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Comparisons And Applications

Workstation Shootout: Nvidia Quadro 5000 Vs. ATI FirePro V8800
By
ModelGPUFabMainstream EquivalentMemoryDVIDisplayPort3-Pin StereoMax Power
ATi FirePro V8800RV870 Cypress40 nmRadeon HD 58702048 MB GDDR5 (256-bit)2 (Adapter)4Yes
208 W
ATi FirePro V8700RV77055 nmRadeon HD 48701024 MB GDDR5 (256-bit)12Yes
151 W
Nvidia Quadro 5000GF100 Fermi40 nmGeForce GTX 4652560 MB GDDR5 (320-bit)12Yes
152 W
Nvidia Quadro FX 4800GT20065 nmGeForce GTX 2601536 MB GDDR3 (384-bit)12Yes
150 W
ModelMemory Bandwidth
DirectXOpenGLShader ModelCore ClockMemory ClockPixel & Vertex Processing
ATi FirePro V8800147.2 GB/s11.04.15.0825 MHz1150 MHz1600 SPUs
ATi FirePro V8700115.2 GB/s10.14.14.1750 MHz900 MHz800 SPUs
Nvidia Quadro 5000120 GB/s11.04.15.0513 MHz1500 MHz352 SPUs
Nvidia Quadro FX 480076.8 GB/s10.03.14.0600 MHz800 MHz192 SPUs


New Applications

Workstation graphics cards of this caliber are usually employed by engineers. Companies like Autodesk, Dassault and Mental Images offer specialized software solutions. Less-powerful models are a good fit for less-demanding applications in fields like digital content creation and desktop publishing.

As a result of the increasing popularity of 3D movies, demand for workstation cards has increased dramatically in Hollywood and its production studios. In the case of films aimed at a theatrical release (as opposed to straight-to-DVD production) the producers often use a resolution that is four times that of full HD. These companies need a quick way to check how their 3D models will appear to the audience. Since time is money, they obviously want to see the results as quickly as possible, and can’t afford long rendering times every time one of the parameters of a model is altered. One such production company is The Foundry, which also produced several scenes for last year’s blockbuster Avatar.

Workstation cards are also very beneficial for video enhancement. For example, MotionDSP offers a software solution that acts as a retroactive image stabilizer for shaky home videos. One solution used by the police and the military is called Ikena. There is even a freeware variant available to home users called vReveal that also offers image stabilization, but has some other tricks up its sleeve as well.

Current developments in the medical sector are interesting as well. Here, powerful workstation solutions like Nvidia's Quadro are used in real-time 4D imaging. Until recently, imaging systems, such as ultrasound and CAT scans, only provided moving images in 2D. 3D images, on the other hand, were always snapshots. That is different today. Medical equipment able to show the beating heart and the flow of blood through its chambers usually rely on workstation-class graphics cards like the ones we are looking at in this review.

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Top Comments
  • 20 Hide
    joytech22 , September 1, 2010 6:42 AM
    You need to remember, Fermi is designed not "Just" for games, but was also designed, from day one, with computing in mind as well.
  • 17 Hide
    reprotected , September 1, 2010 7:55 AM
    Why isn't the Quadro 6000 and the FX 5800 in the benchmarks?
  • 15 Hide
    Gin Fushicho , September 1, 2010 6:35 AM
    I really wish I knew what these numbers meant.

    For someone who doesn't do 3-D design these benchmarks are kinda confusing.
Other Comments
  • 15 Hide
    Randomacts , September 1, 2010 6:20 AM
    That graphics card cost more then both of the computers I own. O.o
  • -9 Hide
    tacoslave , September 1, 2010 6:22 AM
    if amd put a little more work on their drivers (i.e crossfire and firepro performance)they would be the clear performance champion.
  • 15 Hide
    Gin Fushicho , September 1, 2010 6:35 AM
    I really wish I knew what these numbers meant.

    For someone who doesn't do 3-D design these benchmarks are kinda confusing.
  • 0 Hide
    TheStealthyOne , September 1, 2010 6:36 AM
    The cooler for the FirePro card is really attractive imo.
  • 20 Hide
    joytech22 , September 1, 2010 6:42 AM
    You need to remember, Fermi is designed not "Just" for games, but was also designed, from day one, with computing in mind as well.
  • 6 Hide
    darthvidor , September 1, 2010 6:56 AM
    I'm impressed to find nvidia beating amd in power consumption.
  • 17 Hide
    reprotected , September 1, 2010 7:55 AM
    Why isn't the Quadro 6000 and the FX 5800 in the benchmarks?
  • 3 Hide
    SchizoFrog , September 1, 2010 8:08 AM
    Once again the arguement regarding AMD Drivers is brought to the fore. But more than this, when AMD has a line of products that could be said to 'miss' they absolutely FAIL. nVidia on the otherhand seem to have learned their lesson well from the 5xxxFX series and can still produce products that can compete at least at some level, ie: GTX460. Although these are Workstation products, nVidia have a complete package with GPUs and Drivers that work from the off.
  • -2 Hide
    scrumworks , September 1, 2010 8:10 AM
    I'm sure you'll be hearing from AMD pretty soon publishing those kind of results.
  • 7 Hide
    davefb , September 1, 2010 8:21 AM
    sort of interesting, but why is there no comparison to mainstream boards? There is a massive premium of cost here but nothing to be able to say 'hey boss, the onboard graphics we use really don't cut it any more, how about a quadro'.
    (or have I sped-read past the reason why ;)  )
  • 6 Hide
    L0tus , September 1, 2010 8:34 AM
    "AMD's best approach would be to commit more resources to its driver team to rectify the situation."

    Hence why I'm selling my HD5770 and getting a GTX460. Much as I like their hardware, ATI sucks balls on drivers...this card won't even shine on M&B and BF2 is a nightmare.
  • -7 Hide
    ohim , September 1, 2010 9:30 AM
    L0tus"AMD's best approach would be to commit more resources to its driver team to rectify the situation."Hence why I'm selling my HD5770 and getting a GTX460. Much as I like their hardware, ATI sucks balls on drivers...this card won't even shine on M&B and BF2 is a nightmare.

    Why do you even want to compare 2 different cards that have different price range ? At least in my country GTX460 costs almost twice as much as 5770. I wonder why nobody can force Nvidia or AMD to bring the workstation optimization found in Quadro - FirePRO drivers to normal cards ... we all know about the past Quadro mods from normal gaming cards ... most of the time all that differes between the 2 cards is amount of memory.
  • 4 Hide
    joytech22 , September 1, 2010 10:44 AM
    ohimWhy do you even want to compare 2 different cards that have different price range ? At least in my country GTX460 costs almost twice as much as 5770. I wonder why nobody can force Nvidia or AMD to bring the workstation optimization found in Quadro - FirePRO drivers to normal cards ... we all know about the past Quadro mods from normal gaming cards ... most of the time all that differes between the 2 cards is amount of memory.


    Because then Nvidia wouldn't have their Quadro lines would they?

    It's mostly for money, they just change a product a bit and market it as a completely different thing, this rakes in more money, and i know you can turn GTX2** Series card's to Quatro's because iv'e turned my GTX285 into one before.
  • 1 Hide
    soo-nah-mee , September 1, 2010 12:17 PM
    It may be an older card, but I hate the Quardo FX3700 that's in my workstation. I can run Inventor and Solidworks far better at home with an HD4870. ...And if you say your paying for durability or service hours, I don't buy it. You could buy 8 "gaming" cards for the price of my Quadro.
  • 5 Hide
    meat81 , September 1, 2010 12:50 PM
    AMD Drivers fault? Big shocker there
  • -3 Hide
    Poisoner , September 1, 2010 1:18 PM
    Maybe the ati cards just suck. Anyways fermi is designed for compute power is almost apples to oranges. This is no surprise to me knowing that fermi rapes g200 in folding.
  • 1 Hide
    geok1ng , September 1, 2010 1:33 PM
    "AMD's best approach would be to commit more resources to its driver team to rectify the situation."

    A true statement if i ever heard one, since AMD merged ATI and fired lots of ATI personnel.
  • 0 Hide
    pinkfloydminnesota , September 1, 2010 1:38 PM
    more or less a twin? could we have more riddles and less actual description of the components next time?

    what is it, not what is it more or less
  • 0 Hide
    saint19 , September 1, 2010 1:39 PM
    This isn't a secret the Nvidia’s Quadro series is an amazing card against his contenders I just wish that this amazing performance was used in the Fermi series :lol: 
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