of right now, the GTX 580 is cheaper, even if you buy a watercooled, maxed-out version of it.
• When the GTX 580 came out, it was actually the best of its class of gaming cards (only double-GPU chips or SLI/CrossFire setups could beat it). Current gaming cards have outpaced it, but it isn't even close to obsolete, and still runs all the latest games.
• The GTX 580 outperforms the GTX 680 for Blender; the Titan outperforms both, but is much more expensive.
• On the whole, the GTX 580 gives you the most bang for your buck right now in terms of using these three applications.
• A water-cooled or overclocked model is not necessary, if you've been reading this; as Quaddro says, the GTX 580 Classified (or similar) offers roughly (very roughly) a 10% performance increase over a stock GTX 580, but costs about a third more. My primary reason for going with it would be the silent operation offered by watercooling; if that isn't important to you, a stock GTX 580 is probably a better buy.
• If money is no object, then a GeForce Titan is your best bet for Blender Cycles, and one of the best gaming cards currently available.

Hope that helps.
 
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