Workstation Graphics Card for Fusion

[Anonymous]

I am a machine shop educator and I was able to get an older Dell T1500 with an i7 860 processor and a Radeon 5450 graphics card (with 1024 MB). The person I got the computer from also has a Firepro 5700 (512 MB) and said that he can swap them out if I want. My question is should I swap it out or should I just opt to get another graphics card such as a Firepro 4700? What are your thoughts?

[TrippyLighting]

Do not get a workstation graphics card for Fusion 360!

From a hardware standpoint workstation graphics cards are the same and gaming graphics cards, perhaps not quite so overclocked and designed more but for more reliability rather than all out speed. However, they usually one or more generation behind in their architecture.

The biggest difference is in the certified software drivers that are  usually optimized for Open GL. However Fusion 360 does not use Open GL on Windows. It uses the Direct X API.

The combination of older hardware paired with software drivers that are not optimized for Direct X makes workstation graphics cards perform worse than an equivalently or even lower priced gaming graphics card. Usually one pays a premium for the "certified" graphics card drivers on the Fire GL or Quadro Pro graphics cars.