All Graphics Cards are not about gaming. It is a general misconception among many people that graphics cards are only used for gaming and nothing else. There are generally two types of graphics cards, one is gaming graphics cards or consumer graphics cards and the other is professional graphics cards or workstation graphics cards.
What are Workstation Graphics Cards?
Professional or Workstation Graphics Cards are special types of graphics cards that are used in workstations and high-end servers. These graphics cards pack huge power and are optimized for CAD, CAE, and heavy-duty graphics applications. They are used mainly in scientific applications, studios and work involving the use of heavy Graphics applications for 3D modeling, 3D rendering, etc. or to compute a massive number of graphics calculations.
Workstation Graphics Cards look the same as the normal graphics cards from the outside but their working is very much different. These graphics cards may have the same internal GPU architecture but they are optimized for professional graphics applications and some of them may contain extra hardware components or features for processing additional complex graphics work. They are also equipped with larger memory as compared to consumer graphics cards. You can find a maximum of 32 GB of memory in a workstation graphics card but the highest memory present in the topmost gaming graphics card is 12GB. Also, the memory present in most workstation graphics cards is ECC memory which helps in producing accurate results. Workstation Graphics Cards are also known as Enterprise graphics cards.
The drivers for workstation graphics are totally different from the gaming graphics cards as they are tuned for graphics-intensive applications rather than for gaming. Also, workstation graphics cards are way too expensive compared to gaming graphics cards. The price of workstation graphics cards can go up to 5000 dollars or more whereas the price of gaming graphics cards does not beyond 1500 dollars.
Both the top graphics card companies NVIDIA and AMD offer powerful workstation graphics cards designed for special graphics-intensive applications and software.
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Quadro is the workstation graphics card series from Nvidia and FirePro is for AMD. Both offer some of the most powerful professional graphics cards for your business needs. AMD do have a greater range for Workstation graphics cards compared to Nvidia. Here in this post, I am going to list the best workstation graphics cards for every budget from Nvidia and AMD.
Advantages of Workstation Graphics Cards
- High accuracy
- Robust
- Longer Life
- High Performance
- Best for CAD/CAE applications
Disadvantages of Workstation Graphics Cards
- Expensive
- Not for Gaming
Let us now get started with the best workstation video cards from Nvidia and AMD. Here, the one thing you must know ix that only PNY makes the Quadro series workstations graphics cards for NVIDIA, and Sapphire makes the workstation graphics cards for AMD.
Must Read: Nvidia’s New Pascal based Quadro Graphics Cards
Best Low Profile Workstation Graphics Cards
Here are the best budget low profile workstation graphics cards for professional work and use in servers. These are VFM cards but they are pretty powerful too. You may also check out the best low profile graphics cards for gaming.
Nvidia Quadro K420
This is the cheapest low-profile entry-level workstation graphics card that you can get in the market. Don’t get fooled by its size because this card is fairly powerful and can run you 3D CAD Design software such as Solidworks pretty well. This card is also suitable for small to mid-level servers.
This little professional graphics card comes with 1GB DDR3 memory and is based on the Kepler GPU architecture. This card is capable but is not really meant for 4k displays and will do fine at lower resolutions. It has a single slot design and can fit in slim or low profile cases. The card supports Nvidia Mosaic which the Nvidia’s multi-display technology. So if you are looking for a small and budget workstation card then this is one of the best options available today.
| Nvidia Quadro K420 Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 192 |
| GPU Architecture | Kepler |
| Memory Size | 1GB DDR3 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 29 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 2.0 |
| API support | DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.5, Shader Model 5.0, Vulkan 1.0, CUDA, OpenCL, DirectCompute |
| Features | Nvidia Mosaic, Nvidia nView, HDCP |
| Output Ports | DVI, DisplayPort |
Nvidia Quadro K620
This is a midrange low profile workstation graphics card that is more powerful than Quadro K420. This card looks almost the same as K420 but has a slightly bigger fan. Quadro K620 comes with 384 CUDA cores which are 192 more than present in K420 and make it twice as powerful as K420. This workstation card is powerful enough to run CAD applications, Revit, and supports 4k displays. The card comes with 2GB DDR3 VRAM and has a lower power consumption of 45 Watt. This is a great affordable low profile workstation card that is enough for a budget desktop workstation.
| Nvidia Quadro K620 Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 384 |
| GPU Architecture | Kepler |
| Memory Size | 2 GB DDR3 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 29 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 2.0 |
| API support | DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.5, Shader Model 5.0, Vulkan 1.0, CUDA, OpenCL, DirectCompute |
| Features | Nvidia Mosaic, Nvidia nView, HDCP |
| Output Ports | DVI, Display Port |
Nvidia Quadro K1200
This is one of the most powerful low-profile workstation graphics cards in the Quadro series lineup from Nvidia. It comes with 4GB GDDR5 memory and 512 CUDA cores for faster processing. The card has a bit larger heatsink than the K420 and K620 but its power consumption is still low at 45W. It comes with a single-slot design and is suitable for 4k displays and supports AutoCAD, SOLIDWORKS, and other graphics applications. The card supports up to four displays, which is amazing for a card of this size. It is based on the same Kepler GPU architecture as with K420 and K620. So if you are looking for a small powerful workstation graphics card that can support 4 monitors with ease then this one is for you.
| Nvidia Quadro K1200 Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 512 |
| GPU Architecture | Kepler |
| Memory Size | 4 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 128 bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 80 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 2.0 |
| API support | DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Shader Model 5.0, Vulkan 1.0, CUDA, OpenCL, DirectCompute |
| Features | Nvidia Mosaic, supports 4 displays |
| Output Ports | Mini DisplayPort x 4 |
AMD FirePro W2100
AMD FirePro W2100 is an entry-level workstation graphics card for smaller workstation desktops. This little graphics card can drive two monitors, supports a 4k display, and run CAD and SOLIDWORKS. It is much better than the onboard graphics and if you are into professional graphics work then you have to buy a decent graphics card.
This card comes with 2GB DDR3 memory and is based on the AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. It comes with single-slot design with a slim heatsink and fan. The card consumes less power and stays super cool even at heavy loads.
| AMD FirePro W2100 Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 320 |
| GPU Architecture | GCN |
| Memory Size | 2 GB DDR3 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 28.2 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PC Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX 11.2/12, OpenGL 4.4, OpenCL 1.2, Shader Model 5.0, AMD Mantle |
| Features | Dual monitor support, 4k display, AMD PowerTune, AMD ZeroCore Power Technology |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 2 |
AMD FirePro W4100
This is a powerful midrange low profile professional graphics card from AMD. It comes with 512 Stream Processors and 2GB GDDR5 memory. AMD FirePro W4100 is a 4k-ready card and supports four monitors. This card is very similar to Nvidia Quadro K1200 in terms of features and performance. The card has a single slot design and is very silent in operation. It is a perfect low-profile graphics card for small to medium workstation PCs and servers.
| AMD FirePro W4100 Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 512 |
| GPU Architecture | GCN |
| Memory Size | 2 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 72 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX 11.2/12, OpenGL 4.4, OpenCL 1.2, Shader Model 5.0, AMD Mantle |
| Features | 4 Monitor support, 4k capability, AMD PowerTune, AMD ZeroCore Power Technology, AMD Eyefinity |
| Output Ports | 4 x Mini DisplayPort |
AMD FirePro W4300
AMD FirePro W4300 is one of the most powerful low-profile workstation graphics cards available today. It comes with 768 Stream Processors and 4GB GDDR5 memory. The card can run all your CAD and 3D applications seamlessly. It has 1.43 TFLOPS peak single-precision floating-point performance which is great for a low-profile card in the affordable price range. This card is even more powerful than the Nvidia’s Quadro K1200 which is the top-level low profile workstation graphics card from Nvidia.
AMD FirePro W4300 supports 4k display and can run up to four monitors simultaneously. Another great feature of this card is the support for DirectGMA (Direct Graphics Memory Access) resulting in higher performance and lower latencies. So if you want a powerful low profile workstation graphics card then this one is really worth checking.
| AMD FirePro W4300 Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 768 |
| GPU Architecture | GCN |
| Memory Size | 4 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 96 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX 11.2/12, OpenGL 4.4, OpenCL 2.0, Shader Model 5.0, AMD Mantle |
| Features | 4 Monitor support, 4k capability, AMD PowerTune, AMD ZeroCore Power Technology, AMD Eyefinity, DirectGMA, GeomertyBoost |
| Output Ports | Mini DisplayPort x 4 |
Radeon Pro WX 4100
Radeon Pro WX 4100 is the fastest low-profile workstation graphics card. It is based on the latest Polaris GPU architecture and comes with a whopping 1024 Stream Processors. The card is equipped with 4GB GDDR5 memory and has a peak performance of 2.4 TFLOPS which is almost twice of FirePro W4300.
This card support 4k / 5k displays and can run up to 4 monitors simultaneously. The power consumption is also low at only 50 Watts. Other features include HDR ready, DirectGMA and SDI Support, 10-bit color, and 4K Accelerated Encode/Decode. You may check out the availability of this compact and powerful workstation graphics card from the link given below.
| Radeon Pro WX 4100 Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 1024 |
| GPU Architecture | Polaris |
| Memory Size | 4 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 96 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, OpenCL 2.0, Shader Model 5.0, Vulkan 1.0 |
| Features | HDR ready, DirectGMA and SDI Support, 10-bit color, 4K Accelerated Encode/Decode, 4K / 5K support, 4 monitors support |
| Output Ports | Mini DisplayPort x 4 |
Best Midrange Workstation Graphics Cards
Here are the best midrange workstation graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD. These mid-range workstation graphics cards are very powerful and are suited for mid to high-end workstations.
Nvidia Quadro M2000
Quadro M2000 is a decent workstation graphics card for mid-level workstations. It is based on the Maxwell GPU architecture and comes with 4GB GDDR5 memory. This card is good for CAD/ CAE softwares and 3D applications but it is really not meant for high-end VFX.
The card supports both hardware HEVC encode and decode engines for providing increased performance during HEVC encoding and playback. So this card is very much suited for faster video editing and creation. It supports 4k displays and you can hook up four monitors on this card. It has a single slot design and stays very silent.
| Nvidia Quadro M2000 Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 768 |
| GPU Architecture | Maxwell |
| Memory Size | 4 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 106 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX12, OpenGL 4.5, Shader Model 5.0, Vulkan 1.0, OpenCL, CUDA, DirectCompute |
| Features | Nvidia Mosaic, HDCP, 4 Monitor support, 4K capable |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 4 |
Nvidia Quadro M4000
Quadro M4000 is a powerful midrange workstation graphics card from Nvidia. This Maxwell GPU card comes with 8GB GDDR5 memory and can support up to four 4K displays. The card has got 1664 CUDA cores and can be used in mid to high workstations. It is a very good card for running CAD, Solidworks, Maya, and high graphics-intensive 3D applications. Even with so much power the card still has a single slot design and stays pretty silent and cool even at full load.
| Nvidia Quadro M4000 Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 1664 |
| GPU Architecture | Maxwell |
| Memory Size | 8 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 192 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX12, OpenGL 4.5, Shader Model 5.0, Vulkan 1.0, OpenCL, CUDA, DirectCompute |
| Features | Nvidia Mosaic, HDCP, 4 Monitor Support, 4K display |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 4 |
AMD FirePro W5100
AMD FirePro W5100 is an affordable mid-range workstation graphics card from AMD. It comes with 4GB GDDR5 VRAM and 768 stream processors. This is a great card for AutoCAD, Solidworks, and other graphic designing software. Also, it has got good driver support for handling all these graphics applications. It has 1.43 TFLOPS single-precision and 89.28 GFLOPS double-precision floating-point performance which is good enough. Other features include DirectGMA, GeometryBoost, and AMD Eyefinity technology.
| AMD FirePro W5100 Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 768 |
| GPU Architecture | GCN |
| Memory Size | 4 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 96 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX 11.2/12, OpenGL 4.4, OpenCL 2.0, Shader Model 5.0, AMD Mantle |
| Features | 4k display, up to 4 monitors support, DirectGMA, GeometryBoost, AMD Eyefinity technology |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 4 |
AMD FirePro W7100
This is a powerful midrange workstation graphics card from AMD that comes with 8GB GDDR5 memory. AMD FirePro W7100 is based on the GCN architecture and is one of the best cards for CAD, Solidworks, 3D animation, and other heavy graphics software. This card supports almost all the latest APIs and features that are needed for high-end graphics processing.
It comes with single-slot design and can support 4k displays and four monitors. The power and performance of this card is rated at 3.30 TFLOPS single-precision, and 206.08 GFLOPS double precision floating point operation. Features include DirectGMA, GeometryBoost, AMD Eyefinity technology. So if you are in a need of a good and powerful workstation graphics card from AMD then you can surely go for it.
| AMD FirePro W7100 Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 1792 |
| GPU Architecture | GCN |
| Memory Size | 8 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 160 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express |
| API support | DirectX 11.2/12, OpenGL 4.4, OpenCL 2.0, Shader Model 5.0, AMD Mantle |
| Features | 4k display, up to 4 monitors support, DirectGMA, GeometryBoost, AMD Eyefinity technology |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 4 |
Radeon Pro WX 5100
Radeon Pro WX 5100 is the Polaris based midrange workstation graphics card from AMD. It comes with 1792 Stream Processors and 8GB GDDR5 memory. This is a game engine ready graphics card which means that it is designed to work with various modern-day game engines like Unreal, Unity, Crytek, etc. This card can run CAD software including Autodesk, Siemens PLM, and SOLIDWORKS like a champ. It can support 4K / 5K displays and can run four monitors. The power consumption is also pretty low as the TDP is only 75W.
The card has 3.89 TFLOPS Peak Single-Precision Compute Performance which makes it more powerful than AMD FirePro W7100 and 40% more powerful than the NVIDIA Quadro M2000. This card has got many more advanced features like HDR, 10-bit Color, multi-GPU support, DirectGMA & SDI support, and 4K accelerate encode/decode.
| Radeon Pro WX 5100 Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 1792 |
| GPU Architecture | Polaris |
| Memory Size | 8 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 160 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, OpenCL 2.0, Shader Model 5.0, Vulkan 1.0 |
| Features | HDR, 10-bit Color, multi-GPU support, DirectGMA & SDI support, 4K accelerate encode/decode, 44k/5k display, 4 monitors support |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 4 |
AMD FirePro W8100
AMD FirePro W8100 is one of the fastest mid-range workstation graphics cards from AMD. It comes with 8GB GDDR5 VRAM and 2560 stream processors. This card has 4.22 TFLOPS single precision and 2.11 TFLOPS double-precision floating point performance which is the highest in this category. This card is meant for running CAD / CAE CAM applications, Catia, Solidworks, NX, etc. It is a bigger card and comes with a dual-slot design.
It supports 4 displays and can run four monitors. This card comes with ECC (Error Correcting Code) memory for increased accuracy in the results. Other features include Multi-GPU support, GeometryBoost, AMD Eyefinity, DirectGMA & SDI support, and Framelock/Genlock. The card is power-hungry and requires at least a 750W power supply for its working.
| AMD FirePro W8100 Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 2560 |
| GPU Architecture | GCN |
| Memory Size | 8 GB GDDR5 (ECC) |
| Memory Interface | 512-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 320 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX 11.2/12, OpenGL 4.4, OpenCL 2.0, Shader Model 5.0, HD3D |
| Features | 4k display, up to 4 monitors support, DirectGMA, ECC memory, Framelock/Genlock, Multi-GPU support, GeometryBoost, AMD Eyefinity |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 4 |
Best High-end Workstation Graphics Cards
Now here are the fastest and most powerful workstation graphics cards that your money can buy. These workstations cards are very expensive but they deliver exceptional performance. These are top enterprise-grade graphics cards that are mostly used by Movie Studios, Scientific Labs, Top Universities, and Game Studios.
Nvidia Quadro M5000
Quadro M5000 is a very powerful high-end workstation graphics card from Nvidia based on the Maxwell GPU architecture. It comes with 2048 CUDA Cores and 8GB GDDR5 ECC memory. This card has a dual-slot design and comes with five display output ports.
It supports 4k displays and can run five monitors altogether. The card offers excellent performance in CAD/ CAE softwares like AutoCAD, Solidworks, Maya, etc. This is a VR Ready card which means you can create and test VR (Virtual Reality) content using this card. You can get this professional workstation graphics card at around 2000 dollars mark.
| Nvidia Quadro M5000 Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 2048 |
| GPU Architecture | Maxwell |
| Memory Size | 8 GB GDDR5 (ECC) |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 211 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | Shader Model 5.0, DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan 1.0, CUDA, DirectCompute, OpenCL |
| Features | 4K displays, Multiple monitors support, GPUDirect, HDCP, Nvidia Mosaic, Stereo connector, Nvidia nView, DisplayPort with Audio, VGA support, VR ready |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 4, DVI |
Nvidia Quadro P5000
Quadro P5000 is an upgrade over the Quadro M5000 and comes with the latest Pascal GPU architecture. It is one of the most powerful workstation graphics cards in the world. This card comes with 16 GB GDDR5X ECC memory which is double of M5000. It is relatively faster than the M5000 but it comes with a slightly higher price. Just like the M5000 this card also comes with dual-slot design and requires a bigger case to fit in. The performance of this card is 8.9 TFLOPs which is even greater than the Quadro M6000. Along with 4K displays, this card also supports 5K display.
This card is suited best for creating high-end VFX, 3d animations, movie effects, complex models, 4k movie editing, VR creation & rendering and is used in scientific applications & high-end graphics-intensive programs. This is a relatively affordable high-end workstation card and it is available at around 2000 dollars.
| Nvidia Quadro P5000 Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 2560 |
| GPU Architecture | Pascal |
| Memory Size | 16 GB GDDR5X (ECC) |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 288 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express |
| API support | Shader Model 5.0, DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan 1.0, CUDA, DirectCompute, OpenCL |
| Features | 4K / 5k display support. Multiple monitors support, GPUDirect, HDCP 2.2, Nvidia Mosaic, 3D Stereo support with Stereo connector, Nvidia nView, DisplayPort with Audio, VGA support, VR ready |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 4, DVI |
Nvidia Quadro M6000 24GB
Quadro M6000 is the ultimate workstation graphics card based on the Maxwell architecture. This card comes with whopping 24GB GDDR5 ECC memory and has got 3072 CUDA cores. This card is used mainly in the professional movie, animation, and gaming studios where huge graphics processing power and rendering are required. You can also find its application in engineering and scientific workplaces. With Peak Single Precision Performance of 7 TFLOPs, you can get an idea about the card’s amazing power.
Needless to say that the card supports 4k display and multiple monitors. You will need a good high-end power supply to make this card work because of its heavy power consumption. The card is very expensive but it has got all the advanced graphics features and can do the work that other cheaper graphics cards cannot do
| Nvidia Quadro M6000 24GB Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 3072 |
| GPU Architecture | Pascal |
| Memory Size | 24 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 384-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 317 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | Shader Model 5.0, DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan 1.0, CUDA, DirectCompute, OpenCL |
| Features | 4K display,. Multiple monitors support, GPUDirect, HDCP, Nvidia Mosaic, 3D Stereo support with Stereo connector, Nvidia nView, DisplayPort with Audio, VGA support, VR ready, Quadro Sync compatibility |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 4, DVI |
Nvidia Quadro P6000
Quadro P6000 is one of the most powerful workstation graphics cards in the world. It is based on the latest Pascal architecture and no other graphics card can come close to its performance. It comes with 3840 CUDA Cores and 24GB GDDR5X ECC memory. It has a peak performance of 12 TFLOPS which is much greater than the performance of M6000 which is 7 TFLOPS.
It is one of the latest cards along with P5000 and is designed for top graphics applications, movie studios, scientific laboratories/applications, gaming studios or wherever heavy graphics processing is required. The card has maximum power consumption of 250W and requires a top-end PSU for its working. So if you want the best workstation graphics card then this is the one you must buy. It is priced at around 5000 dollars.
| Nvidia Quadro P6000 Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 3840 |
| GPU Architecture | Pascal |
| Memory Size | 24 GB GDDR5X (ECC) |
| Memory Interface | 384-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 432 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | Shader Model 5.0, DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan 1.0, CUDA, DirectCompute, OpenCL |
| Features | VR Support, 4K / 5K display with multiple monitors, GPUDirect, HDCP 2.2, Nvidia Mosaic, 3D Stereo support with Stereo connector, Nvidia nView, DisplayPort with Audio, VGA support |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 4, DVI |
NVIDIA TITAN V
Nvidia Titan V is one of the most powerful PC graphics cards. This high-end workstation graphics card is built on the latest 12nm Volta GPU architecture from Nvidia. The card comes with 5120 CUDA Cores, 640 Tensor Cores (for AI & Deep Learning), and has got 12GB HBM2 memory having a 3072-bit interface, and offering 652.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The computational performance of this card is about 110 TFLOPS which is way more than any other PC workstation graphics card out there.
The card is designed mainly for AI (Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning / Machine Learning) and for use in advanced Scientific Laboratories. It comes with the new NVLink 2 high-speed bus for much faster data transfer between CPU and GPU and between GPUs. The card consumes 250 Watts power and requires a good 600W PSU for its working. For connectivity, it comes with three DisplayPorts and one HDMI port. So, if you are in need of an exceptionally powerful and highly advanced PC workstation graphics card then you won’t find anything better than this.
| Nvidia Titan V Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 5120 |
| Tensor Cores | 640 |
| GPU Architecture | Volta |
| Memory Size | 12GB HBM2 |
| Memory Interface | 3072-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 652.8 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| Performance | 110 TFLOPS |
| Features | NVLink 2, VR Ready |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 3, HDMI x 1 |
AMD FirePro W9100 32GB
This is one of the most powerful workstation graphics cards from AMD. It comes with 32GB GDDR5 memory having 512-bit interface. It is really a monstrous card that can support six 4k displays. This card is designed for high-end graphics applications and for industrial and professional including movie studios, game studios, scientific labs, etc.
It is a big card that comes with dual-slot design. The card has 5.24 TFLOPS of peak single-precision floating-point performance. The maximum power consumption is 275 Watt and you will need at least a good 800W PSU for it. The card is also reasonably priced considering the amount of power it possesses. You can check out the current price from the link given below.
| AMD FirePro W9100 Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 2816 |
| GPU Architecture | GCN |
| Memory Size | 32 GB |
| Memory Interface | 512-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 320 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX 11.2/12, OpenGL 4.4, OpenCL 2.0, Shader Model 5.0, AMD Mantle |
| Features | DirectGMA, AMD Eyefinity, HD3D, Framelock / Genlock, 4K displays to up to 6 monitors |
| Output Ports | Mini DisplayPort x 6 |
Radeon Pro WX 7100
Radeon Pro WX 7100 is the fastest single slot workstation graphics card in the world. It comes with 8GB GDDR5 memory and is based on the latest Polaris GPU architecture from AMD. The card has a peak performance of 5.73 TFLOPS which is incredible for a single slot graphics card. This card is VR-ready and you can use it for VR content creation and playback. It can run heavy CAD / Graphics software like AutoCAD, Solidworks, Maya with ease.
Radeon Pro WX 7100 is around 50% faster than the Quadro M4000 which is Nvidia’s fastest single-slot workstation graphics card. The card supports 4K / 5K resolution and up to four display monitors. Other features include Multi-GPU support, AMD LiquidVR Technology, 10-bit color, HDR-ready, DirectGMA & SDR support, and 4K Accelerated Encode/Decode.
| Radeon Pro WX 7100 Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 2304 |
| GPU Architecture | Polaris |
| Memory Size | 8GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 224 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan 1.0, OpenCL 2.0 |
| Features | 4K / 5K display, up to 4 monitors support, VR Ready, Multi-GPU support, AMD LiquidVR Technology, 10-bit color, HDR ready, DirectGMA & SDR support, 4K Accelerated Encode/Decode, AMD Eyefinity Multi-display Technology |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 4 |
AMD Radeon Pro Duo (Polaris)
Radeon Pro Duo Professional is a high-end workstation graphics card from AMD and one of the fastest professional graphics cards in the world. It is the world’s first dual GPU workstation graphics card and the most powerful workstation graphics card from AMD. The card is based on the Polaris GPU architecture and comes with two Polaris 10 GPUs having a total of 4608 Stream Processors (2304 x 2). This powerful workstation graphics card from AMD comes with 32GB of GDDR5 video memory having total bandwidth of 448 GB/s. This card is for use in high-end graphics work and applications that involve 4K 360 VR content creation, 3D modeling, AAA games graphics creation, movie special effects in studios, and for use in scientific applications. This professional graphics card has a maximum peak single-precision floating-point performance of 11.45 TFLOPS which is comparable to 12 TLOPS of Nvidia’s top-end workstation graphics card, Nvidia Quadro P6000.
Various features of Radeon Pro Duo Professional include CrossFire, AMD LiquidVR Technology, HDR Ready, GeometryBoost, Radeon VR Ready Creator, AMD Eyefinity Technology Support, Support for 4K, 5K, and 8K Displays, 4K Accelerated Encode/Decode, 4th Generation Graphics Core Next (GCN) GPU Architecture. The card has power maximum consumption under 250W and requires one 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors from the PSU. On the connectivity side, it has three DisplayPorts and one HDMI Port. So if you looking for an ultimate workstation graphics card for your professional needs then you cannot ignore this one.
| AMD Radeon Pro Duo (Polaris) Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 2304 x 2 (4608 total) |
| GPU Architecture | Polaris |
| Peak Performance | 11.45 TFLOPS |
| Memory Size | 32GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Speed | 7 Gbps |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit x 2 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 x16 |
| API Support | DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.0 |
| Features | CrossFire, AMD LiquidVR Technology, HDR Ready, GeometryBoost, Radeon VR Ready Creator, AMD Eyefinity Technology Support, Support for 4K, 5K and 8K Displays, 4K Accelerated Encode/Decode, 4th Generation Graphics Core Next (GCN) GPU Architecture |
| Max. Power Consumption | <250W |
| Output Ports | DP x 3, HDMI x 1 |
Buy AMD Radeon Pro Duo (Polaris)
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition is a powerful workstation graphics card from AMD that is built on the latest Vega GPU architecture. This is one of the most powerful graphics cards for professional use. This graphics card has FP32 performance of 13.1 TFLOPS which is even greater than the Nvidia Quadro P6000 which has a maximum performance of 12 TFLOPS.
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition is a powerhouse and it comes with 64 Compute Units (CU), 4096 Stream Processors, and 16GB HBM2 memory (HBC) having a 2048-bit interface/bus width. The total memory bandwidth offered here is a whopping 483 GB/s. The maximum power consumption of this card is 300 Watts (air cooled) and 375 Watts for the Liquid cooled version. The PSU requirement for this card is 850W or higher. This is a dual-slot graphics card and it requires two 8-pin PCIe power connectors from the PSU. Connectivity options include three DisplayPorts and one HDMI port. This workstation graphics card supports Windows 7, Windows 10, and Linux (64-bit) operating systems.
This is the ultimate graphics card for VR content creation, Game Developers, 4K / 8K Video Editing, Scientific & Research Laboratories, running high-end graphics applications/software like Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, Blender, SOLIDWORKS, etc., creating high-end animations & graphics in movies and for work that involves a lot of GPU power for mathematical calculations. So if you are looking for the latest and ultra-powerful workstation graphics card then you must get this one. The card is also very much affordable considering the power it possesses.
| Radeon Vega Frontier Edition Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 4096 |
| GPU Architecture | Vega |
| Peak Performance | 13.1 TFLOPS |
| Memory Size | 16GB HBM2 HBC |
| Memory Interface | 2048-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 483 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API support | DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan, OpenCL 2.0 |
| Features | VR Ready, AMD FreeSync, 8K support, 5K support, AMD PowerTune Technology, ZeroCore Power Technology, AMD Eyefinity Technology, Partially Resident Textures, Bezel Compensation, TrueAudio Next technology, H265/HEVC Decode8 HD / 4K60, H265/HEVC Encode 1080p240 or 4K60 Mxed with Decode |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort (DP) x 3, HDMI x 1 |
Buy Radeon Vega Frontier Edition
AMD Radeon Pro SSG
AMD Radeon Pro SSG is one of the fastest workstation graphics cards from AMD. This workstation graphics card is built mainly for 4K / 8K content creation, VR, and 360 video stitching. This is the recommended GPU for Adobe Premiere Pro. The card is built on the Vega GPU architecture and comes with 4096 Stream Processors, 16GB HBM2 memory, and 2TB onboard SSG (Solid State Graphics) which is a high-speed solid state drive built into the card. This high-speed SSG memory bypasses PCIe bus, CPU, etc., and allows HBM2 to directly access data at a very fast rate using HBMC or High Bandwidth Memory Controller.
The card has got dual-slot design and for cooling, it comes with a single blower-style fan. It requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCIe power connector and has a maximum power consumption of 260W (TDP). Connectivity options include six Mini-DisplayPort. So, if you are in the professional media and entertainment business then this is the card that you should get. This is also a great card for game developers and for creating animations & special effects in movie studios.
| AMD Radeon Pro SSG Specifications | |
| Stream Processors | 4096 |
| GPU Architecture | Vega |
| Peak Performance | 12.3 TFLOPS (FP32), 769 GFLOPS (FP64) |
| Memory Size | 16GB HBM2 + 2 TB onboard SSG |
| Memory Interface | 2048-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 484 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| API Support | DirectX 12.0, OpenGL 4.5, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.0 |
| Features | Radeon VR Ready Creator, AMD Eyefinity Technology (Professionals), Radeon ProRender, Unified Video Decoder (UVD), Video Code Engine (VCE), High Bandwidth Cache (HBC) Controller, AMD DirectGMA Technology, S400 Synchronization Module Support, 10-bit Display Color Output, 3D Stereo Output |
| Output Ports | 6 x Mini-DisplayPort 1.4 |
Final Words
In the end, I would like to say that I have listed down the best workstation graphics cards for every budget for your professionals and business needs. If you have any queries regarding which workstation graphics card to buy for your professional needs then you can ask me by leaving a comment below clearly stating your work requirements and budget.
(*This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you choose to purchase through the links I provide (at no extra cost to you). Thank you for supporting the work I put into this site!)
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I have a water cooled Corsair HPC. I intend to install a Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3HP Socket FM2+ with an AMD A10 7869k APU. The MoBo is crossfire compatible and it is my ambition to create animated medical graphics with voiceover. Given the A10 7870k has 4 CPU cores and 8 GPU cores, what Graphics card would you recommend? I am retired and on a fixed income. Thanks, Craig
How much is your budget for graphics card?
$150.00 maybe $175.00 if my wife isn’t looking. Craig
Then i would advise you to get GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
I checked out the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and found one that has one fan, one that has two fans and a fanlless card. What’s the difference? Craig
The one with two fans has better cooling and you can overclock it more but you can get anyone according to your budget. The one without fan is silent in operation but i would not recommend it.
I think I accidentally sent you an email regarding an MRI I was reading for a friend. Sorry and please disregard. Thanks, Craig
Hi Akshat, thank you for this very informative article, it wasn’t easy to find info that covered both Nvidia and AMD without bias. I am looking to build a workstation using a Ryzen 8 core cpu for Photoshop and 4K video editing (Premier or Davinci Resolve). I am not planning to play games so just looking for the best value gpu for rendering video. I still don’t understand the requirements and differences between CUDA and Stream Processors, which is needed when and am a little confused when you recommended a gaming card for the gentleman above. Can you please give your opinion on a decent card for my purposes? My budget could stretch to around £300-400 if necessary.
Hello Ted,
For your budget I recommend you to get GeForce GTX 1070. A high-end graphics card performs better than a budget / lower mid-range workstation graphics card in the same budget range. Also for video editing and photo editing, role of processor is very important and you have already told that you are getting Ryzen 8 core cpu, so no issue here. To learn about CUDA cores and stream processors please read https://graphicscardhub.com/cuda-cores-vs-stream-processors/. If you have any more queries then feel free ask.
Regards
Akshat
Thanks for your reply. Is something like the Radeon RX 580 worth considering? Is Vega worth waiting for?
If you want a cheaper option then Radeon RX 580 is the best choice. It packs lot of power and you can definitely go for it. Availability can be a concern for this card. I don’t think you should wait for Vega because they will be expensive at the launch and not easier to get.
I was thinking in the nvidia quadro P4000, but I´m not sure why is out of the list.
Do you think is a good option for the price or there is some good options too.
I needed for draw and animation.
Thanks
I have listed Quadro P4000 at https://graphicscardhub.com/pascal-quadro-graphics-cards/. Yes it is a very good card for professional work but may be a little pricey. You can also get GeForce GTX 1080 or GTX 1080 which are gaming graphics cards but are powerful enough for other purposes too. You can get them way cheaper than P4000.
Thank you for your answer.
I really apreciate this information.
I have 2 big doubts about the configuration of the new PC.
1.- I have use Intel I7 all the time, but I know is more expensive than AMD
Do you think AMD is a good option or better not to risk.
2.- I always use windows 7 pro, but for the new components to get the best performance I need to change to windows 10?
I have a feew 2500 dlls budget.
I only need best performance for 3d design work.
Thanks again Akshat
Hello Jose,
There is no doubt that current AMD Ryzen processors offers better value for money compared to Intel ones. Frankly i am too an Intel guy and had bad experience with AMD every time so i think to avoid any risk you should go with Intel only. Yes you have to upgrade to Windows 10 as almost all latest generation processors and motherboards support Windows 10 only.
Regards
Akshat
What about nvidia 2070 super
It is not a workstation certified card it but works pretty good with Nvidia Studio Drivers.
Im building a workstation that does a lot of monitoring say for instance like you would find in a NOC or SOC plus I’m going to be provisioning a cloud environment. I know resource wise we won’t need a heck of a lot but I want a graphics card that can handle multiple 4k monitors well staying at 4k on all the displays.
How much is your budget?
Is nvidia 2070 super better than quadro p4000 as workstation ?
Quadro P4000 is better for the workstation.
Hi Akshat,
What is you opinion about this prossesors. I7 8700K, I7 7820X, and Ryzen T. 1920X?
For only workstation purpose. There is a real advance use the quad memori for the 7820X and 1920X and the number of nucleos? Or just think the I7 8700K is enough? The price of this is very close for considered.
Thanks Akshat
For workstation purpose, i would certainly go with Ryzen Threadripper 1920X if budget is not an issue. More cores and higher memory bandwidth does benefit in workstation PC. But if price is an issue then Core i7 8700K is also a good deal and delivers good performance in heavy duty tasks.
Mr. Verma how do you do? I hope all is well.
I’m in a pickle and I need help on deciding which gpu set up to invest in… Now would buying a dual set up of amd pro wx7100 8gb. X2 crossfire warrant an equivalent performance as purchasing one amd pro duo 32gb polaris?
Which would be a better investment and give me the best performance. I will be utilizing VR and running heavy 3D Architectural models. Rendering on 3dsmax on site V-ray, Revit, Rhino Vray render, Archi Cad, and Bentley AECO sim… This will be on an asus x99 e WS Mobo.
Just incase you might know about this water cooler is it pro duo polaris friendly?
https://www.ekwb.com/news/ek-releases-amd-radeon-pro-duo-full-cover-water-block/
Thank you for taking your time kind sir. Cheers.
Hello,
Frankly I think Radeon Pro Duo 32GB Polaris would be reasonably faster. This is because it would have the larger memory advantage and better dual GPU optimization compared to a CrossFire setup. Also the water cooler you have mentioned should be compatible with pro duo polaris. Finally my choice would be Radeon Pro Duo 32GB Polaris.
Regards
Akshat
Hi Mr Verma ,
I am currently running a pc with intel i7 6700k processor with 8 gb of DDR4 ram. I wish to buy a good graphics card 800 dollar range with ECC MEMORY AND GOOD FP 64 DOUBLE PRECISION FLOATING POINT for CFD ANALYSIS and CAD MODELS ( DESIGNING ) working on a project. Which graphics would you suggest me .. I HAD A LOOK ON AMD RADEON INSTINCT M125
Hello,
At 800 dollar range the best workstation graphics card from Nvidia you can get is Quadro P4000. From AMD, i would suggest Radeon Pro WX 7100 in this range. Both are single slot graphics cards and are very good for CAD and professional work.
can i use radeon instinct mi 25?
Yes you can definitely use Radeon Instinct MI25 but may cost a bit more.
u can also suggest me if there are any good graphics card under that budget from nvdia ..my main needs are ecc vram and good fp64 computational speed..for doing cfd and cad purpose
i would also like to know if titan v supports ecc option.
No ECC in Titan V as it has HBM2 memory and it works differently.
theres the same hbm2 memory in quadro gp100
yes but no support for ecc in titan v i guess.
can u make it sure please i searched lot somewhere it says it supprts…somewhere it not.
Ok i will get back to you on this.
thank you..very kind of u….does the vega frontier have ecc ram and whats the fp64 performance of it
I think Radeon FE does lack ECC and no word on FP64 performance. The FP32 performance is around 13.1 TFLOPS. But MI25 does have ECC enabled.
but mi25 doesnt have display outputs..what to do at this situation…can i get the video rendered through the hdmi port of my motherboard or do i need another graphics card….also whts the FP64 performance of radeon instinct mi25
To be honest Radeon Instinct MI25 is meant particularly for AI and Deep Learning where large math problems or calculations are involved. Yes it is a headless graphics card, just like specialized crytocurrency mining graphics cards. MI25 provides 768 GFLOPS peak double precision (FP64) at 1/16th rate. For graphics card you may have to look for another card.
thankyou..was wondering which graphics provide best double precision float point performance for simulatins and rendering in computational fluid dynamics
Atlast i got it though some models are old…would you mind updating the same on your blog for the needful..
http://www.geeks3d.com/20140305/amd-radeon-and-nvidia-geforce-fp32-fp64-gflops-table-computing/
Sure, will do. Thanks !
Hi,
I have a Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H-B3 motherboard, I7 2600k processor and an AMD 6900 series graphics card. Im planning to upgrade my graphics card for gaming, CAD and 3D modelling. My budget is about 500$ AUD. Can you recommend the best workstation and gaming gpu that can fit in that budget but can perform well?
Hello,
I suggest you to go for GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. You can go for any brand i.e. Asus, Zotac, Gigabyte, MSI or any other.
Hi,
Can you tell me as to why is that better than buying 2 gpus? I.e gtx 1060 + quadro k420
Hello,
Why do you want to go for two GPUs because GTX 1060 alone is sufficient and is better than Quadro K420 in terms of workstation purpose too.
Hi,
Nothing special. I just thought a gaming gpu would not be enough CAD or 3 modelling and rendering compared to workstation graphics card.
hi,
i do gaming my limit is pcie x16 75 watt but i want do virtualization too. i have 48 gb ram ecc. and 2 old xeon. hp dl 380 g7. i think to gtx 1050 ti or radeon rx 560D or i have to go nvidia quadro or radeon pro. what do you think about.
I suggest you to go for GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. Go with Zotac Geforce GTX 1050 Mini or OC.
which GPU and graphics card range is considered as a decent range for a mobile workstation (since i m very new to mobile)
price about $2000
also i m confused with specifications which both workstations and ultrabooks share.
For up to 2k dollars i would suggest you to go for Nvidia Quadro M2200 GPU.
do you any suggestions for mobile workstations
mostly it will be used for running matlab
I would recommend MSI WE72 7RJ or MSI WE62 RJ. You can check these laptops at https://www.msi.com/Workstation/WE72-7RJ.html and https://www.msi.com/Workstation/WE62-7RJ.html
Hello Akshat
I read your excellent article on workstation vs gaming graphics cards. Thanks.
I) Graphics card requirement
1) I’m required to watch videos running on the television run so without errors, not edit them.
However I’m required to show videos in “4k upto 8k” to the public by connecting the computer to a Television.
Small size and thin graphics card is required so that only one PCI slot gets utilised resulting in space for additional graphics cards if required.
Internal cooling like an air-conditioner is required as lot of heat is generated due to it running 24 hours 7 days 365 days.
2) My software requires me to “compute calculations” by integrating other data science company’s data into my software.
Which graphics card to chose :
a) Nvidia Titan V VOLTA 12GB HBM2 Video Card
b) NVIDIA Quadro P6000 VCQP6000-PB 24GB 384-bit GDDR5X PCI Video Card
c) Tesla K40C – I do not know which compatible video card would be required as Tesla requires the addition of another compatible graphics card for showing video and gaming?
Limitations:
Do not limit your advice to the graphics card I chose. From my readings I understand that Nvidia Titan V works best in a single unit configuration and with FP64 cores – It does not work well with anything that utilises FP16, single precision compute workloads and OpenGL based rendering or with over two GPUs. While the other graphics card works well in upto two or three units configuration maximum. I don’t see cuda being used in the immediate future. Rather my programming languages target mobility as a key factor – meaning access on mobiles and on simple laptops.
II) Which is better? –
a sound card or external sound device like a DAC? If so which provider?
III) Which processor is better suited for watching videos and data science while being most compatible with the selected graphics card?
a) Xeon X7 or equivalent performing Xeon X5? Can you tell me which version to buy based on best specs and cheap price?
b) If these are not available then would Xeon W 2145 or Xeon W 2195 be a better choice as they are the only ones cheap in the current series?
I prefer a 4 socket processor so that multiple processors can be used in future. But am not sure from where to source X7 processors – so I’m asking for comparisons?
Hello Suchit,
I) The most powerful single slot graphics card that you can get it Nvidia Quadro P4000, which i think is enough for your needs. Nvidia Volta V and Quadro P6000 are dual slot graphics cards and are bulky.
II) It is always better to get an internal sound card as it gives you more control (using software) and offers much better performance and features.
III) For processor, I would recommend Intel Xeon W-2195 as it is based on newer LGA 2066 Socket and delivers great performance.
If double slot being used by a GPU is not an issue, which GPU would you recommend?
Which graphics card can replace Nvidia Quadro P4000 without causing software bugs?
The Xeon W 2195 is expensive and single socket. I could get a cheaper 4 socket processor by using either Xeon 5 or 7, in which case I may go for dual processors on the sockets. Or is this ill advised due to upgrade ability issues?
Would cutting costs by selecting a cheaper option in case of a processor backfire?
Thanks.
Well if single slot is not an issue then definitely go for Nvidia Titan V because this card has got Tensor Cores and is designed mainly for AI, deep learning and scientific work. For quad socket processors I would suggest Xeon E5-4xxx or E7-xxxx series processors based on LGA 2011 socket, but if you are on budget then Intel Xeon X7560 might do as well but i would certainly opt for the newer series for use with card like Titan V.
How important is it that the Xeon processor incorporates the 512-bit AVX vector instruction? This when the GPU is a good one – like Nvidia Quadro P4000 or the Titan V?
Isn’t a 4 socket processor best at computing and video watching in 4K to 8k, rather than the 512-bit AVX vector instruction in the Xeon scalable processors?
Well, this is a tricky one but i think you do not need 512-bit AVX vector instruction support in the processor when you have a GPU like Nvidia Titan V. Yes a 4 socket processor is only needed for heavy workloads (4k / 8k video editing etc.) where more cores are required.
hi , plz tell me ur advise tochoose vga card , for this softwares : Revit , autocad , Fluent , ansys and solidwork in level of midrenge , budget of max 200 $
between this models :
Quadro p400 , p600 , k420 , k620 , firepro w2100
in autodesk site recomend for revit 2018 , p400 and p600 !
or you offer an other model vga card for me ?
my system config :
cpu : ryzen 7 1700
MB: MSI x370 xpower titan
Hard ssd 256 (128+128)
power 650Watt
Ram : crucial 8G – elite 3000
plz help for choose vga card ?!?
tnx alot
Hello,
For your budget I recommend NVIDIA Quadro P600 as it is powerful of the lot and will serve your purpose very well.
tnx alot mr . excuse me , in our country because of $ changes, unfortunatly , now i can buy max 120 ~ 150 $ vga card :
and i cant decide between P400 and K620 !
wat’s ur offer ??
do you have another offer for me ?
or wait to buy p600 month later ?!
Between these two i recommend Quadro P400, but i suggest that you should wait and buy Quadro P600 if it is not urgent.
This a great article and gave me info that I wasn’t aware of and I thank you for that.
I’m looking for a graphics card upgrade from old AMD FirePro V4900.
I’m currently a heavy user of Zbrush and need to start getting into other programs like Mari, Keyshot, Substance Painter, and Cinema 4D. Basically programs used in film and games industry.
My systems is:
Intel Core i7-4930k
Gigabyte X79-Up4
36GB RAM
I was looking into graphics cards like the GeForce GTX 1050Ti or the GTX 1060 Windforce 3GB but now that I know that it might be better to get a Workstation Graphics Card for the programs I use I’m unsure still what may be better for my system.
I did find a NIVIDIA Quadro K4000 3GB for $200 but is that better then GTX’s models I mentioned?
Also what would you recommend for my system at a budget of
$200 – $350
Thank you ahead of time
I would say it is better to go for GTX 1060 6GB as it is more powerful than Quadro K4000 and will be faster in professional applications too. You can get 6GB variant of GTX 1060 from Zotac, MSI or Gigabyte under $350.
Thank you for your fast reply and helpful information.
I did take a look into the GTX 1060 6Gb variants and was wondering if theirs much difference between ones with features like overclocking, single fan or dual fan and is it worth the extra money to get them
or
is it just best to get the cheapest variant with a single fan?
Get the cheapest GTX 1060 6GB whether it has single or dual fans. Overclocking ones may have slight boost but it does not matter that much because it is already a very powerful card.
Hello..Which graphics would be more suitable to run Lumion , 3dsMax , Maya , Autocad , sketchup ? Gtx 1070Ti or Amd Radeon Pro WX7100
To be on the safer side I would prefer AMD Radeon Pro WX7100 because it is more optimized for such applications and is quite powerful too.
Thank you 🙂
For game developing and 3d works which graphics card is good… a quadro or gtx cards are enough for it?.. plzz reply
If you are a professional then i would highly suggest to go for Quadro cards but if you are on budget then GTX cards are decent enough too.
Hi Akshat,
1) Does the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 perform better than Nvidia “Titan” Volta when simultaneously being used for video buffering and simultaneously running data science applications?
OR should I start with a NVIDIA Titan V and then migrate the data to a Quadro GV100 in future?
Or should I take the middle path and use the Quadro P6000 with 24GB with the hope of migrating data to a superior GPU in the future.
2) a) Does a “single core” CPU mean better performance for doing video buffering and “simultaneously” running data science applications when compared to a “multiple core” XEON E7″ / E5 processor?
b) I feel all that matters is the CPU isn’t maxed out on a single core OR am I wrong here?
3) Is video buffering faster because of a powerful GPU or the speed of the internet is the only factor to be considered?
4) Does Netflix use hardware acceleration, if so whether it uses the GPU or the CPU?
5) Is it probably best to leave a browser or other programs not running to avoid taxing the CPU?
6) How much RAM is optimum for video buffering and simultaneously running data science applications? Is 64GB RAM getting fully utilised or is it under utilised?
7) You mentioned the newer series of cards as better. Is the LGA 2066 socket better than the LGA 2011 socket when used with the Quadro GV100 / Quadro P6000 / Titan V?
Notes:
a) I read on the internet that modern GPU’s have a video decoder which is used instead of the CPU by many programs.
b) A faster CPU in general usually keeps a laptop’s fan noise down, other than that a faster CPU does nothing.
c) Modern browsers often have “hardware acceleration” ON by default for website plugins though for watching your own content with various programs/apps you usually have a choice.
d) Netflix does support HTML5 so it’s possible that it uses GPU decoder. I suspect it removes the DRM wrapper via CPU and the raw video streams through the GPU decoder but I can’t be certain.
e) Netflix may work better via the Windows 8/10 app rather than running through a browser.
May be similar performance, but either way is it probably best to leave a browser or other programs NOT RUNNING to avoid taxing the CPU.
1. I think for data science and AI stuff going for either GV100 or Titan V makes more sense.
2. No, a multi-core processor is way better for multi-tasking and doing tasks that involve video bufferring, video streaming etc.
3. Speed of the internet should be enough and you must have a powerful CPU, and a powerful modern GPU is an added advantage because it take some load off of your CPU.
4. Netflix does use hardware acceleration through modern browsers and i think you may also force it use GPU also.
5. Yes it is better not to run any browser when doing CPU intensive tasks.
6. I think 64GB should be enough for most of the needs.
7. It is nothing like that unless you have a powerful processor, but LGA 2066 is a newer socket and you will find more powerful & better processors for this socket compared to LGA 2011-v3.
Akshat; I’ve just stumbled across your post and am impressed with the depth of analysis. I was wondering if you’d be inclined to share some advise.
I currently operate a rig with a Supermicro X10DAI MD, dual Xeon X5 chips, Dual SSD drives (one a M.2 as a scatch),128MB RAM and a AMD Firepro 9100… I built this rig about 2 years ago and I’m looking to build an equally good or better rig for the next phase of my 3DMax studio team…
Do you have any advise on basic level configurations? My budget is around $20K
Here is my advice on it: Intel Xeon W-3175X Processor, Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 or Quadro P6000 GPU, LGA3647 Motherboard from Supermicro, 128GB / 256GB DDR4 RAM, SSD Drives(as per your choice)
Hello Akshat ! First of all thanks for all the info above . I am actually building a system for Visual effects and I’m really confused between quadro and gtx series , i dont know what to choose with my i9-7940x , my work will be simulation and rendering in 3ds max with millions of poly meshes,and compositing in After Effects mostly between 2k and 4k videos,my budget is 800/900$ … can you suggest me something?
Hello Max,
As all your work involves simulation, modeling, rendering, visual effects etc., then I would suggest to go for Quadro cards only, as they deliver much better performance in workstation tasks with solid stability. For $800 – $900, I recommend NVIDIA Quadro P4000.
Thanks Akshant ! Im stuck between Quadro p4000 , Quadro rtx 4000, and gtx rtx 2080 because rtx cards have new architectures and more cuda cores . I need fast rendering for vfx .
Thanks
Quadro RTX 4000 is clearly the best here for workstation tasks. Specs wise it may seem a bit slower compared to RTX 2080 but in workstation tasks it will be super stable and can deliver better performance than RTX 2080. If you can get it $900 then just go for it.
Hello Akshat,
I’m mostly doing photoretouching in DarkTable and this on a Ryzen 1500.
First this was a system I had to build fast (because old system dyed unexpected) so not much time to some real research in to a high system.
Now I looking to build one around a threadripper 1950x, 64Gb ECC (perhaps 128Gb ECC)
Mostly for DarkTable and virtualization.
So I’m thinking on a card for 750€ – 1000€
Greetings,
Ronald
Hello Ronald,
I suggest you to go for GeForce RTX 2080, and here are some of the best ones https://graphicscardhub.com/best-rtx-2080-ti/
Regards
Akshat
Hi,
I will have look at this card.
But the card is above the budget I mentioned, first prices I saw where 1200-1300€.
I suspect that you choose that card because of the cuda engines.
You need to know that DarkTable is true Linux program and leans big on openCL.
But a study will have to be preformed to see what the difference is between CUDA en openCL.
My first idea was a AMD FirePro W7100, but who know that NVideo can do.
Greetings,
Ronald
I think it is better to go with the new RTX cards. Nvidia cards offer good OpenCL performance too and if RTX 2080 is getting out of your budget then you can go for RTX 2070 which is also a very powerful card.
Hello Mr.Akhshat Verma
Nice to see you
Basically i work on 3 main softwares
3dmax
Maya
After Effetcs
i have a budget of 3000 Dollers
so can you please suggest me a powerfull Workstation
Here is a powerful workstation build that you get at 3000 bucks.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X Processor
ASRock X399 Taichi Motherboard
Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 CPU Cooler
Corsair LPX 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MHz RAM
Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5 Inch SSD
Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD
Corsair RM850X PSU
PNY NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 Graphics card
CORSAIR Obsidian 750D Full-Tower Case
What’s about nvidia rtx 2080ti instead of quadro
RTX 2080 Ti is also great and will offer better performance, but if you want support for 10-bit color depth then you have to go towards Quadro RTX 4000.
Hallo Akshat I am little confusing choosing graphic cards b/w Quadro vs GTX my bujject is RS 25000 for 4k video editing software like edius 8.5 . Primerpro cc . aftereffects
Working formates like xavcs 4k ( Sony ) mxf 4k ( canon ) . Some time I work with 10bit log files plz help me out
I think you should go with GTX 1660 or even a GTX 1660 Ti.
Thank you sir
Use current computer with two displays – do stock/option trading and displaying/manipulating a lot of business graphics . Need to upgrade. Recommendations for base systems from the application providers are 16G ram, SSD (?) , two monitors w/2 or 4 G 1920×1080 for graphics, I7 processor.
confused on most cost effective graphics card – real neophyte here.
Any guidance much appreciated
I would suggest Radeon RX 570.
Is ascer concept D7. … laptop is good for engineering student…I am learning ansys, catia,creo ,ug-nx ,auto cad ,cad cam ,cae… so this is perfect laptop? I want for Mobile workstation…and which is best or recommended graphic card for this all software for mobile workstation or laptop?also recommend me other laptops …no budget problem
Yes Acer Concept D7 is a very good laptop for workstation use. Well if budget is not an issue then go with the GeForce RTX 2080 only. However, RTX 2060 is also enough for your work.
Hi Akshat! Thank you for your detailed and insightful article. Im learning alot! I have a question on a new laptop purchase as my last laptop died on me. I am a creative professional in the entertainment industry dealing w feature film/commercial vfx, 3D animation/modeling/rendering (Cinema 4D/Maya/Zbrush, Octane, Vray), After Effects compositing/rendering, Photoshop, and Unreal Engine small studio game dev. needing realtime rendering capabilities as well. Unfortunately right now due to personal circumstances, my budget is very low around $2000 max. What would be your best out-of-the-box laptop suggestion for the price? Also, when budget is not as much an issue, what pc build would you suggest? Im also looking to buy an external GPU as well if I can for the laptop but for now need something ready to go without. Thanks so much for any help! I might return with more questions 🙂
Hello Aaron,
A laptop with latest Core i7 processor (i7 9750H), 16GB RAM and RTX 2060 or higher GPU should be good enough for you needs. Here are some recommendations under $2000:
1) ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR III (G531GV-DB76) [Intel Core i7-9750H, 16GB DDR4, 1TB PCIe Nvme SSD, RTX 2060]
2) MSI GP75 Leopard 9SE-888 [Intel Core i7-9750H, RTX 2060, 16GB RAM, 512GB Nvme SSD]
3) MSI GE75 Raider-286 [Intel Core i7-9750H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX2070, 16GB, 512GB NVMe SSD]
If you want to build a PC in future then I would suggest getting a Ryzen 7 3700X or Ryzen 9 3900X processor with RX 5700 XT or RTX 2060 SUPER graphics card. Also, I don’t think you need an external GPU if your laptop GPU is powerful enough, which in this case it is.
Awesome. Thank you so much for the response and specific recommendations! All the best!
Hi,
I need advice. I am reading and searching all there is about:
1. Setup eGPU + nMP ( 6core, 32GB, D700 – Trash Can )
2. Setup e GPU + MacBook Pro 2017
I have two comps so I would use it both but mainly nMP.
I have spent a lot of time on choosing optimal Radeon Card for eGPU ( cases are rather obvious regarding a choice ) but I am confused. I am not sure what to buy. My $$$ limit is let say 1000$ for a card + case and adapter TB2 > TB3.
I see contra dictionary opinions whether it makes or not. TB2 is still a problem but eGPU with good graphics can still give a nice boost. Mostly ADOBE, but not only.
Thanks for Advice 🙂 !
I would suggest Razer Core X eGPU case + Radeon RX 5700 XT GPU (Blower Fan reference design).
Thanks man !
No Problem!
ok, but there is one issue – rx 5700 xt has no drivers support for osx yet. The Card itself looks great but You suggest to buy rx 5700 xt but having in mind that the drivers are yet to come ?
Oh yes that slipped off my mind. I think you are better off with RX 580 only.
Kudos to you for writing such an unbiased detailed post and replying to everyone. This is the most info I’ve found regarding workstation GPUs and how they stack up against the GeForce cards (in your comments)
With Diwali offers on Amazon, I’m planning to buy a GPU by tomorrow. And with a very limited budget, I’m looking at Rx 570, Rx 580, GTX 1060, GTX 1660 and Quadro p620 or Radeon WX 2100. I believe only these many GPU fit in the $150-200 range or Rs. 12-16k.
I have a few questions
1. How do these budget friendly Quadro p620 and Radeon WX 2100 compare against the gaming cards I mentioned? My work priorities are Lightroom first, then slight retouching in PS and occasionally 3d modelling in Revit etc.
2. If the gaming cards are better (assuming from your replies), is RX 570 enough at Rs. 12k, or should I shell out 4-5k more for the Rx 580, GTX 1060, GTX 1660? And in that case, which one would you suggest?
3. I guess you’re in India. So I would like to ask if I should buy from Amazon or computer markets like the one in Lamington road, Nehru market etc?
Personally I am not a fan of entry level or budget workstation graphics cards unless the applications don’t support other cards. It is better to get a much powerful gaming card for the same price. For your needs, RX 570 (8GB) should be enough. However, Nvidia cards play better with Adobe products because of CUDA and better drivers, especially the new Creator Ready Drivers (https://graphicscardhub.com/grd-vs-crd/) for gaming cards for better stability with professional applications.
I had read about CRD earlier. Thanks again for the detailed explanation in the link (and a quick response). I reckon GTX 1660 would be really great since I’ll doing PS, LR, CAD etc. and no gaming. This move by Nvidia will likely future proof this GPU for another 3-4 years. I’m getting the Galax gtx 1660 for 15-16k. You say the word and I’ll go for it.
And I’m guessing there’s no such move by AMD to provide CRD for rx 570 and all?
GTX 1660 is a great choice and is more future proof. Currently AMD does not have workstation ready drivers for its gaming cards.
Thanks for the lightning fast response. I’m on way to buying the card. I hope Galax is a good brand. From now on, I’ll be frequenting your blog for these great articles.
Yes it is a good brand and I have used their cards before (previously known as galaxy). Also, you are most welcome.
My old laptop isn’t cutting it for work anymore so I’m look to build a PC. I’m completely new to PC building and it is overwhelming to say the least.
I use my computer for CAD and some architectural rendering.
Software – Mainly AutoCAD, SketchUp, Rhino 6, and Vray. Occasionally I’ll need to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I currently run one ultra wide monitor (2560×1080) off of my computer but plan to run a second smaller 27″ monitor.
I have about $2500-3000 to work with.
Could you recommend a solid workstation setup. And maybe give me a quick few pointers as to why some hardware selections work better than others for the programs I listed? It seems like there is a lot to do with part’s “architecture” not just their core speed and amount of cores?
Thank you for your advice and this article!
Here is a pretty solid workstation setup:
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X Processor
MSI MPG X570 Gaming PRO Carbon WiFi Motherboard
Corsair LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MHz
Samsung 960 EVO 500GB NVMe SSD
Seagate BarraCuda 2TB HDD
CORSAIR RM650x PSU
Nvidia Quadro RTX 4000 Graphics Card
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN 450D Mid-Tower Case
I have chosen Ryzen 9 3900X, which is a 12 Core / 24 Thread processor and is currently one of the best processors for workstation tasks. It even beat older Threadripper processors in productivity tasks. Also, it is built on latest Zen 2 architecture on smaller 7nm process and is less power hungry too. The graphics card here is Quadro RTX 4000 which is a powerful workstation graphics card built on the latest Turing architecture from Nvidia. If you want then you can add a AIO liquid CPU cooler on the processor.
Could you please recommend me a decent notebook for under 3000$ for using solidworks and inventor(engineering purposes)
You should go with a model with Core i7 9750H processor, 16GB to 32GB RAM, RTX 2070 graphics card, NVMe SSD and 15.6 inch display/
Any comment on best card & monitor for QubesOS?
https://www.qubes-os.org/
Some mailing list comments indicate driver support is better for ATI than nVidia, & if possible I’d want to avoid “binary blobs” in favour of open source drivers.
Or more generally for non-CAD Linux workstation? I might do a bit of gaming, 3d modelling and/or CAD, but those are not central for me & I could live with limited performance on them. I just want high performance for the desktop — browser, Office apps, etc. I think about 90 Hz at 4K is the minimum I’d want & 120 or so might be better.
I don’t have much idea about QubesOS but I think RX580 and earlier cards should be preferred, and Nvidia cards should be avoided.
Will that do 90+ Hz at 4K?
RX 580 comes with DisplayPort 1.4 and can support 4K at 120Hz.
Is it possible to properly run solidworks and inventor on gtx 2070
Yes but use Nvidia Studio drivers for better stability, support and performance.
Hello Akshat,
I would like to buy workstation but having trouble with budget.
My question is : Intel Core I7 9700F 3,0 GHz, vs Intel Core I9 9900 3,10 GHz. Is it worth to pay a bit more for i9?
And for budget around 450 is Quadro P2000 ok choice.
I need my workstation for CAD REVIT rendrering Vray etc.
And do you have any other advice regarding motherboard or anything else.
Kind regards
I think it is better to stick with the Core i7 9700F only. Also, Quadro P2000 is a decent choice for CAD REVIT rendering.
Thank you, just one more thing is it better to choose lets say nVidia GeForce 2060 6GB or 8GB DDR6 over Quadro P2000?
RTX 2060 6GB and RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB are more powerful cards than Quadro P2000 and will perform better in most cases. However, they may not be fully supported by some applications and may be unstable in some.
I am buying a new machine for use with Interior Design software (Autocad, Sketchup, 3d Max). Already bought a Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 Gb 3600 Ram and a X570 motherboard. Looking for the Videocard now, with a budget of U$ 500.00 which one you think is the best option? Currently I am looking at RTX 2070 Super and 5700 XT, or should I buy a cheaper Quadro? Thanks.
I would prefer RTX 2070 SUPER and use Nvidia Studio Drivers.
I am planning to build workstation setup (Budget INR 80,000)
Prosessor: Ryzen 7 3700x
RAM: 16 GB (8*2) G.SKILL Ripjaws V DDR4-3600MHz
motherboard: GIGABYTE X570 UD Motherboard
which graphics card should i use for software Meshroom, Ansys CFD, solidworks and blender
Quadro P620 or GTX 1660? or should i go with Quadro P1000 by increasing budget?
GTX 1660 would be much faster and should be a better choice.
I would greatly appreciate your advice. I’m building a pc to be used exclusively for day trading. Needs to run 4 – 4k monitors 8 hrs a day 5 days a week. Dozens of charts with streaming realtime data and Chrome, but not much of anything else. I’d like to keep the price in the $200 – $350 range. Leaning toward workstation cards thinking they would be the most reliable and durable, but I don’t know if that’s the right decision. A couple cards I’m thinking about are the Quadro P1000 and the Radeon pro wx5100, but I know there is also the FirePro line and a number of other cards that look like they would work. Can you tell me if you agree with using a workstation card and would you be willing to recommend one or two that would work? In case it matters, I think I’m going to use a Ryzen 7 3900x cpu. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
I think a powerful mainstream card would be much better than a entry level workstation card. I think GTX 1660 SUPER would be perfect for your requirements.
Thanks for your response! Can you check the link you sent me. It doesn’t have anything to do with graphics cards.
Sorry for my mistake. Here is the link for best GTX 1660 SUPER cards https://graphicscardhub.com/best-gtx-1660-super/
Thank you! I read everything on the link you provided and it all sounds great, except I don’t think it will handle the 4 – 4k monitors. Did I miss something?
I think it can but now I realize that it is better to stick with the workstation cards only. I think Radeon Pro WX 5100 would be a great option because of more VRAM (8GB) and higher performance. Other options are Radeon FirePro W5100 and NVIDIA Quadro P1000.
Thank you for your help!
Hello Akshat,
Thanks for taking the time to share your expertise, after reading many pages you wrote, I got a sense of the level of care that went into it and also your genuine passion for the technology, both make it a pleasure to read.
I’m grouping these together: AMD Ryzen 3rd gen 3950 3.5GHz & Gigabyte TXR40 AURUS PRO Wifi, 129GB 3200MHz Memory, and Corsair 600 gen 4 2TB (x2) RAID0, hopefully they can get along and not argue too much! In order for them to better communicate with me, a Video card is needed, my top pick, based on some less than rational decisions: ATI RAEDON PRO WX 8200.
My main computer choking application is panoramic photography with extreme telephoto lenses (300-800mm), high precision, HDR (5-images at each position), easily could exceed 1TB/panorama of source images. I built the camera positioning robot which also automates image capture, which coincidentally is also getting an upgrade. I have never been able to stitch more than a small section at a time, and am looking to conquer prior limitations with the right hardware. None of this is 3D geometry or ripping bus speeds of video or any other typical way to give a heartwarming thrill to your video card, so I’m never sure of which metrics in a card’s sales pitch to pay attention too. I mostly get an overall impression, which is intuitive instead of normative, so the practicality is dubious. Your advice here would be cherished.
I also do 3D work but more on the mechanical engineering style, where the polygon count would bore an onboard video chip on a laptop, not even getting it up out of energy saver mode. I’m no Anand, but I play a solid game of chess, beating Fritz at club level once a week at least, so chess engine boosting would be a strong influence on which card I choose, but good luck finding this metric!
To sum up, I throw a lot of bulky data (0% polygons) at my card stitching large images from single frames, and use Photoshop and similar tools daily, so am seeking a card for highest efficiency with many calculations in parallel, right? My 3D workload is trivial. I use 4 x 4K monitors.
I think you have selected the right card, which is Radeon Pro WX 8200. However, if you want a card with better efficiency (less power hungry) then you can have look at Quadro RTX 4000.
Thank you Akshat! Your suggestion is brilliant, I will buy the Quadro RTX 4000! Afew things stood out right away, first the 4x8K display support, which at my current level of jadedness to tech marvels, is suitably mindblowing. The other points were DDR6 memory instead of HBM2, which I think is a step into the future and better performance (not 100% sure about this). And lastly, the processing power devoted to AI and the sound modeling capability via raytracing audio in virtual spaces locked in my decision. I’ll have to return all the blue PETG tubing for the CPU watercooler which now no longer has the lovely anodized sky blue of the Raedon card (which might have come off if it started to feel a bit warm anyway, but conceptual inspiration, however baseless, is still difficult to refute. I will celebrate the new decision by adapting the cooling system design to the PNY scheme, as a sort of housewarming to welcome the late arriving guest. I have always marveled at PNY cards for their flagrant excess and disregard for ordinary computer nerds inability to afford one, but the time arrived when I finally get a PoNY!
Thanks again for the brilliant suggestion.
You are most welcome.
I plan to build a workstation using :
AMD Ryzen III 3700X 6 cores CPU
either
ASUS Radeon TUF RX 5700XT 8GB GDDR6 display card
or
Quadro P2000 display card
Please advise which display card is better for running software ANSYS.
Thanks..
Go with the workstation card only i.e. Quadro P2000 as it has been officially tested for ANSYS.
Hi Akshat,
Great website, lot of useful information!
I was using i5 6500 8gb ram dd3 with integrated graphics for the last 5 years for 3ds max 2013, autocad 2015,vray 3.1 etc, and it was working completely fine (No gaming). Last week I built a new PC with i5 9600K, Gigabyte B365 HD3, 16 gb ram corsair vengeance, HP SSD EX950 M2 512 GB. OS is windows 10 pro 64 bit. After installing 3ds max 2019 with VRay 4.1 and Autocad 2019 the modelling in 3Ds Max is lagging a lot and is not responding many a times. Even AutoCAD is lagging and not responding.
Do I need an additional graphics card.
Thanks in advance!
I think a decent graphics card will help. I suggest GeForce GT 1050 Ti or GTX 1650 SUPER.
Thank you for your prompt response!
Could you kindly elaborate on the problem itself.
I am curious as to why the system is lagging so much as my previous system didn’t have a dedicated graphics card and was performing way better on the integrated graphics itself.
Could it be a software or OS issue as the present performance is way below par.
Thanks once again!
Could be due to newer versions of the software and Windows 10. A dedicated graphics card can accelerate the process as these software support GPU hardware acceleration.
Thanks & best wishes for your blog
What about rtx workstation cards?
They are the best. Need to update the post.
Which workstation cards are capable of smooth real-time scrolling and manipulation of large 2D images on an 8K 10bit 48Hz display? 3D? I prefer AMD (only because I don’t want to mix brands in my multi-GPU workstation), but would be willing to go with either brand if necessary. Price is not a limiting factor, but I do hate wasting money. To what extent do you think the workstation specs, rather than GPU, would be a limiting factor? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks for the informative article and discussion.
I think Radeon Pro WX 9100 should be good enough for you.
Thanks! I was thinking the same thing.
Hello Mr. Verma,
I am deciding on a pc build I will finalize sometime this weekend (btw this is my first build!!). Here is the system I’m thinking of getting and the pc part picker link:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700x
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB 3600 MHz CL18
MoBo: x570 Asus tuf Wi-Fi
Psu: Thermaltake toughpower 750w Gold Semi-Mod
Case: be quiet! 500DX (with an extra case fan)
Monitor: Acer 1080p 144hz
GRAPHICS CARD: Gtx 1660 super
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dFgqCL
1) First off let me know what you think about the config. and if there are any glaring errors. The uses I am mainly doing is some light gaming, solidworks, FEA (COMSOL), Simulations, and Rendering. Furthermore, the main game I want to play is Battlefield 1, high settings at 1080p at 80-100 fps.
2) Secondly, I’ve heard people have had difficulties with getting their 1660’s to run Solidworks or other CAD programs, I was wondering if I should consider some other cards. My budget for a graphics card(s) is no more than $350. I was thinking if the 1660 won’t cut it I could add a cheap graphics card to the second PCIe slot and connect it to a spare monitor I have from a ten year old computer. That way I could run solidworks on the older monitor at a lower resolution befitting of a discount card and when I want to game switch to the higher resolution monitor attached to the 1660. I suppose the K2200 might work since there’s a crazy sale on it, but what do you think.
3) If I do go this route, I am a bit confused about how I might configure the monitors this way. I found a couple of threads that explain this to some degree, but it’s all a bit confusing. Here they are:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/workstation-and-gaming-in-one-machine.2157356/
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/717383-2-different-graphics-cards-in-1-pc/
4) I know the ryzen 7 really seems overkill for the build but I thought I would invest in it and switch out to a better graphics card later on. Also if you can think of a better all in one graphics card for the combined budget of 350 (maybe 400) that would be even better.
Thank you in advance,
Kian
P.S. The article really helped me get the lay of the land when it comes to workstation cards, and I did a solid amount of research before I asked this question so I didn’t waste your time.
You have build a great configuration. Well, GeForce gaming cards are not officially supported by Solidworks but with Nvidia Studio Drivers, I think you should be fine with GTX 1660 SUPER in workstation or creator applications. Two cards in one machine can work but it is a bit of headache and I don’t recommend it either.
Thanks for the prompt reply Mr. Verma,
I think my current plan is to get this card and then if it doesn’t work in solidworks then I guess I will buy another cheap quadro card. I know I can’t go with an rx 580, even though it has better value for a temporary card, because amd drivers are even worse for Solidworks. I’m just having doubts that the 1660 won’t crash when running solidworks, because the ryzen chip doesn’t have any integrated graphics or anything to fall back on. Do you have any advice for driver settings on the 1660 card for the best experience. Also if it doesn’t happen that the gtx card doesn’t run solidworks, what cheap nvidia quadro card would you recommend that would fill the rest of the budget (like $110). I could perhaps route both graphics cards to the same monitor with a splitter or switch, so I could switch between them. It would be a big pain though so any other option would be preferable.
Thanks in advance,
Kian
I suggest to use Nvidia Studio Drivers for workstation use. If you face any problem with GTX 1660 SUPER in solidworks then you can add a secondary quadro card. At around $110, you can get Quadro P400.
I am wondering if an M6000 12GB card would be a better choice than a P4000? Both are the same price-ish. Just wondering what your professional opinion is. Thank you very much.
I would prefer Quadro P4000 because of newer architecture and lower power consumption. The performance of both these cards are more or less the same.
I’m building a workstation with a budget of 1500 dollars, would you recommend me to go for the P4000 or use one of the newer RTX 3000 series graphics cards. Mostly would use for CAD. Any other card you think would suit me is also appreciated, thank you.
How much is your budget for the card? I think RTX 3070 would be better.
I wouldn’t want to go for anything higher than 750 dollars. So the 3070 or 3080 are better than a p4000at my budget?
RTX 3070 should be enough.
Hi there, We’ll be using a new mobile work station to video edit and render in DaVinci Resolve (free) 16.1 (probably in DR 17.0 after beta testing). We’d like to ensure we get bang for our bucks spent on CPU, GPU mostly used to video edit ensuring we have at least 16 GB RAM (probably get 32GB as RAM is not very expensive). We upload videos, once rendered to a server, so a large SSD isn’t required. 512GB is probably enough but if there’s a a good deal we’l consider a 1 TB.
I’m challenged comparing and contrasting the various NVIDEA Quadro GPUs. It’s not easy to ascertain how much better performance we should expect (and how much more $ to expect to pay for that added performance) progressing from a T1000 to a T2000 to an RTX 4000 to an RTX 5000. Will the RTX 5000 be 5x faster than the T1000? It seems the Geoforce is for light video editing while the RTX is for demanding 1080p and 4K projects? I’m also wondering if we just go with an Intel i9 (10th generation) CPU we should be fine? Do we really need to consider the Xeon chip? Thank you.
Well, for Davinci resolve I think you can go with the RTX 2070 too as it would be cheaper and will offer almost same performance. Regarding CPU, I would prefer Ryzen 9 3900X over the Core i9.
Hi Akshat, Thank you for vetting all this tech! I haven’t seen a comparison benchmark of the differences between the Quadro T1000, T2000, RTX 4000, and the RTX 5000 so I’m not sure how much better performance one should expect (and for how much more $$) progressing from the T1000-RTX 5000? I wasn’t sure if we would then need a 500 watt power supply? Will we also need the WindForece 3X cooling system to keep it cool while rendering? Thank you!
You will notice a massive performance improvement moving from Quadro T1000 to Quadro RTX 4000 / 5000
Thank you, Akshat.
I’ve read it’s key to have good airflow. The laptops ASUS ROG and Alienware have been mentioned having excellent heat sinks and air intakes.
I was focusing my attention of Lenovos and Dells but when I phone them both and also look on their specs pages they don’t provide much re: heat sinks and air intakes.
Can I depend on Lenovo and Dell to build-in good airflow? Or should I persevere with each until they share their exact heat sinks and air intakes?
Also, the RTX 2070 you recommended, how does that compare with the NIVIDEA RTX2080? Is the RTX 2070 the Quadro RTX2070 or the Geoforce RTX2070? Is the RTX2080TI the same graphics card?
It would be a bad idea to depend blindly on any brand. The performance order is RTX 2080 Ti > RTX 2080 > RTX 2070. In general, RTX 2070 is around 24% slower than RTX 2080 in gaming benchmarks.
So, RTX 2080 Ti is the best? How much faster would that be than the RTX 2080? Are we talking about Quadcores? Or are they Geoforce GPUs?
What are your thoughts re: cooling systems to look for?
Thank you
Well, RTX 2080 Ti is around 20% faster than RTX 2080. I am talking about GeForce GPUs.
I see. What would likely be the price difference between the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti -vs- the RTX 2080? I work at a rural public library video recording 15 – 30 minute videos we edit in DaVinci Resolve free so we do need a robust GPU to render the videos and we may need to render (one day) an hour video and may be using 4K one day but we look to save money if it makes sense but not to share dollars off a cost if it means sacrificing a lot of productivity or results in a laptop burning up because we didn’t get a good enough GPU. Heat is a great threat to laptops and we did burn one up, albeit that laptop didn’t have a separate GPU and ran on an iCore 7 not designed for video editing. Thank you!!
Can’t predict the exact price difference as of now because of too much volatility in the market. I think it should be around 300 dollars. For DaVinci Resolve, RTX 2080 should be sufficient especially with laptop because RTX 2080 Ti will run significantly hotter.
Thank you. The numbers can be confusing. Is Quadcore better then Geoforce? Is there BOTH a Geoforce AND a Quadcore RTX 2070, RTX 2080, RTX 2080Ti? Also is there a good forum like this which focuses on CPUs? I’m deep diving into the adv/disadvantages of the Ryzden you suggested -vs- iCore 9 (10th Generation). Thank you!
Quadro are workstation grade graphics cards and are expensive than their GeForce counterparts. GeForce is the name given for the mainstream or gaming range of graphics cards from Nvidia. Quadro RTX range is different from GeForce RTX range. There is Quadro RTX 4000, 5000, 6000, 8000 https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/design-visualization/quadro-desktop-gpus/
Well, we’re tying to build a mobile workstation video editing laptop. Would a Quadcore fit on a laptop or are they designed just for desktop workstations? Could we fit a Quadro RTX 4000 into a laptop? If so, what would the cost be for that? How would that price compare with a Geoforce RTX 2080 or Geoforce RTX 2080Ti for the laptop? You shared that the Geoforce RTX 2080Ti gets a lot hotter but is a lot faster than the Geoforce RTX 2070 or Geoforce RTX 2070 – how would one combat that extra heat? In video editing 30 minute – 1 hour videos, mostly rendering one video at time in DaVinci Resolve, I’m trying to evaluate what the added cost and speed would be compared with the Geoforce RTX 2070. Thank you!
You cannot add these cards to the laptop as you have to buy a laptop with the card itself. For DaVinci Resolve, RTX 2070 is good enough.
Thank you. Is there a more appropriate forum (this is graphics cards so I want to respect that) for a full discussion of the comparisons between the Ryzen 9 3900X -vs- the Core i9 for a mobile work station? I thought there was more liability with the iCore 9 since iCores have been dependable for many years, no? Thank you.
I think this can help https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-9_3900x-vs-intel-core_i7-9900k,6225.html
Reading that article, it seemed to suggest the iCore 9 was a better choice for gamers looking for the most FPS for high refresh rate gaming at 1080p. Doesn’t video editing need the most FPS (60) rendering at 1080p? I like that the AMD ships all its processors with a bundled cooler to keep at least the CPU cooler. I’m not sure if that translates into a cooler laptop when rendering in DaVinci Resolve? Thank you.
Video editing requires more cores.
Hi Akshat,
I hope you’re enjoying a good new year.
Just catching up with a lot of my reading. It seems you’re recommending the NVIDIA Geoforce 2070 over any of the Quadcores.
Is that correct?
I though the Quadcores were the more robust, faster GPUs of the NVIDIA graphic cards?
We’ll be rendering and editing in DVinci Resolve 16.1 (17.0 eventually) on a mobile workstation, not a desktop.
Thank you.
You mean Quadro? Yes Quadro cards are optimized for workstation or creative software but they are quite expensive and you can get almost the same level of performance from a similar Geforce card. GeForce RTX 2070 is pretty good foe Davinci Resolve for 4K projects.
That’s interesting because I got a Lenovo mobile work station ThinkPad P15 price quote for $2,779.00 with a Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 with 6GB VRAM and 32GB RAM and a 1 TB SDD drive compared to the Lenovo Thinkpad priced at with a GeForce RTX2070 6GB VRAM 32GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD priced at $3.975.00. So, the GeFroce was priced about$1,200 more than the Quadro. Why would a less robust considered GeForce cost more than the Quadro? Thank you.
Technically, RTX 2070 is a better card. Check comparison at https://www.notebookcheck.net/GeForce-RTX-2070-Laptop-vs-Quadro-RTX-3000-Laptop_9551_9854.247598.0.html. However, witch such a large price difference, I would prefer the machine with Quadro RTX 3000, especially for workstation purposes.
It seems like we may go the route of a desktop workstation (cf. mobile). Which graphics cards would you suggest for video editing for a desktop as opposed to the mobile? We won;t have to worry about a graphics card fitting on the chassis as can be the case with a mobile work station. Thank you.
I would suggest RTX 3060 Ti but it is very hard to find one in stock.
Since the RTX 3060 is hard to find, what would be your 2nd and 3rd choices?
Thanks.
I would say RTX 2080 or RTX 2070 SUPER.
Would the RTX 3070 be a good alternative?
Thank you!
Yes, but it is also harder to find.
Thank you so much!
Sorry I accidently hit send when I wasn’t done typing. The M5000 is probably one of the best values on this list if you get a good used one, which I have seen them go for $400-$500. The Quadro RTX 4000 is arguably better than the WX 7100 for single slot, due to the GDDR6 memory, 13,000 MHz base clock speed, 416.0 memory bandwidth, 106.9% faster in synthetic tests, and 12 nm. It’s a little more expensive, but we’re just talking about the beast. And why isn’t the RTX A6000 on this list? I’m pretty sure it’s currently the fastest workstation GPU on the market. (delete my previous messages if you can)
Yes, QUADRO RTX A6000 is probably the fastest workstation card. The thing is I haven’t updated the article since the release of RTX cards because of their availability issues.
Hi Akshat,
Hope you’re doing well.
I’ve been using DaVinci Resolve 16 Free on an older Dell Laptop – Latitude E6540 with an i7 and 8 GB RAM. I can do some editing but rendering is out of the question. During some editing, DR will suddenly display Not Responding prompting me to consider that maybe I need a separate graphics card to even edit in DR?
I’m on an extremely limited budget where I would have to supplant this laptop with a laptop with a graphics card installed and pay for that out-of-pocket with no reimbursement as my person laptop. I can only dream of an NVidea 2070.
Would you please share your thoughts on a bare bones video editing laptop with the least expensive graphics card which would still enable me to at least edit in DR? Is it possible to get a laptop with that capability for under $1,000?
Thank you!
Well, Davinci is quite GPU intensive and has pretty huge system requirements overall. The best laptop that I can recommend in your budget is the HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop – 16-a0097nr. You can check specs and more at https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-pavilion-gaming-laptop-16-a0097nr?jumpid=ma_weekly-deals_product-tile_laptops_2_2z778ua_hp-pavilion-gaming-l
Thank you!
I’m exploring whether I can add a separate graphics card to my Dell Latitude E6540 laptop running W10 Pro 64 and which ones I could add.
I called Dell who said my laptop is over 6 years old so they don’t offer tech support for it any longer and it came loaded with W7 originally.
They don’t stock the GPU recommend for this laptop which they said is an AMD Radeon H 8790M Graphics 2 GB GDDR5.
Since the laptop has a slot on the motherboard for a GPU could I just add ANY GPU?
Could I add an NVIDEA GeForce T1000, T2000 or an RTX 2070?
If not, what’s best GPU I could add to this laptop to help with DaVinci Resolve Free video editing? I won’t try to Render on this laptop, just learn to use and edit in DR on this laptop.
Thank you!
Is it an MXM Type-A or Type-B slot. Check this https://graphicscardhub.com/mxm-graphics-card-gpu-list/
It seems the GPU is soldered on to the main board, no slot.
With that, I’ll turn my focus to the least expensive desktops I could buy enabling me to video edit with DaVinci Resolve Free 16 or 17. Which ones would you please recommend? Please feel fee to share any link to your recommendations for least expensive desktops to be used for video editing with DaVinci Resolve if you’ve entertained that conversation recently. Thank you so much!
What is your budget for the Desktop?
Well, it would be for personal use so I’m wondering what specs I would get for under $1,000 for $1,000 and for $1,500 which would include the best graphics card for each since that seems the determining factor in editing and rendering in DR. Thanks so much!
Look for this model on amazon.
iBUYPOWER Gaming PC Computer Desktop Element MR 9320 (Intel i7-10700F 2.9GHz, NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 240GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Wi-Fi Ready, Windows 10 Home)
How would a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 stack up against the NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti 6GB? Seems like the MSIs offer those on desktops on New Egg. Thank you!
Well, RTX 2060 is better but if the price difference is significant then go with GTX 1660 Ti only.
Hi Akshat,
Would you please share your thoughts and suggestions re: thse 4 PCs I’m considering for video editing with DaVinci Resolve?
Thank you!
1. https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/desktops-all-in-one-pcs/xps-tower-special-edition/spd/xps-8940-desktop/cto8940w10pcml4h
XPS Tower Special Edition $1,349.10
10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-10700 processor(8-Core, 16M Cache, 2.9GHz to 4.8GHz)
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit English
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2060 6GB GDDR6
2. https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/desktops-all-in-one-pcs/alienware-aurora-r12-gaming-desktop/spd/alienware-aurora-r12-desktop/wdaurr1220hsb
ALIENWARE AURORA R12 GAMING DESKTOP Estimated Value $1,989.99
11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 11700F (8-Core, 16MB Cache, 2.5GHz to 4.9GHz w/Intel® Turbo Boost Max)
Videocard NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6
Memory 16GB Single Channel DDR4 XMP at 3200MHz; up to 128GB (additional memory sold separately)
Low-Profile Smart Cooling CPU Heatsink and 550W Power Supply
3. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops-and-all-in-ones/legion-desktops/legion-t-series-towers/Lenovo-Legion-T5-28IMB05/p/99LE9500351
Legion Tower 5i Gaming Desktop – Starting at: $1,649.99
Up to 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 processors
Up to Ampere-based NVIDIA® GeForce™ 30 Series graphics
Sleek & minimalist design with aRGB Cooling
4. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops-and-all-in-ones/legion-desktops/legion-t-series-towers/Lenovo-Legion-T7-34IMZ5/p/90Q80002US
$1,859.99
Up to 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i9K processors
Up to Ampere-based NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 20 Series graphics
Optional RGB Liquid cooling
This one looks very good overall https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops-and-all-in-ones/legion-desktops/legion-t-series-towers/Lenovo-Legion-T7-34IMZ5/p/90Q80002US
Of the 5 desktops we’re discuisiing, which has the best (fastest, most robust) Graphcs card?
1. RTX 2060
2. RTX 3060Ti
3. GeFroce 30
4. RTX 20
– Also, your recommended Lenovo Legion Tower has the same RTX 20 as the #4 I listed but are you thinkig ti’s better becuasde of the i9 CPU? Or toehr specs you feel make it the better choices? It’s about $500 more than the 4 I listed so I’m trying to ascertain what makes it worh the extra $500?
Thank you!
What are the third and fourth options?
3. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops-and-all-in-ones/legion-desktops/legion-t-series-towers/Lenovo-Legion-T5-28IMB05/p/99LE9500351
Legion Tower 5i Gaming Desktop – Starting at: $1,649.99
Up to 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 processors
Up to Ampere-based NVIDIA® GeForce™ 30 Series graphics
Sleek & minimalist design with aRGB Cooling
Available with Windows Pro
4. Legion Tower 7i Intel Gaming Desktop PC | Lenovo US
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops-and-all-in-ones/legion-desktops/legion-t-series-towers/Lenovo-Legion-T7-34IMZ5/p/90Q80002US
Up to 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i9K processors
Up to Ampere-based NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 20 Series graphics
Fully future-proof your build with the Z490 motherboard allowing for expansion.
Optional RGB Liquid cooling
Starting at:$1,859.99
Thank you!
RTX 3070 is the most powerful card here but I think RTX 2080 SUPER with Core i9 is a very good combination.
Hi Akshat,
The RTX 3070 nor the RTX 2080 SUPER aren’t loaded on the Legion Tower 7i Intel Gaming Desktop.
How does the Legion Tower 7i with its RTX™ 20 Series compare with either/both of those graphics cards (namely the RTX 3070 and the RTX 2080 SUPER)?
Are they 18% faster or 50% faster? Run cooler?
You noted in a prior post that of the 4 choices I listed the 4th (the Legion Tower 7i) would be your preferred choice? Does that mean its RTX™ 20 Series is better than Legion Tower 5i with a GeForce™ 30 Series?
Also, why do you consider the RTX™ 20 Series better than the Dell XPS Tower Special Edition with a GeForce RTX™ 2060 and/or better than the ALIENWARE AURORA R12 GAMING DESKTOP with a GeForce RTX™ 3060 Ti?
If the focus should be specifically on getting a desktop with the RTX 3070 graphics card, is there a desktop with those specs you can please recommend?
Thank you!
Well, RTX 20 series is not a graphics card but a series of graphics cards. I think you are getting confused. Please list all the four graphics cards and then I will you tell you.
Here’s the 4 PC Desktop choices again.
I’m trying to ascertain which would be the best choice to buy?
You commented that #4 would be best of those 4 but then referred to a Graphics Card that isn’t loaded with that PC choice. Then, you commented that :This one looks very good overall https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops-and-all-in-ones/legion-desktops/legion-t-series-towers/Lenovo-Legion-T7-34IMZ5/p/90Q80002US – It’s not one of the 4 choices I submitted but are you saying it’s a better choice than the 4 I submitted for your opinion? If so, what makes that PC better? Is it that it has Ampere-based NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 20 – a SERIES of graphics cards and not just one graphics card?
You then commented that “RTX 3070 is the most powerful card here but I think RTX 2080 SUPER with Core i9 is a very good combination” but none of the 4 choices I submitted have either of the other graphics cards you recommended.
So, I’m trying to ascertain if I should buy the PC you preferred with has the Series 20 or look for desktop PCs (other than the 4 I submitted) which are loaded with RTX 2080 SUPER with Core i9 ?
Thank you!!
The fourth choice does have RTX 2080 SUPER listed in the specs at https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops-and-all-in-ones/legion-desktops/legion-t-series-towers/Lenovo-Legion-T7-34IMZ5/p/90Q80002US
My bad! I just saw the ad lead. I’m concerned that #4 choice only comes with ™ i7-10700K Processor and not an I9 + is loaded with W10 Home and not W10 Pro. They include 2 hard drives when one SSD would do as so much of our videos will be stored on an external hard drives (2TB). I’m not sure if they would substitute an i9 CPU for those 2 hard drives? Has your experience been they will swap like that? Thank you!
Can’t say but you can ask the company.
I see 2 Lenovo Legion Tower desktops for sale. The Part # 90Q80000US has the NVIDEA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB while the 90JF00AMUS has the NVIDEA GeForce RTX 2080 GB. What’s the difference between these 2 graphics cards? Thank you!
RTX 2080 SUPER is about 7% (on average) faster than the RTX 2080.
Thank you for sharing that.
Is there much difference in performance between the 11th Generation iCore i9-11900f (Lenovo) vs Dell’s 9th Generation i9-9900k with vPro?
Thank you again.
Well, Core i9 11900F is about 25% faster (on average) than Core i9 9900K.
Thank you!
How would the i9-11900f compare with the i9-10900K?
Thank you again!
Not much of a difference. In fact, Core i9 10900K will perform better in multithreaded applications because of the extra two cores.
Hi Akshat, Thanks for your additional thoughts. For budget reasons, we’re also considering this
https://deals.dell.com/en-us/productdetail/8f2q
I’m wondering if DaVinco Resolve would Render a lot slower (or edit slower) with this desktop’s 10th Gen i7-10700 CPU (8 core) than a desktop loaded with an i9?
Say, the Core i9 11900F?
Thank you for your thoughts.
Well, the desktop looks adequate and i7-10700 is a pretty good CPU.
Currently I have a Taichi X370 board with 32gb of 3200mhz ddr4, and a ryzen 1700 8 core cpu, the GPU is a MSI 1070 G1. Although this system works very well with resolve, I find myself doing allot of RAW photo editing in darktable these days. It works fine for basic grading, but get sticky/slow once I start playing with Local Contrast settings. Which if any sub $1000 gpu’s can handle this kind of task with fluidity? I want to have real time results as I slide the levels so I can get the best possible image without pulling out what little hair I have left.
I think a better CPU is needed more than the card.
Thanks for the reply Akshat Verma. A 12 core or 16 core CPU was my original plan, until I came along your thread, and begun to wonder if a dedicated workstation card would be a better option. I am overclocking the current cpu and memory quite a bit, and there is a notable improvement, but it almost seems overclocking the memory to around 3600mhz yields more real world results than overclocking the cpu to 3.850 ghz. Would you suggest sticking with a AM4 board and going 12 or 16 core, or for the results I am after do I need to invest more and go for a TR4 board with more cores? I am entering the rhelm of professional photography, and have a very low tolerance for lag while editing. Thanks again.
No need to go with TR4 platform. I think AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT will be enough but make sure that your motherboard should be able to support it.
Thanks again, any thoughts on memory speed vs more memory? ie 4000mhz vs 64gb of 3400mhz ?
Won’t make any difference and I would prefer 3400MHz only.
Hello Akshat,
I am not computer expert!
I use my current Dell 3420 Fixed Workstation for AutoCAD 2022 and SkethcUp 2021 drawing. It contains an i7-7700 cpu @4.2 GHz, Nvidia M4000 8 GB graphics card, 32 GB installed RAM.
This computer works very well, but is six years old…I am considering an upgrade and wonder, based upon the above configuration, if you have a preferred CPU and graphics card relationship? I read from your very informative suggestions above.
Michael
Frankly, I do not see any need for an upgrade as your CPU and GPU match perfectly with each other. For a CPU upgrade, you have to change your motherboard too which is quite a cumbersome task. Also, the graphics card you currently have is quite good for your current tasks but if you want to step up then you can have a look at Quadro P4000.
Hello Akshat,
NVIDIA Quadro M1000M 2GB is outdated for today if i want to use premiere pro?
thanks,
Nikita
Yes, but it can perform pretty well in less intensive workloads.
Hello,
Which would be better for AutoCAD (2D/3D), the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, or the Quadro M6000 12GB? The M6000 12GB is less expensive than the 3060 and easier to obtain. Would performance be similar, or would it be noticeably different?
Thank you.
I think NVIDIA Quadro M6000 would be better.
Thank you. What about the M4000 8GB compared to the 3060?
RTX 3060 will be faster but M4000 can have better stability and support in some applications.
Help,
I’ve been looking for an expert. I think I found one.
I’m looking to silently power 2 – 5K 49″ 120 Hz DisplayPort widescreen monitors for financial productivity. No gaming.
Charts that get updated every second but nowhere near the excitement of even the slowest game.
What would you recommend in a quiet value card.
Thanks in advance.
I suggest NVIDIA T600.
Hi, I work with someone who does quite a lot of video editing and uses primarily Adobe software such as Premier Pro and Lightroom. The person is not a professional graphics artist, and is not a professional engineer needing CAD for example. The current hardware system has a SuperMicro motherboard and an Intel Xeon E5-xxxx (I think the E5-2640v4) processor with a quite old Nvidia graphics card, either a GTX 1070 or GTX 1080. The graphics card is water cooled with a hardware kit from EKWB. I built this system and it usually works well for the customer, who especially appreciates the quiet liquid cooling. It is a few years old now. I sometimes get complaints that the system slows down on occasion. The person using this system would like an upgrade to a more capable video card for the software. I would be okay with replacing the motherboard, processor, and memory as well. I would like to liquid cool a new graphics card to keep the system as quiet as possible. What graphics card would you suggest replacing the GTX 1070 with?
Hello, I think GTX 1070/1080 is enough for the video editing software you mentioned. It would be much better to upgrade to a better CPU like Intel Core i9-12900K or AMD Ryzen 9 7900X with 64GB RAM or more.
Thank you so much!
Do you think that a motherboard that can take ECC memory is important for video editing? It looks like the “ASUS ProArt Z690-Creator” motherboard only supports non-ECC memory. Supermicro does sell motherboards for Core i9 which accept ECC memory.
For video editing, ECC memory is not important.
Tech at work bought this desktop (specs below) so I had no say. Will I be able to edit and
render in DR 18 for Windows 10 with this? Or should I expect Not Responding frequently?
Lenovo – Legion Tower 5i Gaming Desktop – Intel Core i5-11400 – 8GB Memory – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super – 512GB SSD – Raven Black
Model:90RS001UUS Processor Speed (up to) 2.6 gigahertz
System Memory (RAM) 8 gigabytes
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER
Operating System Windows 11 Home
System Memory RAM Speed 3200 megahertz
Well, to be honest, the system is not good enough for DaVinci Resolve 18.
Hi Askat, How could I improve it so it would run DR 18?
Could I swap out that graphics card for a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti an d then I’d be better positioned for DR 18?
Might there be be a more affordable NVIDIA card which would be OK for DR 18?
Or it the i5 CPU the problem?
Thank you.
Well, RTX 3060 Ti, 16GB RAM, and a Core i7 will be needed.
How can I verify that a RTX 3060 Ti could be installed after I remove the GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER?
Would that be enough to then run DR 18?
Thank you.
Well, if it supports GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER, it should be able to run RTX 3060 Ti too. Make sure that you have 600W PSU and sufficient clearance in the PC Case to accommodate the RTX 3060 Ti model you buy.
How can I ensure *before* we order the RTX 3060 Ti that we have 600W PSU on this Lenovo? Will that be stared in the Specs on the Best Buy Web page or will I need to visit Lenovo? As far as sufficient clearance in the PC Case to accommodate the RTX, how can I determine the physical size specs for the RTX 3060 Ti before we buy that? Will that be shared on the NVIVIA Web site for the RTX 3060 Ti? Thank you.
You need to check the Computer Specs (Lenovo model in this case) for the PSU details and PC Case clearance. You can check the specs online (if provided) or you can ask the manufacturer.
Thank you for your kind help.
You are always welcome!
Videomaker News chose 2 Dell desktops as best performance workstation and best budget desktop for video editing but with only $120 difference wouldn’t’ the Dell Precision 3660 be a better buy for the RTX A2000 graphics card alone? I’m not sure how much you suffer with the NVIDIA Quadro P620 graphics and a 10th Gen iCore 7 versus a 12th Gen?
Best performance workstation – Dell Precision 3660 $1,299.00 at B&H Video
the 12th generation Intel Core i7-12700 processor handles demanding applications with eight Performance-cores while the four Efficiency-cores handle multitasking and background tasks. Together with the 16GB of DDR5-4400 memory and the 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD
Built on the NVIDIA Ampere GPU architecture, the RTX A2000 graphics card is designed to deliver exceptional performance in addition to features such as real-time ray tracing and artificial intelligence. It includes 104 third-generation Tensor Cores, 3328 CUDA cores and 6GB of ECC GDDR6 memory to help deliver error-free computing.
Best budget workstation – Dell Precision 3450 $1,178.99 at B&H Video Intel Core i7-10700 (10th Gen) – CPU 2.9 to 4.8 GHz 8-Core NVIDIA Quadro P620 graphics L3 Cache 16 MB Memory Type 2933 MHz DDR4 Total Installed Memory 16 GB.
Are there better performing desktops for the same price range as these?
Thank you.
I think Dell Precision 3660 is worth the price because of the significantly better processor (Core i7-12700) and graphics card (RTX A2000).
MSI GE76 Raider Gaming Laptop – 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H – GeForce RTX 3060 – 144HZ 1080p
Item 1642117 Model Raider GE76 12UE-456 at Costco for $1,349.99 is that a good video editing PC for the buck? Thank you.
I would say Dell Precision 3660 is a much better deal.
So, between the Desktop Precision 3660 -vs- the laptop MSI GE76 is what makes the Dell a better deal that the graphics card (RTX A2000) is better than the MSI’s graphic card GeForce RTX 3060?
I thought the GeForce RTX 3060 was a good graphics card? Or are the GeForce graphics cards just minimum for video editing and gaming? Thank you!
Although RTX 3060 is more powerful, RTX A2000 is a workstation card and will be more stable and compatible with creator software. If you also want to do gaming besides video editing, you may opt for RTX 3060.
I’ve been reading on reddit and Quota but no one really knows how to explain EXACTLY what the CPU, GPU and RAM do in the DaVinci Resolve video editing process. I thought you needed RAM to open and run other applications like Audacity, GIMP, Irfanview as you Import files from those programs into DR? So, if you only have DR open why do you need RAM at all? CPU – what does that do in the video editing process – tell the Inspector, Edit Page, Effects and other tools of DR what to do? And the GPU is responsible for opening mp4, .PNG, jpg files in DR and allowing you to edit those graphic files? Just curious.
It is hard to tell how a particular software utilizes RAM, GPU, and CPU. However, in general, RAM is used to store the chunk of data that is to be made available for CPU and GPU. CPU handles particular instructions (math related etc.) while GPU handles or processes data related to graphics (vectors, codecs, etc.)
I am building a new desktop workstation. I will use it for CAD (Turbocad 2023), video editing (Video Studio 2023) as well as general office stuff.
I have 2 4k monitors and one QHD (2560 x 1440) monitor. I’d like to be able to add a 4th monitor at some point. Processor is Intel Core i9-13900K.
I have a $1k budget for a video card, if necessary, but I don’t have to spend it all.
My current system is running this software and monitors, but is getting too slow, particularly for CAD. It was built in 2014, and uses an Intel i7-3770 and a Quadro K2200. What can you recommend for the new system? Too many choices out there!
Thank you!
Upgrading the processor will benefit you more. The below-mentioned components including GPU will fit in 1K dollars:
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 8-Core, 16-Thread Processor
MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK Motherboard
Corsair VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 3600MHz RAM
Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.C CPU Air Cooler
NVIDIA RTX A2000 Graphics Card
Is this list updated? Where does the W6600 fit?
Need to update it. W6600 fits in the mid-range segment.