Hallo! Because I need a new graphiccard I interested if it is useful for blender to use a Quatro FX Card or just to buy a normal Nvidia Card like 6800. Has somebody experience with Quatro FX? Are there advantages in blender? Thank you, rubinski!
rubinski:
Go for the 6800 or similar.
From personal experience with a Quadro FX500, i wouldnât bother, theyâre a waste of money. Blender i believe doesnât make use of the FXâs functions anyway.
A 7800gt might be a good option but a 6800gt would probably be fine. I think the quadros are too expensive and you probably wouldnât need whatever extra power it might give.
I beg to differ on this point.
Firstly what are FX functions? I ask because the FX label has been on several cards now going way back to the Geforce 5000 series. :rolleyes:
FX is just a prefix used by Nvidia (which has since been dropped on the 6xxx series and 7xxx series).
If you are referring to how a Quadro handles OpenGL calls then I suppose Blender probably doesnât issue specific âworkstationâ commands. But then again, perhaps it does?
From my understanding, any Quadro card will handle and accelerate standard OpenGL commands better than a standard âgamingâ card of the same series.
Features like hardware accelerated wireframes are an often talked about feature of using Quadro (or FireGL) cards.
Getting back on topic, Iâd suggest the best of both worlds and recommend that Rubinski track down a 6800GT in AGP form. The reason for this is that most 6800GT cards on an AGP slot can be unlocked to enable Quadro extensions without any patches or hardware modifications.
Just an idea. 
if your going to get that one⌠Then ya might as well get Gelato as well⌠Itâs like made for that cardâŚ
the quatros are fantastic for Maya and other software that takes advantage of GPU rendering.
since Blender doesnât it wonât help you.
my flatmate (a maya user) has one, and its crap for games, but great for Maya.
Alltaken
It helps if folk start calling these cards by their proper name: Quadro. (A quattro was a 4-wheel-drive car built by Audi for Rallying).
Yet again, I have to comment. Quadro cards are not just excellent in apps like Maya for âGPU renderingâ. Whilst itâs true that through Gelato this can be done, Quadro cards will still outperform a standard GeForce card in most OpenGL tasks.
It has to do with more OpenGL instructions being hardware accelerated.
Hereâs a link to the official Nvidia PDF on Quadro features: http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_14930.html
Itâs well known that Quadro cards perform terribly in video games. It really shouldnât be surprising given that they trade off certain features used by games in favour of features that are used by workstation and CGI applications.
In all honesty though, Iâd say that Blender seems to run pretty decent on most current generation video cards. My 6600GT works a treat in both Windows & Linux.
So looking for that elusive 6800GT and Rivatunerâing it into a Quadro would probably work even better.
Surely there are more folk out there that have used these Quadro cards with Blender? :rolleyes:
I have a Quadro4 card and it works incredibly well with Blender in OpenGL.
On a footnote to the blender/Gelato question, Nvidia just released Gelato 2.0 for free. Itâs freely available for commercial use and runs on Windows and Linux.
The question I have now is, is it possible to use Gelato to render blender scenes? I donât know much about Gelatoâs way of rendering, if it is an option in your 3d package or requires and plugin/file conversion/export.
Link:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/gelato.html
Maybe someone could look into this and see if itâs a viable render option for blender?
Hi!
Two months ago, I purchased on eBay two video cards at 1/5 of their price:
a second hand Quadro FX 1100 (128 MB) and a brand new Quadro FX 3000 (256MB).
They are AGP 8X cards, because my computers still have motherboards with AGP slots.
Iâm using the Quadro FX 1100 in place of a ATI Radeon 9000, on a computer with AGP 4X, and the Quadro FX 3000 is on a computer with AGP 8X slot.
On both machines the result is amazing!
Now, my only limitation is the amount of RAM memory available in the computer (2 MB) which limits the files at 16.8 Millions of polygons!
With my previous Radeon 9250, It was difficult to move a scene of 4 millions of polygons in the 3D window!
Now, I can move a whole city with high poly buildings without problems!
Philippe.
Whatâs interesting is if you read this Nvidia PDF explaining Gelato 2.0: http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_30224.html
Of particular note is not the 3dsmax or Maya plugin, but this line:
âIt ships with simple, yet powerful, C++ and Python APIs, as well as with the plug-ins for AutodeskÂŽ MayaÂŽ and 3ds MaxÂŽ.â
Did you spot it? :rolleyes:
It mentions PYTHON :eek:
Iâm no programmer by any means, but what I do know is that Blender makes use of Python. Gelato makes use of python. Seems thereâs a potential link between them.
Could we eventually see GPU accelerated and assisted rendering? Could be interesting. :rolleyes: