what is the difference between workstation and gaming cards?

SputnikSputnik Worcester, MA
edited February 2004 in Hardware
besides the drivers and the connectivity, what is the difference? i see that they are advertized on different merrits (clockspeed vs. geometry engines, etc.), is there anythign physically different compared to the game specific cards (ATI and Nvidia cards only that is)

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Physically different? Probably not.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited February 2004
    Are you referring to cards that run autocad and design games compared to end users who are playing the latest fragfest games? They are a world apart yet at the same time share many similarities. They are similar in the fact they they have to be 3d capable. The workstation cards you refer to require a high amount of precision compared to the gamer cards. An engineer working with a workstation 3d card requires every pixel and shape to be perfect as his/her job demands. A game designer needs every detail in a game to be drawn by the 3d card to near perfection also. Workstation 3d cards stress quality over frame rates. They can be used for gaming but would have quite low framerates. Medical technology is increasingly becoming reliant on 3d technology that requires a high level of precision and reliability. While most people are quite familiar with the ati radeon and nvidia geforce series of consumer 3d gaming cards, most are not familiar with the 3dlabs wildcat series, the ati fireGL series, and nvidia's quadrofx. These high end 3d workstation cards can go for up to around $2,000 easily. They generally have a ton of ram included in them although not necessarily fast ram. Their drivers have to be as tight as fort knox. Most consumer gamer cards are a compromise between speed and reliability. The gamer cards have a bias to getting higher framerates and sometimes eschew details for it. Some gaming cards will throw out video information behind an object and not draw it because the card "knows" that it won't be visible and drawn onscreen. A 3d workstation card will draw it out because of the precision needed. When an object is whizzing by at 60+ frames per second, who has time to see if that bullet has the correct shading 100% of the time or that the texture is correctly filled for every single frame? Most consumer gaming cards do not fill in every detail every single frame every single time, but may appear to do so because of the speed involved. The drivers written pull out quite a bit of trickery nowadays to give the impression that every detail is there while in fact it may not. Below are a few links giving more detailed comparisons between the two types of cards.

    As for the difference between ati and nvidia cards, the best comparison is between intel and amd. Anything with "radeon" included in the name will almost always be based on an ati chip while anything with "geforce" in the name will almost always have an nvidia chip on the video card.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20010615/index.html
    http://animation.digitalmedianet.com/2003/08_aug/features/cards_animation_supp.htm
    Old But Good Explanation Here:
    http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/19970101/index.html
    http://www.cadserver.co.uk/common/viewer/archive/2001/Nov/9/feature1.phtm


    KingFish
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    KingFish wrote:
    Anything with "radeon" included in the name will almost always be based on an ati chip while anything with "geforce" in the name will almost always have an nvidia chip on the video card.

    Good info, KF, but I have to say that this bit here is somewhat confusing... Anything with "radeon" in the name is DEFINITELY an ATI card, and anything with GeForce in the name is DEFINITELY an nVidia card. That's like saying "Anything with 'Pentium' in the name will almost always be an Intel product".. They are trademarks owned by the respective companies.
  • SputnikSputnik Worcester, MA
    edited February 2004
    what i mean is the workstation cards that ATI and NVidia has designed/manufacturers. they are using the same GPU, same memory, if you look at any of the newer FireGLs for example, you'll be seeing a card in the radeon 9000 series, but with 2 dvi connectors and no TV out (generally speaking).

    So most of it is in the software?

    i know about the 3dlabs cards (how i would love one when i'm doing 3ds and maya work), they seem to be the only ones NOT using a gaming card core (just look at the wildcat 4's, they're a directx7 part)
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    There are other players in the high precision video market also. There are still a number of custom cards, as well as our friends at Matrox. Just like with comercial video work, it is a different world. Ask CSimon, he can tell you about this stuff.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Well put KingFish!
    3dlabs only updates to new drivers about once every year or two.
    Nvidia probably would give you the best performance for workstation graphics and Radeon the better quality as far as those two mfg's are concerned.
    Matrox has a reputation for being a top notch lowend/midrange workstation card as well with excellent performance and is probably what I would recommend for best all around combo game/workstation on a budget.
    If you really wanna know the ends and outs of pro graphics I would refer you to MediaMan.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    I saw an ATI FireGL T2 on Newegg refurb - it's... well it looks like it's the same exact thing as a 9600 Pro(?)

    http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-315R&catalog=48&manufactory=BROWSE&type=Refurbish
Sign In or Register to comment.