Advice on which Quadro to get

[BlargKing]

In another thread, I looked into running a Quadro along side a pair of GeForce cards, and from what I've gather the setup I came up with should work fine. Basically, I'll have a pair of GeForce 1080 TI cards (Im waiting for the 1080 TI to come out) in SLI, and then a Quadro. The 1080 TI pair will be hooked into a gaming monitor, while the Quadro will be connected to a 10-Bit 4K professional display. 

 

My main purpose for the Quadro card is so I can fully utilize a 10-bit monitor for doing color grading for photos in Photoshop/Lightroom, as well as for video using DaVinci Resolve. I'll likely also use the Quadro and 10-Bit display while working in Blender, Maya, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, and Unity Engine, but all the heavy duty GPU compute will be done via the GeForce cards (I've checked compatibility, all my software will render on GeForce cards).

 

I've never used a Quadro card before though, so I'm a bit unfamiliar with their performance in these applications. As the Quadro is basically just a high color gamut output device, I don't want to spend too much on it, but at the same time, I don't want it to be under-powered and become a bottleneck. 

 

Theres the inexpensive Quadro K420 2GB @155$ CAD, but I feel like this might be too weak. Theres the Quadro K620 which is also 2GB but has double the CUDA cores, and is 220$ CAD. But again, I'm uncertain how this card will work in the system. Theres the Quadro K1200 @385$ which has 512 CUDA cores and 4GB of VRAM, but from what I can tell its an older card, and it only has MiniDisplayPort which means I would need adapters. The card that seems the best bag for buck is the M2000, which is 580$, has 4GB and 768 CUDA cores, and plenty of full size DisplayPorts, but I feel like the M2000 might just be overkill.

 

I'm probably overthinking this too much. If anyone has any helpful advice I would greatly appreciate it. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

you really don't need 10 bit. You won't notice it.

 

For gpu, id go k1200. You can get minidp to dispalyoprt cables.

[BlargKing]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

you really don't need 10 bit. You won't notice it.

 

For gpu, id go k1200. You can get minidp to dispalyoprt cables.

Whether or not there is a discernible difference to 10-bit or not is unfortunately irrelevant. I have to edit stuff in a professional fashion and that means making sure the entire color spectrum, whether noticeable or not, looks accurate. 

 

I'll take the K1200 into consideration though. I just don't like adapters if I can avoid it. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, BlargKing said:

I just don't like adapters if I can avoid it. 

You can get cables that are minidp to dp if you want. 

 

For the amount of money your spending, you could get a single m5000.

[BlargKing]

16 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can get cables that are minidp to dp if you want. 

 

For the amount of money your spending, you could get a single m5000.

A single M5000 is far less powerful than 2 1080/1080 TI cards. 

 

Honestly I would rather not have to spend any money on a Quadro. Its the worst performance per dollar out there. But Nvidia decided to software lockout 10-Bit output from a perfectly capable card, so here I am. 

[scottyseng]

5 hours ago, BlargKing said:

A single M5000 is far less powerful than 2 1080/1080 TI cards. 

 

Honestly I would rather not have to spend any money on a Quadro. Its the worst performance per dollar out there. But Nvidia decided to software lockout 10-Bit output from a perfectly capable card, so here I am. 

If I remember right, if you want to do the gaming GPU with Quadro setup, you need to have them all be the same family. So you'd need a Pascal based Quadro. I'm not sure how true this is, but usually people mention instability when the GPUs are different families.

 

I just hope the Quadro / gaming GPU mix works as intended with the gaming GPUs actually doing the work instead of the Quadro because the Quadro is going to be much slower in comparison.

 

I myself went from a FirePro V7900 to a 980 Ti because it was too slow. I don't have a 10-bit display though.

[Dredgy]

I run an M4000 and 2x 980Tis for essentially the same reason - the M4000 is used to display 10 bit color while the 980Tis do pretty much everything else (I have 8 displays though, so do run 2 off the Quadro). I was hoping the M4000 would be better for rendering but it's not. It is noticeably faster in Adobe Speedgrade when doing color grading RAW sequences but little else.

 

if you just need 10 bit colour, get whatever is the cheapest that does it.

[BlargKing]

See if they have to be the same family of GPU then this won't work  As of now theres only two Pascal Quadro cards, the P5000 and P6000, both of which are well out of my price range.

 

According to other forums, they don't to be the same GPU family as long as the single driver works on both cards, but I can't find any information on weather the driver for the 1080 also supports a Maxwell Quadro.

 

I suppose I could get 2 980 TI's and a Maxwell based Quadro... or I could sit on this project a bit and wait and see if cheaper Pascal Quadros are released...

 

Does Nvidia have a forum or a tech support email I could get in contact with? Perhaps they might be able to at least tell me if the drivers would work. 

[3Dgeo]

Hi, I'm in a same situation here.
I owned Quadro 6000- very old and powerhungry but it get job done. It passed away few days ago.
So I'm left with Quadro 600, as weak as it is, it performs prety good in 3D max and photoshop (forger new games tho).
I didnt test how it works with video, but if you planning to work with video in 10bit alot you should consider M2000, if not go for cheaper ones. I'm waiting 1080TI aswell.... And will look at M2000. Hi, I'm in a same situation here.
I owned Quadro 6000- very old and powerhungry but it get job done. It passed away few days ago.
So I'm left with Quadro 600, as weak as it is, it performs prety good in 3D max and photoshop (forger new games tho).
I didnt test how it works with video, but if you planning to work with video in 10bit alot you should consider M2000, if not go for cheaper ones. I'm waiting 1080TI aswell.... And will look at M2000.

[scottyseng]

3 hours ago, BlargKing said:

See if they have to be the same family of GPU then this won't work  As of now theres only two Pascal Quadro cards, the P5000 and P6000, both of which are well out of my price range.

 

According to other forums, they don't to be the same GPU family as long as the single driver works on both cards, but I can't find any information on weather the driver for the 1080 also supports a Maxwell Quadro.

 

I suppose I could get 2 980 TI's and a Maxwell based Quadro... or I could sit on this project a bit and wait and see if cheaper Pascal Quadros are released...

 

Does Nvidia have a forum or a tech support email I could get in contact with? Perhaps they might be able to at least tell me if the drivers would work. 

Oh, I see. Yeah, it's tough because of the driver risk. To me, it should work, but I kind of don't want to risk instability either.

 

Yeah, they should release cheaper Quadros...I hope. Might be a year out or more though...

 

Ah, I think Nvidia would be like...buy four Quadro P6000. haha. They do have a forum...I think.

 

I myself plan to get two 1080 Ti in the distant future to use for 3D Rendering (GPU renderer) on 3DS Max. I have a 980 Ti, while it is good, it eats power. Lots of it.

[BlargKing]

See, I could accept the cost and save up and buy a P5000 or P6000 because they are VR certified, but its so expensive, and I don't need any other Quadro features besides 10-Bit color.

 

What would be swell, is if you could connect a Quadro and a GeForce over the SLI bridge, and hook your monitor into the Quadro. You could chose which apps use which card, kind of like how you can choose between Intel HD graphics and a dedicated GPU on a laptop. For games and such, it would render on the GeForce, and its output would be streamed to the Quadro over the SLI bridge and pumped out the Quadro's DisplayPort.