Quadro FX 580 vs GTS 250

The GTX 250 is approximately equal to the Quadro 4800, which cost $1,600.00.

Nvidia Quadro FX 4800: Workstation Graphics At Its Finest? : Introduction

Workstation Graphics Cards and their Mainstream Equivalents Quadro

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2258.html

If you do this for a living you cannot settle for a gaming card.. The drivers/tech support for a work station card are other worldly as far as proffesional apps go.

Even the lowest end work station card will beat the pants off of a high end gaming card (unless you mod the bios, which doesnt always work..). As far as 3DSmax goes the performance is smoother, the rendering is faster, and it is far more accurate. I'm not sure if you have ever tried to design 3d art on a gaming card but often times (due to poor drivers) as you zoom in and zoom out the textures never seem to line up quite right (they seem to overlap and slide around as the gaming card is made for speed in games, not accuracy in design), makes it very difficult to do anything other than hobby messing around. A profesional card is much much more accurate in endges and what not.

Depends. If you do this for a living, get the Quadro, otherwise if this is a hobby, get a gaming card.

Hope I'm not too late but I'd have to say go with the Quadro. They are designed for accuracy (rendering details) and supports Open GL and Shader Model extremely well; which is what you want. Gaming cards are designed for frame speed not accuracy!

Good luck!