Video Card Performance
 

We are in the process of upgrading our computer for editing SI-2K/10-bit Cineform Raw footage. The current spec is-

Motherboard- Poly5000X8SS Xenon SAS+6SATA-R5
Processors- 2x QuadCore Xenon E5345 2.33GHz 8m 1333fsb
Memory- 4x DDR2 667MHz 1GG PC5300
Drive0- 2x Seagate 146GB SAS 15k Cheetah
Drive1- 2x Seagate 320GB SATA
Drive2- 2x Seagate 320GB SATA
Controller- 3WARE 9650SE-4LPML PCIe x4 SATA-RAID-5 MulitLane
Monitor- 24” EIZO Color Edge CG241W
Audio Card- Not sure yet, but it needs a breakout box

Now here is the main question. I am down to two graphics card choices, the Nvidia Quadro FX 3500 or the ATI FireGL V7600. I know ATI is known for gaming cards, so I wanted to get some feedback before jumping in.

-John

Look at the recommended specs for the apps you use.

Some don't use GPU acceleration at all.
Only a handful of applications use features unlocked on the workstation cards (quadro, fire).
Chances are you might be better off with the fastest gaming card available.

Some apps will only work with Nvidia, some only with ATI.

Thanks for the feedback Glenn. They are both good cards for my apps. I was just wondering what you would go with if you could get both cards for the same price.

-John

What apps are you looking at? Performance between the two cards will likely differ (a lot) depending on which application(s) you are looking at.

2- There might be benchmarks online.... though it may be difficult to find good, relevant benchmarks.

I would go with a Quadro since it has more support among high-end video applications (e.g., Autodesk/Discreet's line runs exclusively on Quadros).