Upgrade to Professional Class

LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
edited February 2006 in Hardware
Today my latest acquisition arrived - Nvidia Quadro FX 2000, made by HP. I don't game, but have continually been looking for superior 2D graphics. Last week I won an Ebay auction for the Quadro. Turns out my hopes were not in vain. The 2D image/photo rendering of this card is simply superb, even better than I had been anticipating! I really understand now why professionals demand different video cards. The large, active cooler (blower with large sinks on both sides of the card) is a bit whiney, so an upcoming project to convert to passive cooling is a must. But that will be fun, as it always is. The card is also dual monitor capable with two DVI-I outputs. Guess I'll have to give that a try later. Sorry about the poor quality of the attached image. I just swiped it off the internet. (too much of a rush to install the card and test it, so didn't pause for a photograph)

Comments

  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited January 2006
    I have to agree with the good things you said about the Quadro. My nephew and I both purchased a Gforce 4 4600 a long time ago at the same computer fair. I think the brand was Asylum. After I installed it and went to properties on the desktop, it said it was a Nvidia Quadro4 900XGL. All the graphics Programs and games I installed told me it was Quadro4 900XGL. So one day I removed the heatsink and sure enough it said it right on the chip. I can still play all the latest games with this card, but of course not with dx9 support. I use it it my backup computer and it has been running flawless for years,except for the fan that had to be replaced..
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited January 2006
    You should have sold it as soon as you found out, I'm guessing it would have gone for a hell of a lot more than you paid for it.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    Glad you like it, Leo :thumbsup:. Do you currently use dual monitors? I use a Quadro card and two monitors at work, and I must say the well-made drivers and the extra buttons it can (optionally) put up by the minimize/close buttons make using dual monitors a treat.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    This video card is awesome. Colors, contrast, text, 2d imagery - all significantly improved now. I just would not have believed the difference had I not seen it. I did not know text on a monitor could be this clean and sharp, sharp, sharp.

    I removed the annoying blower and attached a large, passive heatsink over the GPU. The card has an integral thermistor. Normal GPU core operating temp is now about 48*C; about 52*C right after a 3dMark03 run. The card has about half a pound of heatsinks - both sides of the card, covering the RAM chips. I removed all sinks and applied Arctic Silver.
    Do you currently use dual monitors? I use a Quadro card and two monitors at work, and I must say the well-made drivers and the extra buttons it can (optionally) put up by the minimize/close buttons make using dual monitors a treat.
    I could use advice, or links to good instructions, in the dual monitor area. Yesterday I connected the card in dual monitor setup. Yes, it works, but I've yet to learn how to use this option effectively. Clone - both monitors are identical in display. Horizontal span - "span" what? Dual view.... I have not found the combination/settings to say, show different screens on the monitors. I tried the span on a normal webpage and on a 2D image - half the image/page was on one monitor and half on the other. Thing is, it was like the software just chopped it in half, leaving one half of each monitor blank. That's no advantage at all. What I'd like to do is say, have a slide show running on one monitor and a webpage on the other; or on one monitor a Word document or Excel spread, and on the other montitor a webpage. How do I do this. The software has a thousand otpions - professional - way beyond my experience level.

    But all in all, this is simply a fabulous card.
  • zero-counterzero-counter Linux Lubber San Antonio Member
    edited January 2006
    I am envious of your card. For 2D movie and photo editing, I am using a 5950, utilizing the DVI output at 1600X1200. It does the job, as will yours. :)
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    1600X1200 is not possible for me. The max on my LCD is 1280X1024/60Hz (digital). Don't be envious. There are plenty of Quadros, all speeds, PCIe and AGP available on Ebay. This arrived in an opened anti-static bag with the workstation extender plate still attached, a splitter cable, a molex extender for the card's power, all HP literature, and a steel brace (for a workstation setup...I guess). But as far as I can tell, this card was never used, or was only tested.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    Leonardo wrote:
    I tried the span on a normal webpage and on a 2D image - half the image/page was on one monitor and half on the other. Thing is, it was like the software just chopped it in half, leaving one half of each monitor blank. That's no advantage at all. What I'd like to do is say, have a slide show running on one monitor and a webpage on the other; or on one monitor a Word document or Excel spread, and on the other montitor a webpage. How do I do this. The software has a thousand otpions - professional - way beyond my experience level.

    But all in all, this is simply a fabulous card.

    Yeah, the only thing I use spanning for is for programs like Visual Basic and Photoshop, since they take up a certain amount of real estate that you can then pop up their daughter windows in. One thing that helps to remember is that an application will open up on the screen that you last closed it on (although sometimes it doesn't remember if the application is maximized when you close it). At work, I usually have my mapping application open on my left screen, and all my other things running on my right screen (an instance of Windows Explorer, Winamp, Firefox, VB, Access, you get the idea).

    Have you found the option to enable those extra buttons on the title bar? There's one for spanning, but the most useful thing is a button that sends a window back and forth between screens. Also, you can now right-click on title bars, select nView options, and set a program to always be on top, if you like. Particularly handy with Calculator, IMO :D

    Let me know if you have any other questions. It's past my bedtime and I'm probably babbling right now ;D
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    Have you found the option to enable those extra buttons on the title bar? There's one for spanning, but the most useful thing is a button that sends a window back and forth between screens. Also, you can now right-click on title bars, select nView options, and set a program to always be on top, if you like.
    No, Sir. I definitely need to do some digging through the options. Please don't take your time to instruct yet, as it looks like I've got my homework to do first.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    Aha! Got it figured out. That is so cool - one app on monitor 1 and another app on monitor 2. The first time I traversed the mouse pointer over from 1 to 2 I grinned and laughed. I had never seen that before. Email on one screen, internet on the other. Photo slideshow on one screen, word processing on the other. This is fun. It's not what I got the card for, but it sure is an added beni.
  • SmiGDigSmiGDig Albany, NY
    edited February 2006
    Leonardo wrote:
    Aha! Got it figured out. That is so cool - one app on monitor 1 and another app on monitor 2. The first time I traversed the mouse pointer over from 1 to 2 I grinned and laughed. I had never seen that before. Email on one screen, internet on the other. Photo slideshow on one screen, word processing on the other. This is fun. It's not what I got the card for, but it sure is an added beni.

    Two friends of mine here at school have the same setup on some nice LCD screens side by side. I always watch tme do their work and watch a video clip or go online on the other screen. So great.

    All I need is another similar LCD to do dual screen on my ATI 9800. I've got the DVI->regular monitor plug so everythign should work fine. Especially since it works fine on my drivers.

    Good luck Leo.

    Don't have too much fun.

    Adam
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    I'm not as high speed as you think. The second monitor is my old Viewsonic CRT. I had it downstairs in the parts bin, wanting to get a digital (DVI) KVM for the three puters in my office. Never got around to that - the price for a quality unit!

    But even the CRT looks better with Quadro. Even the low-end 64MB models, NVS280 are superb for 2D.
  • SmiGDigSmiGDig Albany, NY
    edited February 2006
    The 2d stands out even as compared to say a Leadtek Winfast 3d Card, which is ranked as one of the highest 2d-quality 3d cards? I have a great samsung 19" CRT at home that looked amazing with that leadtek card. My newer ATI 9800 has only been used with my wimpy 17" KDS Radius 7C. Not new stuff at all.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    The 2d stands out even as compared to say a Leadtek Winfast 3d Card, which is ranked as one of the highest 2d-quality 3d cards?
    Oh, I don't think I can compare these NVS280 to that Leadtek. I've never seen a Leadtek displaying.
Sign In or Register to comment.