QuadroFX 1400 vs GeForce 6800 (or GT)

[Johnmcl7]

I have a friend who used to work at the same company as me, she wants a new PC to 3D work at home, 3Ds Max, Maya and some rendering. She would like a Dell machine (she is not a techy person and there is no-one nearby to help so I think this is a good machine) but the main issue is whether to go with a Dimension and a 6800 or a similar Precision system with the Quadro FX1400. I have no experience in this area and I can find no benchmarks which compare the two, I don't want to give bad advice. The Precision machine is quite a bit more expensive (as you'd expect), I would be interested to hear people's thoughts, especially since this will be a home desktop, not a business one.

Thanks,
John

[superklye]

Well, there is a thread in the 6800 forum called "The Quadro Effect" that walks one through enabling all the Quadro FX 4400 features on your 6800 GT/U, so maybe check that out and decide?

[Knot3D]

Hmm, you should really check out this thread about Quadro's vs Geforce in this CGTalk thread : thread about Quadro & Geforce in 3D applications (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=163736)

I had a, back then expensive, QuadroFX1000 to work in Maya and Cinema4D. Worked great no problems, but I sold the card and thus had to replace it. The QuadroFX3000 was way too expensive so I got a 6800GT. I have no regrets.

You could softmod (with Rivatuner) the GT indeed which would increase performance in Maya even more. Only go for the Quadro if her 3D work at home is 100% deadline strict otherwise the huge Quadro costs are imho not justified.

My QuadroFX1000 crashed a few more times in Cinema4D than the 6800GT has .
Of course, Maya and Max are a bit more bitchy about the right card.