cool n' quiet workstation card (FireGL, Quadro)?

Konnetikut · Post by **Konnetikut** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:15 pm

do any of you know which workstation card might
be worth of spcr status? hopefully less than 500 but
workstation cards are so expensive

kater · Post by **kater** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:21 pm

actually, i know v little about workstation vga cards, but would like to share some info on a heatsink sitting on a particular card - the nvidia quadro fx 4500 - it uses the same heatsink as 7900gtx which i happen to own. i had many vga cards and some aftermarket coolers on them and i can say this heatsink is by far the best factory active cooling system for vga cards, especially strong cards. it's quieter than a zalman vf 700 and on par with vf 900. i don't know how much power you need - maybe you'll be fine with a card like quadro nvs 280, which uses a passive cooler. hope this helps, a bit.

Konnetikut · Post by **Konnetikut** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 10:55 pm

thanks for the reply.
I'm not too sure about the NVS 280. It seems to be the very lowest I can get. What can it do?

anyone else?

threevok · Post by **threevok** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:46 am

I'm using an ATI FireGL V3400 PCI-E that I got on eBay for $61 including shipping. According to ATITool it idles at 40c and reaches 54c under load. The fan spins at 26% and has never ramped up. I can't hear it.

3DMARK06 score is about 2000. V3300 and V3100 will be very lame. V3400 is entry level. There's one on eBay now; search FIRE GL in video cards. You will need to search FIREGL and FIRE GL to catch them all.

The NVS series is not really a workstation card in the 3D sense. What program are you running?

roadie · Post by **roadie** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:02 am

I have a PNY Quadro NVS 285 in my computer at the moment, as my X1900 is away for RMA. I bought it for Â£25. It's passive and runs at about 60 degrees idle. It scored 1100 in 3dmark05, which is pretty pathetic but it is fine for desktop use.

kater · Post by **kater** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:04 am

tom's hrdwr has just launched a script for comparing workstation vga cards

www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_ws2007.html

Konnetikut · Post by **Konnetikut** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:13 pm

kater wrote:tom's hrdwr has just launched a script for comparing workstation vga cards

www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_ws2007.html

thanks for that link.

Does anyone know someplace in Canada carrying a good stock of ws cards?