Gaming cards and workstion cards?

jbunch07 · Feb 25, 2008

ok so im just somewhat curious about the difference in workstation cards and gaming cards?
when looking at the specks the workstation cards sound very impressive but don't seem to game that well? and why are they so much more expensive? why couldn't someone just use an ultra or a 3870x2 to do rendering? could someone please explain. :confused:

wolf · Feb 25, 2008

youll find alot of (at least older and specifically nvidia, dunno about ati..) workstation cards are exactly the same, or very slightly different, to their gfx counterpart.

the fx5900, 6800, 7xxx?, and 8800GTX are/were all made in QuadroFX form, i think its just a bios change. and im sure im missing alot of cards here, those are examples.

jbunch07 · Feb 25, 2008

yea thats what i thought but i still cant figure out why they cost ungodly amounts of money ya know?

wolf · Feb 25, 2008

its stupid, considering you can bios mod your gfx counterpart to be a workstation gfx model....i did it for a day with my 6800Ultra, but then i was all like ... meh ...

yeah the cost is outrageous hey, especially for a mobile workstation gfx in a lappo...

ChillyMyst · Feb 25, 2008

its just a bios change that lets the drivers work in quadro mode, you can mod the nvidia drivers to get quadro mode as well.

some cards need a hard mod, and this has been true since the first quadro cards came out, EVERY model of desktop card has had its chip also used in quadro cards, i use to mod them turning them into quadros and we would resell them for 4-5x what we payed, sometimes more of it was a high end card/chip.

many times it was as simple as moving a resistor

as i read it u can mod the gf to quad with simple resistor moves sam as moding a 9800se 256bit to a full pro(move a resistor and bam full pro!!)

http://www.geocities.com/tnaw_xtennis/Quadro1-2.htm

thats how easy it is to turn older card to quads, SIMPLE AS HELL!!!

farlex85 · Feb 25, 2008

I have wondered this too. They do seem to be nearly identical spec wise. The only thing I can think of is that they are designed to operate with several of their kind for a workstation. Its like those workstation procs that cost so much money. They seem practically the same by themselves, but usually several go into workstations. I dont really know though. It seems someone could get a skulltrail w/ tri-sli and dual quads, and that should be able to handle anything at less cost than buying those workstation cards.

jbunch07 · Feb 25, 2008

wow thats insane
its just goes to show you how lazy companies can be sometimes,
move a resistor here and there and we will slap a 1500 price tag on it and be done...
gotta love power hungry companies....

jammy86 · Feb 25, 2008

Well it is a bit like why do you have to have XP home and XP corporate.

For the people using the buisness cards they are probably making the cost of the card out of the card per week. So making it twice the price of a normal consumer card just means they get more money. If you own a buisness you wont care, cause its not your cash, its the buisnesses. Having the function of the card will pay itself off in a month at most I'd bet.

I am also assuming that the support services for the buisness cards is better/different.

And given that most of us on here arent buisnesses we should shut up, cause it means they can sell the high street cards cheaper and shift the overheads unevenly.

JAmes.

niko084 · Feb 25, 2008

ATI and Nvidia are generally carbon copies of their mainstream cards to workstation cards with a different bios basically...

They are programmed and setup to run differently, you can even cross flash some of them.
Like a 2600xt to V5600 FireGL.

Workstation cards they charge more for because of what they are built to do, makes people and companies a lot of money, so the extra cost for the video card is easily payed for and not even looked at twice.

Scrizz · Feb 25, 2008

so I move a resistor, add ram, a handle and I get this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195055

....

niko084 · Feb 25, 2008

Scrizz said:
so I move a resistor, add ram, a handle and I get this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195055

....

Well not exactly in that case, but many of them are direct bios changes.

That is also a Dx10 card, so its entirely different.

Scrizz · Feb 25, 2008

I know just being an ....
what does DX10 have to do with it?
the v5600 is dx10 aswell

niko084 · Feb 25, 2008

Scrizz said:
I know just being an ....
what does DX10 have to do with it?
the v5600 is dx10 aswell

So if the 2600xt... Lol
It's a 2600xt - V5600 or V5600 - 2600xt.

Kreij · Feb 25, 2008

The workstation cards have a much higher level of precision.
This is important when you are doing CAD work in the 1/10000ths range.
If you draw two lines, one that ends against the other (like a T) and then zoom in, the difference will become very appearent.
On the desktop cards, as you zoon in the lines will seperate as you zoom in a lot.
On the workstation card, they will not.

Scrizz · Feb 25, 2008

niko084 said:
Well not exactly in that case, but many of them are direct bios changes.

That is also a Dx10 card, so its entirely different.

see your the one that brought Dx10 into this

niko084 · Feb 25, 2008

Scrizz said:
see your the one that brought Dx10 into this

Um ya in pointing out that there is no way you could turn your card into that FireGL

Because your card is Dx9 and that card is Dx10, different hardware sitting on that card.

Scrizz · Feb 25, 2008

I'm not talking about my card, I'm not dumb.
HD2900xt - duh. I was being sarcastic, how am I going to add more memory to a card....

niko084 · Feb 25, 2008

Scrizz said:
I'm not talking about my card, I'm not dumb.
HD2900xt - duh. I was being sarcastic, how am I going to add more memory to a card....

I know you were being sarcastic, but I didn't know you were talking about a 2900xt.

Scrizz · Feb 25, 2008

srry bout that, guess I should have said that. lol
all is forgiven.

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Gaming cards and workstion cards?

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