[BLOG] Bought the marketing hype on QuadroFX

photodudephotodude Salt Lake, Utah Member
edited November -1 in Community
So I've been trying to justify getting a QuadroFx card to enhance my workflow and system performance in photoshop. Considering there is GPGPU acceleration in photoshop CS4 I thought a workstation graphics card would make sense. So I'm bee researching what the advantages are for having a Workstation graphics card with photoshop might be. ATI has almost no information on how a Firepro card would help with photoshop. Nvidia on the other hand has a nice page telling you what a QuadroFX card will do for Photoshop CS4. http://www.nvidia.com/object/adobe_photoshop.html

But to my astonishment none of the features listed on that page are unique to the QuadroFX cards. These are all features built into photoshop's GPGPU acceleration, and many gaming cards have been tested with photoshop by adobe achiving all of the GPGPU acceleration features.

I feel like such a dunce for buying into Nvidia's marketing hype that the GPGPU acceleration features were unique to the QuadroFx line.

On the other hand there are two GPGPU features available for Adobe premiere CS4 that are specific to the QuadroFX line, with the 1800 and above there is the elemental accelerator plugin for video encoding. and starting with the 3800 there is the cuda specific mercury playback engine for real time editing. (atleast until I find out that ATI might have something equivalent for their firepro line)

Comments

  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    CUDA is the big win. Honestly the Quadro line is still a solid card for 3D etc... but most gaming cards at 1/2 the cost will still make use of Adobes basic enhancements on the GPGPU.
  • photodudephotodude Salt Lake, Utah Member
    I agree, I just wish I had known that the GPGPU features were adobe's and not Nvidia's. I could have compared some of the top gaming cards with the QuadroFX line to make a better decision for editing in photoshop. I expect I would have still selected a QuadroFX card for the Video encoding features or maybe a higher end card to get the mercury playback engine for real time editing.

    When I get a card for my home system I'll have to look at it again, since my wife does CAD/CAM/BIM work which would benefit from the Autodesk performance drivers.
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