Quadro VS GeForce

[Nikolaj]

Hi!
I intend to build my own HDV-editing system.
Does anyone know what, more specifically, will work better / smoother if I have a NVIDIA Quadro card in my computer instead of, say, a NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT? I read something about "Quadro cards being optimized for this kind of work" but what does that mean?

And another thing: I hope to play demanding games on this computer too. Anyone has any experience combining these two activities (gaming and editing)?

[fixitinpost]

For video, it really doesn't matter which card you use, unless you use GPU intensive plugins like Magic Bullet (latest version). Quadro cards are, I believe, optimized for OpenGL, etc. This will play heavier in 3-d work, and perhaps After Effects (not sure on this one).

For gaming, though, I'd definitely go with the 7800. Ok, I'd actually get an ATI card, but I'm biased. :thumbsup:

[Nikolaj]

OK, thanks for the info. So the output from the timeline is not affected by which card I choose?
Nikolaj

[matthewd5]

i don't have the link handy but adobe has a list of supported cards and they even explain what is supported.

here is the adobe link for after effects recommended video cards, it should be a decent guide...

http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/opengl.html

also, the speed of the card as it interfaces to the computer is very important.

i had a semi-killer system...

dual xeon 3.06 533fsb 4gig of ram, 10krpm boot drive and a raid 5 (3ware controller) but it only did pci x
i had the quadro fx 1100 card

i just upgraded primarily to use the recommended card...

dual xeon 3.4 800 mhz fsb, 4 gig of ram, 10k rpm boot drive, same raid 5 - 3ware 9500 card with battery backup.

i now have the quadro fx 1400 card which is pci x 16

i went with the asus nct-d motherboard because i absolutely love my antec p160 case (it is almost silent and has excellent heat/airflow properties and any other motherboard that does dual 800 mhz fsb requires a special case.

the machine is at leat 2x faster than before.

part of that is because the new motherboard supports faster dual channel memory.

i use both magic bullet for editors (premiere pro 2) and magic bullet suite for After Effects Pro 7.0

matthew