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Quadro vs GeForce Graphics

Roger Graf
Roger Graf

With the increasing interest for Virtual Reality the question: Quadro or GeForce is asked more and more. Just looking at Dollar per CUDA Core or Dollar per Clockspeed could lead to wrong conclusions.

With the increasing interest for Virtual Reality the topic Quadro graphics vs GeForce graphics is getting more and more attention.
Price vs Performance measured in clock speed, GeForce boosts out Quadro cards easily. Same for if you are looking for many CUDA Cores and a lot of VRAM for some gaming, a little 3D rendering and some video – GeForce should be your choice. But carful, when it comes to specific render tasks, like CAD design and professional video rendering – eg double sided polygon rendering in Auto CAD – Quadro outperforms GeForce significantly. In some software, non-qualified cards do not work at all – eg Solidworks Real View or Catia Live Rendering. Obviously, it is not solely a compatibility problem, more a soft push of Software companies make sure the experiences run smoothly.   
When it comes to extreme power, there is nothing such as the Quadro P6000 with 24GB of GDDR5X VRAM and 3840 CUDA Cores providing 12 TFlops. Glancing at numeric Calculations like in Ansys, Comsol Multiphysics, MatLab, etc run faster on Quadro cards.
From our manufacturer perspective we must emphasize the point that HP Quadro cards components are selected to pass the intense HP Total Test Process. The cards are manufactured by just 1 supplier – NVIDIA. GeForce graphics are produced by a variety of third parties and may be tested differently by different Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Therefore, a difference in quality is natural (Solder Quality, Connector Plating, PCI Specification compliance).
From a lifecycle perspective, the typical lifecycle of Quadro cards is 18 to 24 months with 3y warranty and comes with qualified and supported drivers.
The typical lifecycle of GeForce cards is 6 to 9 months with 1-2y warranty and the drivers are unqualified and untested.

Do not get me wrong. I am not saying that Quadro cards are always better than GeForce. Virtual Reality engines / plugins today are based on consumer game engines (Unity, Unreal) and do run perfectly on Core X CPUs and GeForce graphics. OEMs like HP offers GeForce based systems as special products for special requirements such as VR

But in general, for professional applications we do recommend Quadro cards because of performance, lifecycle, drivers, quality, stability.

To Download:

HP Workstations Graphics Card Option Reference Guide
Technical Whitepaper “Qudro vs GeForce”

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