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Workstation Shootout: Nvidia Quadro 5000 Vs. ATI FirePro V8800

Workstation Shootout: Nvidia Quadro 5000 Vs. ATI FirePro V8800
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Nvidia sure didn't waste any time introducing its Fermi architecture to the workstation space. Its Quadro 5000 is one of the first models to use the company's GF100 graphics processor. How does this card stack up against ATI’s flagship FirePro V8800?

The first half of this year felt like Nvidia was taking a time-out or a nap, leaving both its third-party board vendors and customers impatient (BFG, of course, paid the ultimate price). It seemed the company was content to keep creatively renaming its desktop graphics chips, and thus sticking with its then-current portfolio.

Meanwhile, AMD launched its entire line of DirectX 11-compatible Radeon HD 5000-series cards, literally from top to bottom.

Finally, after several delays, Nvidia brought its own DirectX 11 GPU to market, officially called GF100 and based on the Fermi architecture.

The first cards to employ the new design were called the GeForce GTX 480, GeForce GTX 470, and GeForce GTX 465, and all of them were aimed at the gaming enthusiast. Now, Nvidia is introducing a workstation-class card belonging to the Quadro line. Again, AMD enjoys a bit of a lead here as well, having already updated its FirePro line of professional graphics cards in late spring.

That sets the stage for today’s comparison in which we will pit Nvidia’s new Quadro 5000 against AMD's flagship ATI FirePro V8800, comparing both cards to previous-generation parts as well. Since some of our readers may not be familiar with workstation graphics, allow us to provide a frame of reference by comparing them to their mainstream gaming brethren.

The Quadro 5000 is based on Nvidias GF100 GPU and contains 352 shader cores, making it more or less a twin of the GeForce GTX 465. The main differences between the two relate to the memory subsystem and the clock frequencies. AMD's FirePro V8800 is built around the company's Cypress XT (RV870), the same GPU powering its Radeon HD 5870.

So, going into this comparison, what should our expectations be? Comparisons between the gaming versions of these cards show them going head-to-head in many cases, with AMD taking the lead in some cases and Nvidia in others, depending on the game, benchmark, and settings. In the past, this sort of pattern has translated quite well into the workstation world. Will this hold true here as well, or will we see a clear winner emerge?

When it unveiled its Fermi architecture, Nvidia repeatedly stressed that this design was not developed expressly for the gaming market. Instead, the company strove to create a design that could also target the workstation segment, as well as HPC markets. Today‘s test will also show whether Nvidia achieves this goal.

Before we dive into the benchmarks, we’ll take a closer look at the contenders, sizing up Nvidia’s Quadro 5000 and the ATI FirePro V8800. We’ll also consider their respective fields.

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  • 0 Hide
    Silmarunya , 1 September 2010 19:53
    Bottom line: wait a bit more till you purchase a card. If AMD launches a driver that's on par with Nvidia's, they'll have an equal, if not better, card at a lower cost. If not, go Nvidia.
  • 1 Hide
    Anonymous , 3 September 2010 02:29
    Quadro 6000 is the actual product with fermi 100 chip (480 cores) ... and it is the product to be compared with v 8800
  • 0 Hide
    wirral , 3 September 2010 02:35
    An interesting article, but somewhat unrealistic. Virtually all designers have two monitors in front of them. As I have found to my cost, driving two monitors for 3D work is a whole different ballgame to driving just one. Even the figures for 1920 x 1200 resolutions are not really sufficient. Various aberrations are liable to occur when two displays are in use, which do not show when only one is used. I suggest that the next time you do a review of workstation graphics cards, you use two monitors as standard, and then at various screen resolutions.
  • 0 Hide
    mi1ez , 7 September 2010 03:25
    I'm pretty sure all the firepro cards come with memory in gbs rather than mbs...
  • 0 Hide
    kelemvor4 , 8 September 2010 01:47
    Why are you comparing ati's top end card to nvidia's middle of the road card instead of comparing ati's top end card to nvidia's?
  • -1 Hide
    jamie_macdonald , 16 September 2010 18:46
    kelemvor4Why are you comparing ati's top end card to nvidia's middle of the road card instead of comparing ati's top end card to nvidia's?



    if anything this benchmark should work in ATI's favour as they are comapring a GTx465 base to an ATI 5870 base card ....ATi should easily trump it .. and guess what? as normal ... they don't.

    these forums are so full of fanbois of all varietys nowdays ... i'd buy an ATI if i thought they were better ... but .. i dont :p