Quadro FX Workstation Graphics

[drkdick]

I've been trying to find out if I am likely to see any improvements in OpenGL perfomance in Linux using a Quadro FX card as opposed to a "consumer" GeForce one based on the same chipset, but can't find any studies comparing these under Linux.

I'm wondering about things like 3D desktops, rendering in Blender3D, programming OpenGL applications with shaders, etc. I do not intend to use proprietary 3D applications.

I have a laptop with a Quadro FX 1500 and I am quite pleased with the performance but haven't used a 7xxx-series GeForce under Linux so I have nothing to compare it with. Is there anything a Quadro would offer in a new Linux desktop using NVIDIA's driver which would justify the price?

[Michael]

Originally Posted by drkdick

I've been trying to find out if I am likely to see any improvements in OpenGL perfomance in Linux using a Quadro FX card as opposed to a "consumer" GeForce one based on the same chipset, but can't find any studies comparing these under Linux.

I'm wondering about things like 3D desktops, rendering in Blender3D, programming OpenGL applications with shaders, etc. I do not intend to use proprietary 3D applications.

I have a laptop with a Quadro FX 1500 and I am quite pleased with the performance but haven't used a 7xxx-series GeForce under Linux so I have nothing to compare it with. Is there anything a Quadro would offer in a new Linux desktop using NVIDIA's driver which would justify the price?

At Phoronix we haven't conducted any Quadro studies, but if you're interested, please contact NVIDIA and express interest in having Phoronix do such a study

[sreyan]

Originally Posted by Michael

At Phoronix we haven't conducted any Quadro studies, but if you're interested, please contact NVIDIA and express interest in having Phoronix do such a study

Such a study would be interesting indeed. A lot of people want to know how good the quadro line is!

As far as I know the Quadro series uses the same processors as the geforce line.

The cards themselves do have better components, and the drivers at least in windows supports line anti aliasing in hardware, which can be a lot of help to CAD developers. The drivers also get rigorously tested with various workstation programs. Floating point accuracy is also a little better, being capable of full 32bit to IEEE standards.

In the Geforce 5 based quadro line, the quadro boards supported open gl logic operations while the geforce line did not. I'm not sure this matters with newer boards.

I have yet to see how the quadro line behaves in linux though.

[drkdick]

Originally Posted by Michael

At Phoronix we haven't conducted any Quadro studies, but if you're interested, please contact NVIDIA and express interest in having Phoronix do such a study

Well, considering how this topic doesn't elicit much response on other linux (and nvidia) forums I'd certainly say there's a need for an independent study. As I have gathered, for AGP-generation cards the differences between Quadros and GeForces where to a large extent in the BIOS and the drivers (maybe this is why NVIDIA persists on keeping the source under wraps). New Quadro cards do have new hardware features; overlays, clipping and AA lines, but if they are of any practical use outside an application like Maya I don't know.