Is this card good or what? I cannot find a single review anywhere online! NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 256MB GDDR3 SDRAM Max res: 3840 x 2400 RAMDAC Clock Speed 400 MHz Dual Link DVI / Two DVI PCI Express x16 retails for $650 I will be using it for cpu intensive programs such as AutoCAD, Photoshop, Illustrator, VectorWorks.. heavy rendering/cpu/mem usages software packages and real time digital TV output. Our hope is that the card can handle all of the processes on its own and not ask the cpu for help, especially with rendering and hardware decoding (divx) Thanks! Wodz
Quadro cards are very rare and thats why only high-end machines use it. For your needs or apps, this would suit you well. The CPU will do some of the work, so if ur using a (lets say a celeron) it will indeed do WORK
They're not "very rare". They're just really made for workstations. As for an FX 1500... How intensive are your models going to be? Because the Quadro FX 1500 is NVidia's best mid-range card. If you're going to be doing some really intensive work, get something in the FX 3000 series. The new workstations we have in my trade are equipped with Quadro FX 3500's. So far, they've been awesome.
Thanks for the info guys. We will be working large large models around 300mb per drawing and renderings that will draw from the video card to let the cpu (core duo 2.3) have a vacation. We have actually changed the spec of the system since we were unable to find any reviews (which is scary) for the FX1500 and we are going with the NVIDIA 7950GX2 1GB PCIE16 Dual DVI capable card. This was referred to us as a fantastic card and the prices are about the same. Overall this should be a better value. Wodz
Meh. For rendering, a gaming card like the 7950 GX2 isn't all too well suited. Though, it'll perform much better than that Quardro FX 1500, so you are getting your money's worth. Besides... If you ever want to play games, you'll know that you have that option...
You might try poking around on 2CPU. A lot of forum members work with the workstation hardware. A workstation card is aimed at precision, whereas gaming cards are aimed at speed. It's not to say that a gaming card can't do CAD, or that a workstation card can't play Quake 4; they're not designed with those applications in mind and won't perform as well. If you actually know you'll be putting in some rounds on this system, the 7950 would be fine. However, if you won't be gaming whatsoever, then you're going to be loosing out going with the GX2.
