GeForce Vs. Quadro

[qliveur]

I have a friend who's starting to piece together a rig for graphic design. Of course the standard video card for one of those is either an Nvidia Quadro or an ATI Fire-whatever. She doesn't want anything to do with ATI, so she's stuck with buying an Nvidia Quadro. Or is she?

What I need to know is if there's really any hardware difference between Quadro and GeForce or if it's just BIOS and drivers, and how much better a Quadro performs than an equivalent GeForce with graphic design software.

Thanks!

 

[Atreus21]

Pulled this from Tomshardware:

Dean Siren wrote:

> I plan to start practicing Maya Personal Learning Edition or 3DS Max
> soon so I can create a demo reel and send it to game companies to get
> an entry level job as modeler/animator. For that I need to build a
> new PC. Will I need a Quadro or can I do fine with a Geforce?

Well, it depends. From a technical point of view a Geforce will do it as
good as a Quadro since both cards use the same chips (GPUs) and also the
same drivers. But if You want to to that for a living I'd suggest to get
the Quadro, especially since a certified gfx card is a prerequisite for
software support...

In the past I used only Quadro and FireGL cards. But one of my main
systems now has a PNY GF6600GT PCIe while waiting on the arrival for a
Quadro FX 4400. Even MCAD like Pro/E, Unigraphics and CATIA runs fine
(of course without the additional Quadro features)...

In short: if You are just doing it as a hobby that probably in the
future might lead to a profession and if You are a self-builder then go
for the Geforce. If You are a professional that wants to do that for
living then better get a certified workstation (Dell Precision, HP
xw-Series etc) with a Quadro or FireGL card. It will make Your life much
easier...

> Just
> what, exactly, does a Quadro do that a Geforce doesn't?

Quadro and Geforce are the same. The Quadro cards just make the driver
to unlock some additional functions (i.e. antialiased lines, mostly
interesting if You do CAD) and offer more settings. Besides that, Quadro
cards usually are also better hardware (not made to the lowest price
possible like most gamer cards) which offer a very good analog signal
quality and some also offer things like Dual-Link...

Keep in mind this is about 4 years old.