The differences between gaming cards and CAD cards are actually not
much. The primary difference comes in the drivers, and that's where the
cost is incurred. Most games are DirectX-driven games, meaning that
they use Microsoft's DirectX graphics library to render the various
geometry, textures, and so on. However, all of your high-end CAD
packages use the OpenGL graphics library, originally developed by SGI.
The drivers that you install on your OS to interface with the hardware
enable all of the graphics library acceleration. Since there is a
(much) smaller market for OpenGL applications, the cost to develop the
OpenGL drivers is split across this smaller market segment--Econ 101
supply and demand stuff.
With that being said, the current offerings from nVidia are a mix of
chipsets, both young and old. For instance, your high-range Quadro FX
4000 uses the same chipset (NV40) as the GeForce 6800 (AGP). You can
actually save a lot of money by doing a "softmod" on a 6800 to make it
believe that it's a 4000 (as discussed here a few months ago, otherwise
Google it)--you can't SLI-bridge AGP cards, though. The Quadro FX 4500
uses the same core (G70) as the GeForce 7800 series--I'm not sure about
a softmod, but the 7800 will cost you about 1/4 the cost of the 4500,
and you can do an SLI setup.
If you're not into building your own rigs like I am, you'll have to
search for a few of the more creative manufacturers out there.
Companies like Alienware <http: www.alienware.com="/> , Xi
<http: www.xicomputer.com="/> , Hypersonic <http: www.hypersonic-pc.com=">
, and others can custom configure you machines with SLI set-ups, but you
will have to shell out some cash since you're buying two Quadro cards.
Teamed up with a nice Athlon XP X2 or Opteron dual-core chip, and you'll
be happy for a few years at least.
Learn more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NVIDIA_Graphics_Processing_Units
In the end, in order for PTC to support high-end gaming cards, they
would have to implement the DirectX graphics library. I'd prefer that
they just make it so that my mapkey to show my planes layer doesn't kick
me out of Pro/E every sixth or seventh time I use it, which is
dependent, of course, upon the position of the moon inside of Jupiter.
Caleb Coburn
Mechanical Engineer
Roche Diagnostics
