Tom’s Hardware offers benchmark results for the following graphics cards:
| ATI FireGL/FirePro-series | Nvidia Quadro FX-series |
|---|---|
| ATI FirePro V8700 | |
| ATI FireGL V8650 | Nvidia Quadro FX 5600 |
| ATI FireGL V7700 | Nvidia Quadro FX 4600 |
| ATI FireGL V7600 | Nvidia Quadro FX 1700 |
| ATI FireGL V7300 | Nvidia Quadro FX 5500 |
| ATI FireGL V7200 | Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 |
| ATI FireGL V7100 | Nvidia Quadro FX 3500 |
| ATI FireGL V5600 | Nvidia Quadro FX 570 |
| ATI FireGL V5200 | Nvidia Quadro FX 370 |
| ATI FireGL V3600 | Nvidia Quadro FX 1500 |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 (2.93 GHz) |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | Asus P5W64 WS Pro (rev 1.01, BIOS 0802) with Intel 975X Chipset |
| System memory (RAM) | 4 GB (4 x 1 GB) Corsair XMS2-6400 (CM2X10246400-C3) with CL 4.0-4-4-12 |
| Optical drive | Samsung SH-D163A , SATA150 |
| Power supply | Zalman, ATX 2.01, 510 W |
| Hard disk | Western Digital WD1500ADFD 150 GB |
| OS | Windows XP Service Pack 3 |
|---|---|
| 3D API Update | DirectX 9.0c |
| Intel Chipset drivers | Version 8.3.1.1009 |
| ATI FireGL Drivers | Catalyst 8.453.1-081008 |
| Nvidia Quadro Drivers | Quadro 181.20 + Maxtreme 11 |
| SPEC Benchmarks Settings | Application settings according to SPEC Project Group rules, driver using application optimizations if available |
| SPEC Benchmarks Used | SpecViewperf 10.0 SPECapc 3ds Max 9 (3D Studio Max) SPECapc Solidworks 2007 SPECapc Maya 6.5 |
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Summary
- Introduction
- FirePro V8700 Hardware Details: DisplayPort Times Two
- Software: Driver Features
- Test Configuration
- Maya Benchmarks
- 3ds Max Benchmarks
- Solidworks Benchmarks
- Viewperf Benchmarks
- Viewperf Benchmarks, Continued
- Gaming Versus Workstation Performance : Radeon HD 4870 Versus FirePro V8700
- Summary And Conclusions
Ask a Category Expert
You're clueless. The price premium is for the drivers themselves, not the hardware. No one crippled your gaming card. But no one optimized its drivers for workstation applications either. And these optimizations are not simple tweaks but massive and careful code to give you massive performance boost under very very specific applications.
You could go as far as saying that you're in essence buying an expensive piece of software as well and not just a graphics card.
I'd love to see how the real thing would stack up next to a card with different BIOS.
Ok, so basically, we'd have to get ahold of a fireGL bios, and hack it into a 3850. If there was an equivilant to a 3870, I'd do it myself.
Who's brave enough?
That's what a BIOS hack will do. You change the BIOS of the 4870 card to that of it's workstation equivalent.
Do a google search. It's been done before. Although I doubt this new card would yield any benefit over a 4870 with a BIOS hack, other than in some overclocking.
I'd be more interested in the Nvidia card because then they at least add a little more VRAM. Hell, I'd love to see a Quadro card, with lots of VRAM, BIOS hacked to a Desktop variant to see how it would do at higher resolutions over the actual desktop variant.
You're clueless. The price premium is for the drivers themselves, not the hardware. No one crippled your gaming card. But no one optimized its drivers for workstation applications either. And these optimizations are not simple tweaks but massive and careful code to give you massive performance boost under very very specific applications.
You could go as far as saying that you're in essence buying an expensive piece of software as well and not just a graphics card.
Of course its possible. But at best performance will be equal, I would assume a bit worse, depending on whether FirePro drivers include the specific game optimizations catalayst includes or not.
The V8700 doesn't loose to the V7700 all that often, but in some of the cases when it does loose, it also looses to nVidia's counterparts (with the V7700 winning). It would be a much more compelling product (especially at the already good price) if it could beat the V7700 across the board.
Ah, but that's assuming they are the same. Some Nvidia cards have more VRAM than their desktop counterparts. With a BIOS hack, I wouldn't be surprised if they did better than them, especially in those higher res situations.
You got it backwards. You get a cheaper desktop card, BIOS hack is, then use the expensive FirePro drivers.
Soldedworks went directX in ver 2009
And there main competition Inventor in 2008
Both stating the fact that openGL cards are too expensive
So TW your soldworks benchmark looks obsolete