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AKA_RA
08-31-2005, 05:50 AM
im looking to build a gaming machine out of spare parts. so far the only part i dont have is the video card. well, i do have one, but its an mx4000 pci. its backup card used for internet browsing. anyways, i was wondering if anyone has tried gaming on a video card intended for a workstation, such as a quadro or a fire gl. how well would it work? forgive me if this is a silly question, im not very workstation savy.

Malatory
08-31-2005, 08:52 AM
Big differance between a workstation card and a Gaming card is the 3D. The Matrox cards I have used in the past as OK gaming cards. But they are not for some of the newer games HL2 / Doom3. They are made for doing CAD work and do a better job speed wise than a 3d card would.

Visionism
09-08-2005, 07:15 AM
I'm dredging this one up from the depths of history (hey a week is a long time in PC hardware!) since I have some experience in this area.
For the most part the advantages that a Quadro offers over a Geforce card are pretty much useless in gaming. The 'big' feature if you can call it that is FSAA for windowed apps. Pointless in a full screen game but very nice when I'm looking at antialiased wireframes in Lightwave and Autocad. If 3D or CAD isn't your thing then there's no point paying the extra for a Quadro (Or I assume a FireGL although Ive never used one) A Quadro uses the exact same components as a Geforce series card but with a different BIOS to unlock the additional features. In fact you can softmod a Geforce into a Quadro. I did it with a Ti4200 back in the day and there was no difference in 3D gaming performance whatsoever.