Quadro VS Geforce -- What's the truth?

[RobH2]

I've spent about 10 hours reading all I can find on GPU cards, Quadro, GeForce, RTX, etc. It gets very opinionated and confusing. 

There seems to be some "corporate" misinformation so that more Quadro cards are sold to professionals at a better profit margin. There are some vague references to Quadro cards having built-in features that are critical to 100% functionality in Max for modeling, rendering and viewport performance. However, I can't find any specific info that states what that is. 

What's your experience and feeling? I'm mainly asking pros, pros in large studios or users who do high-end work or entertainment work.  I use a Quadro K5200 that is fine but does not support real-time raytracing as well as the newer cards. I don't really want to buy a $6000 Quadro card. 

The specs of the GeForce RTX 2080 ti are very attractive. I could run two RTX 2080 (non-ti) cards for about the same price as one ti and get more VRAM.  

FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION: If I buy a GeForce RTX card, what "WON'T" work properly in Max? That's what I can't figure out from all of my reading. 

[domo.spaji]

Those tests are wrong in so many ways, and it's not only because it's unclear how many influence GPU have on results.

I'm wandering why it's problem if we cannot fluidly animate hundreds  highpoly teapots or whatever at same time.

Or "by hand" move millions of vertices in multimillion  mesh... btw that is specialty of sculpting apps like Zbrush, cheapest onboard gpu needed.

If someone repair max and buy me some Tesla or Volta 😁 I would continue  same way, it is not can comp handle it, it's can I.

And 3rd, test 1) shouldn't be same for gpu if we move camera or objects, it has same job.

Sneak peak in Curve editor, max taking note about transforms even if not in animation mode.

It will better handle 1 high-poly node than 100 lowpoly.

[carrionfernandez]

RobO2, many thanks for the information, it was very helpful for me, how 3DS Max 2020 is working with the CPU and the GPU at modern computers (my CPU and 980m have 5 years old), in any case you have a beast of computer.
Of course I know this is not the way of working 🙂 but we can push to the limits the computer and how he does it.
For finish the converstaion I let you a link about a test make it with NVIDIA Quadro M4000 8GB and differents CPU (you can dowload the files and test it in your computer), its very interesting see how 3DMax works much better with CPU that has less cores than CPU with more cores (this problem is also in Zbrush), thats why the CPU load is very low in some actions (like move vertices).

I was thinkin Quadro can solve this problem, but it was not true. Then, in my case I dont need buy a Quadro.
cheers!

Edit: Link:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/AutoDesk-3ds-Max-2017-CPU-Performance-823/

[domo.spaji]

I would be interested to see some results on realtime viewport view/rendering with realistic materials, normal and bump maps, reflections, refractions...  Still and (camera) animated.

Also animated texture - some image sequence or/and video file in material diffuse slot for  some simple plane in view.

I would post results with same (or similar) scenes, but older max version and AMD hardware.

[carrionfernandez]

domo.spaji The test was a simple way to know how is working the computer, and also if the GPU 2080ti is working at 100% in the viewport. In animation is very important get the most closet result in the viewport (you save a lot of time, and you dont need to do a  pre-render, or proxies, boxes and others things to get a real playback).

Thats why it was very important that someone that he has a 2080ti with new special drivers (Studio Drivers) for 3D, bring me information about the performance.

[jon.bell]

Hi folks,

I can't give specific hardware recommendations here, but most of the notes and advice offered here is sound.

In general, the Quadro cards tend to have more memory stress-testing and quality control (high-end certification, if you will) than the GeForce gaming cards. However, Nvidia's new RTX GeForce cards are so powerful that I don't see any issues with using them for professional-level 3D work. (I would advise using the GeForce studio drivers instead of the game-ready drivers for these cards.)

Hope this helps!

[RobH2]

@jon.bell  Thanks for weighing in Jon. Over the months now I've seen no ill effects from have gone from Quadro to GeForce RTX except for one little thing. And I'm not sure this is an RTX issue. It may be a Max thing. I can't see any thickness on a nurbs curve if I enable the visibility in the spline settings. With a spline, I can enable the visibility and see the mesh that is generated from the spline settings. For the nurbs I have to throw a Shell on it and push it up the stack. Not to much of an inconvenience but I would like to know for certain if it's RTX GeForce related. 

Other than that, the RTX has been fantastic and I push it hard every day for 12-14 hours. It has not skipped a beat in many months now, over a year since I started this post. Adding to my glee is that VRay 5 has new features that are completely dependent on RTX. I'm upgrading that today and look forward to seeing it in action. 

It still acknowledge that there are certainly aspects of Quadro card testing, double float precision, etc., that make is critical for some users. But for my needs, as I also do a lot of work in Unreal Engine, the RTX is fantastic... 

[RobH2]

I just wanted to kind of wrap up this thread as it has gotten a lot of interest. I'm posting a final test that's a pretty good example of that the RTX 2080 Ti can do. The new RTX Geforce is out so I can only imagine what it's capable of.

I've upgraded my machine also and realize it's a little more robust than your average machine. In another post I was writing about Max's performance with a single spline that had 20k verts or something. Another user, instead of trying to assist, actually took the post as an opportunity to shame me and point out that my machine was not up to snuff, even as it was a Dual Xeon, liquid cooled and other enhancements. 

So I'm posting an example of what Max is capable of with the 2080 Ti and a fast processor. The file is over 20million polys and I'm rendering  a V-Ray IPR view at the same time I'm navigating around. It's till smooth as butter and this is not an example of Forest Pack or any other poly optimization and instancing. 

Anyway, I'm still completely thrilled with the Geforce RTX solution and I used only Quadro cards since they first came out. I was never impressed by any Quadro card I ever had for the cost. 

[VickyVaporub]

We now have GeForce RTX 30 series (3070,3080,3090).

Would you recommend them as well ? Dell machines sell them in their Gaming section, and we can customise it.

Thanks.

[RobH2]

While I don't have one of them I've seen the specs. They are even faster. I'm just a user. I'm not a Dell or Autodesk advisor. 

I want one. But my 20x series is still kicking butt so I'll wait for now. 

[VickyVaporub]

Thanks for seeing the new series' specs and for all your research. It's being invaluable for some of us.

[RobH2]

In a few days it will be a year since I started this thread. The "only" negative thing that I've found is that I want the new version of the card...lol...it's more powerful! 

Kidding aside, I do a wide variety of things in my business. The only thing, seriously, "only", I've found is that a Nurbs Spline won't show thickness in V-Ray IPR renders unless I put a 'Shell' modifier on it. But, that must may be true for everyone with V-Ray. Other than that, I've had not one single issue. I do a lot of CAD drawing in IronCAD. It's a full parametric, Parasolid and ACIS Kernel, program. I've had not one issue with it either. 

At one point I did find one obscure document online that mentioned what the Quadro cards did for CAD software vs what GForce implementation lacked. It mentioned some double floating point things and a couple of other bits of code I don't recall. But, I must never use any of those as I've never had any issue.

Of course, that's my experience, mileage might vary. 

[sebasrojas00]

I have both on my HP Z440 workstation. A Quadro K4200 (which came with the Z440) and a GTX 960 which I saved from my old computer that I sold.  The HP Z440 is an excellent workstation with plenty of expandable room so I installed the GTX 960 in one of the PCIe slots with no problem. The only thing to get both graphics cards to work they have to use the same version of the driver (not the same driver, just the same version).

  In 3ds max they're both recognized, and for example with the V-Ray GPU renderer you can choose which device you want to render with. I choose the two GPUs and the CPU and they all work fine. But I still prefer the quality of the render with only the CPU and its just a tad slower.   But having 2 graphics cards really helps because, for example, I can use each one for each of my monitors, and in the Nvidia Control Panel you can specify which GPU to use for whatever app you want and even for whatever function you want.

  So in conclusion I think that there is no big difference between the GPUs in 3ds max, at least for rendering.   In my case comparing the 2 GPUs I have, the GTX 960 is faster than the Quadro K4200, but not by much. In the viewport I had excellent textures and lighting, but it probably was using the K4200 since I specified that in the Nvidia Control Panel. 

[richib4YXH4]

Hey Rob,

I too went with a 2080 Ti back in 2019, still working fine for me. Like you I'm a fulltime 3D guy with my own biz and have actually considered going BACK to Quadro. I've had annoying issues with 3ds Max's viewports... in particular zooming, rotating around and manipulating fine vert details. It's been so bad I've also thought about jumping ship and learning Mondo!  (makes sense for me because my biz is about 80% custom modeling, very little rendering or animation)

Anyway, don't wanna bore you, thanks for posting... enjoyed the thread. Quadro probably isn't the answer for me, but doing research trying to avoid having to learn Mondo because i've invested so much into Max. If a Quadro could help, I'd like to pursue that option.

Thanks,

Richi Bering

[RobH2]

Hi Richi, 

I would not be able to help you with the Quadro. I haven't had one in years now. The Gforce RTX cards have treated me so well in Max and now that I leverage UE so much in my work that I never looked back. I've had a few viewport oddities like clipping, etc., but nothing that hampers my work. And most of my work is smaller than a skyscraper so if everything is close to the origin, then I don't have an double precision math issues that Quadro apparently can assist with. Now with an RTX 4090 I'm just in heaven to be honest. 

Rob

[mansur]

its simply, STOP using NIVIDIA instead go to AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

NIVIDA vs 3ds max has business ties so they will play always and make people stupid