StumpFuMaster Posted February 19, 2015 Posted February 19, 2015 Our IT guys is building me a new workstation for AutoCAD, and is trying to decide what GPU to go with. New machine specs: Xeon E5-1620, 16GB Ram, HDD & SSD(don't know the brand), 2560x1440 monitor My current unit has a Quadro K2000, which has felt very underwhelming. I do mostly 2d, very high detail drawings, and have been having issues with rendering times. The limited amount of 3d work I do is a nightmare. The card he is looking at is the GTX 970(didn't state which manufacturer). Comparing it to the K2000, it seem like a substantial increase in performance. I would imagine we are looking at a sub-$400 budget for the GPU at this point, my company is pretty tight about spending money. Thoughts? Ideas? Recommendations? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
El_Capitan Posted February 19, 2015 Posted February 19, 2015 Try softmodding an older GTX 580 into a Quadro 7000 or a Tesla M2090. If you can find a 3GB version, the better. I'm going to try doing the same with my GTX 580 1.5G, and see how it compares to my actual Quadro 6000 which has 6GB VRAM and see how much VRAM limitation would affect it's performance. Or, you can softmod a GTX 680 into a Quadro K5000. If you can find a 4GB version, it will end up being exactly the same as an actual Quadro K5000. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
StumpFuMaster Posted February 19, 2015 Posted February 19, 2015 Try softmodding an older GTX 580 into a Quadro 7000 or a Tesla M2090. If you can find a 3GB version, the better. I'm going to try doing the same with my GTX 580 1.5G, and see how it compares to my actual Quadro 6000 which has 6GB VRAM and see how much VRAM limitation would affect it's performance. Or, you can softmod a GTX 680 into a Quadro K5000. If you can find a 4GB version, it will end up being exactly the same as an actual Quadro K5000. I've never heard of this, but having used the might power of Google, it seems like a pretty easy thing. We run 64-bit Windows 7 on our work PCs, do you think this would be beneficial? We do fairly limited 3d rendering atm, and I'm not seeing any "professional only" AutoCAD settings that we utilize. the 970 benches better than the 680 on most test I'm finding, would the cost difference, 680 being more expensive + modding really benefit me? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
El_Capitan Posted February 19, 2015 Posted February 19, 2015 You might be able to find good used GTX 580's for $100, especially locally. GTX 680's around $150. I think it's worth a try. Otherwise, I'd stick with the easy route and go with the GTX 970. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ir_cow Posted February 19, 2015 Posted February 19, 2015 The GTX 8800 aka Quadro 4600 was the last card that could be really softmodded. after that you can use Quadro drivers with some tricks but they preform the same or usually worse than the gaming card. Nvidia uses the same chip, but for the last 5+ years the PCB has fuses that determine if its a Quadro or not and disables certain features. Currently if you good at sodering, you can hardmod your GTX 670/680 and 690 into a Quadro K5000. Believe me I would have flashed/ modded / softmodded my GTX 580s if it could. This is why I ended up going with a Quadro 2000 in the end, than later to a Quadro FX 4800 when I wasn't doing 3d modeling anymore. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarWeeny Posted February 19, 2015 Posted February 19, 2015 i heard Bosco has a titan for sale Should be better than a gtx 970 in terms of performance in the work field. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ir_cow Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 I don't like linking other sites but here is a good chart showing show bad gaming cards run in CAD compared to workstation cards http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-13.html Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarWeeny Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 I don't like linking other sites but here is a good chart showing show bad gaming cards run in CAD compared to workstation cards http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-13.html I thought the titan was a workstation/gaming card lol, seems pretty bad for workstation for a workstation card Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVIYTH0S Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 I don't like linking other sites but here is a good chart showing show bad gaming cards run in CAD compared to workstation cards http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-13.html lol wow, it would seem I have a half decent workstation card on my hands. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ir_cow Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 The titan isn't a workstation card. It has lots of ram and the FP64 unlocked which is good for anyone who uses it for Compute work. Otherwise you would have to get a workstation card to do the same thing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
El_Capitan Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 If you're using it for compute, double-precision floating point performance is what's important. In most calculations, the HD 7970 will outperform the Titan by a good amount, only under-performing in single-threaded scenarios. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ir_cow Posted February 22, 2015 Posted February 22, 2015 i proved myself wrong again... you can flash your gtx 480 into a Quadro 6000 if you know how to hex edit the bios. it's not copy and paste either... im currently very confused how to do it correctly but people seem to alright just fine Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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