| Model | GPU | Fab | Mainstream Equivalent | Memory | DVI | DisplayPort | 3-Pin Stereo | Max Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATi FirePro V8800 | RV870 Cypress | 40 nm | Radeon HD 5870 | 2048 MB GDDR5 (256-bit) | 2 (Adapter) | 4 | Yes | 208 W |
| ATi FirePro V8700 | RV770 | 55 nm | Radeon HD 4870 | 1024 MB GDDR5 (256-bit) | 1 | 2 | Yes | 151 W |
| Nvidia Quadro 5000 | GF100 Fermi | 40 nm | GeForce GTX 465 | 2560 MB GDDR5 (320-bit) | 1 | 2 | Yes | 152 W |
| Nvidia Quadro FX 4800 | GT200 | 65 nm | GeForce GTX 260 | 1536 MB GDDR3 (384-bit) | 1 | 2 | Yes | 150 W |
| Model | Memory Bandwidth | DirectX | OpenGL | Shader Model | Core Clock | Memory Clock | Pixel & Vertex Processing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATi FirePro V8800 | 147.2 GB/s | 11.0 | 4.1 | 5.0 | 825 MHz | 1150 MHz | 1600 SPUs |
| ATi FirePro V8700 | 115.2 GB/s | 10.1 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 750 MHz | 900 MHz | 800 SPUs |
| Nvidia Quadro 5000 | 120 GB/s | 11.0 | 4.1 | 5.0 | 513 MHz | 1500 MHz | 352 SPUs |
| Nvidia Quadro FX 4800 | 76.8 GB/s | 10.0 | 3.1 | 4.0 | 600 MHz | 800 MHz | 192 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.
- Introduction
- Comparisons And Applications
- Nvidia Quadro 5000: Overview
- Nvidia Quadro 5000: Features, Connectors, And Driver
- ATI FirePro V8800: Overview
- ATI FirePro V8800: Features, Connectors, And Driver
- Test Configuration
- Benchmark Results: SPECapc Autodesk 3D Studio Max 9 1.2
- Benchmark Results: SPECapc Autodesk Maya 2009
- Benchmark Results: SPECapc Newtek LightWave 9.6
- Benchmark Results: SPECviewperf 11
- Conclusion
For someone who doesn't do 3-D design these benchmarks are kinda confusing.
For someone who doesn't do 3-D design these benchmarks are kinda confusing.
(or have I sped-read past the reason why
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.
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.
what teh ehck you mean ? lol i'min school for gameart design work in 3ds max 2010 all teh time, and i still can;t make much sense of tom's benches here , are tehy mesuring in render time or what ?? who the f--- they get the scroes ect ect , i want to see actual render times , would i benfit at all , if i replaced my gaming card with one of these ? sorry toms but epic fail on this comparison this time , why on earth you show 3ds max render tiems for comercial card benches but not work station cards is beyond me. just makes no sense, especially sicne consumer graphic cards DO NOT make a damn difference in 3ds max because when you use a comercial vid card all renders are done on the cpu not the gpu.
A true statement if i ever heard one, since AMD merged ATI and fired lots of ATI personnel.
what is it, not what is it more or less