How Much Performance Increase Can You Expect?
zentrani also modded his NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX to the Quadro FX 4600. Here are his results, using this system :
Processors |
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @ 2.53 GHz |
Motherboard |
ASUS P5GC-MX/1333 |
Memory |
Two Apacer 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 modules |
Graphics Card |
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX |
Graphics Drivers |
GeForce ForceWare 190.62 |
SPECviewperf 10
|
Unmodded |
Soft-Modded |
Difference |
3ds Max |
9.34 |
16.13 |
+ 72.7 % |
CATIA |
8.32 |
15.38 |
+ 84.9 % |
EnSight |
16.43 |
19.46 |
+ 18.4 % |
Maya |
29.92 |
30.13 |
+ 0.7 % |
Pro/ENGINEER |
11.98 |
13.16 |
+ 9.9 % |
SolidWorks |
8.22 |
23.42 |
+ 184.9 % |
UGS Teamcenter |
4.01 |
6.62 |
+ 65.1 % |
USG NX |
5.27 |
5.27 |
+/- 0.0 % |
As you can see, the softmod delivered the best results in SolidWorks, CATIA, 3ds Max and UGS Teamcenter Visualization with significant performance improvements in EnSight and Pro/ENGINEER. However, Maya and USG NX saw almost no improvement in performance.
Performance Compared With A True Quadro
zentrani also took the trouble to benchmark a Quadro FX 1700 which is a "lower-end" workstation graphics card based on the NVIDIA G84 GPU.
|
Soft-Modded |
Real |
Difference |
3ds Max |
16.13 |
37.12 |
- 56.5 % |
CATIA |
15.38 |
38.85 |
- 60.4 % |
EnSight |
19.46 |
26.32 |
- 26.1 % |
Maya |
30.13 |
60.00 |
- 49.8 % |
Pro/ENGINEER |
13.16 |
36.43 |
- 63.9 % |
SolidWorks |
23.42 |
48.20 |
- 51.4 % |
UGS Teamcenter |
6.62 |
18.49 |
- 64.2 % |
USG NX |
5.27 |
16.40 |
- 67.9 % |
So, a genuine NVIDIA Quadro card is at least 2X faster than a soft-modded NVIDIA GeForce card. However, NVIDIA prices the Quadro cards at ridiculously high prices which are often 4-10X higher than the equivalent GeForce cards. As such, soft-modded GeForce cards definitely offer much better value for money, even if they do run much slower than the "real" things.
Support Tech ARP!
If you like our work, you can help support out work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
|
Page |
Topics |
|
1 |
|||
2 |
|||
3 |
|||
4 |
|||
5 |
|||
6 |
|||
7 |
|||
8 |
|||
9 |
|||
10 |
Latest Performance Results! |
Questions & Comments
Please feel free to post your questions or comments here!
Date | Revision | Revision History |
09-05-2008 |
1.0 |
Comprehensive review release. |
20-05-2008 |
2.0 |
Added two new pages on what works with the soft-mod and the performance increase you can expect from it. |
13-06-2008 |
3.0 |
Added a new page with performance results from the soft-modding of an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB and an NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT to the Quadro FX 4600 and Quadro FX 1700 respectively. |
19-08-2008 |
3.1 |
Added a new page with performance results from the soft-modding of an NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT to the Quadro FX 3500. |
15-01-2009 |
4.0 |
Added a new page with performance results from the soft-modding of an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX to the Quadro FX 4600. |
05-09-2009 |
4.1 |
Added a new page with performance results from the soft-modding of an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX to the Quadro FX 4600. |