LOSTCIRCUITS

Final Words

Professional graphics cards are in a world of their own, they are not meant to be gaming cards, they have only limited support for eye-candy like antialiasing - and they are expensive as hell. On the other hand, they handle their tasks in the world of OpenGL applications amazingly well. Moreover, even the midrange cards should really suffice in essentially all applications that are not relying on real-time rendering. The average SolidWorks or ProEngineer application will not benefit at all from anything that goes beyond the level of the FX1400 - of course it is nice to have a pair of FX4500s running in SLI but for CAM applications, the extra $2000 above the FX1400 price tag are essentially wasted.

There is still the issue of supported screen resolutions or lack thereof. Especially in CAD/CAM applications screen size is life, the more, the merrier and unlike in gaming applications, it is an essential feature for the design of complex structures. This is really the only gripe we had with the FX1400 and unfortunately, it is a big one since it does affect the ability to generate the high resolution screen output necessary in this area of work.

The Quadro FX1400 uses a single sided memory configuration

The next step up from the FX1400 is the FX1500, which is a different beast altogether with twice the memory running at more than twice the frequency and, more importantly, the desired Dual LInk DVI output. Interestingly, the FX1500 retails for only marginally more than the FX1400, that is, about US$ 675.- for the FX1500 compared to US$ 595.- for the FX1400. There is no doubt that the FX1400 is a good product at a very competitive price tag, however, despite a nominally higher price, the FX1500 clearly delivers a lot more bang for the buck - at least on paper.

In closing, the nVidia Quadro FX1400 is a good product that performs exceptionally well for its price as long as the model size is small and as long as there is no requirement for high resolution screen output. If either of these two factors need to be taken into account, then the logical choice has to be the FX1500. The high-end real time rendering is still the undisputed domain of the FX4500 and FX5500, though in most cases, the CPU and memory subsystem will be the limitation even for a single card. We are still trying to get our hands on one of the high end FireGL cards. Now that 3DLabs have converted into outfitters of handheld graphics and abandoned the high end professional graphics market for good, there is nobody else left to turn to.

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