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CAD GPU
- Thread starter andicole0
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- 23 Oct 2013
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- 1,250
It's been many years since I looked into this (probably about 10), but from what I remember... historically cad used to use OpenGL instead of DirectX, and some still do (thus the SpecViewPerf benchmarks). I can't remember whether OpenGL wasn't a completely nailed down standard, or whether some functionality wasn't deemed necessary for day-to-day use - but afaik general gaming gpu's didn't fully comply to the standard, but Quadro card did, thus their "recommendation" for cad use where precision and accuracy is arguably needed more than gaming, as there wasn't a fear that certain computational calculations might not be performed as expected. (well, let me re-phrase that, the gaming drivers weren't as good/complete as the Quadro drivers - back in the day the cards were so identical the GeForce cards could be flashed to become a Quadro... It's basically the Quadro drivers are tailored and tweaked to excel in OpenGL.)
Now, from what I remember, before Vista was released it was announced to only work with M$ certified drivers, and thus there were concerns/questions whether OpenGL would even be allowed, only DirectX. So Autodesk moved Inventor and AutoCAD from OpenGL to DirectX. While Autodesk was doing this work, there was enough backlash that M$ caved and allowed OpenGL on Vista, thus leaving most cad in OpenGL, but Autodesk is DirectX. Autodesk also benefit from other perks being DirectX over OpenGL, as they "only" require WHQL certified drivers which means they no longer need to check every major card with each driver version to provide a certified list.
But, I can understand that Autodesk (or any cad company) wouldn't officially state this, as it would p-off Nvidia/ATI if they told customers there's no need to buy the massively marked up "CAD" cards and a gaming one would suffice, as that's potentially going to directly harm the gpu manufacturer's profits...
An Autodesk Inventor programmer wrote an in-depth reply about their reasons to swap from OpenGL to DirectX back in 2006-2007ish:
https://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/files/autodesk_inventor_opengl_to_directx_evolution_788.pdf
As proof that in Autodesk applications, there's no real benefit from a CAD card over a gaming one, check the AutoCAD results graph at the bottom of the review's page:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/amd-radeon-vega-frontier-edition-16gb,review-33968-6.html
Quadro P6000 & P5000 were pretty much the same as a 1080ti, with a 1080 not far behind.
Basically, for Autodesk software, (assuming nothing major has changed in the last 5-8 years) there's no longer a NEED or real benefit using certified Quadro cards. (but there might be for OpenGL CAD software like Solidworks)
Now, from what I remember, before Vista was released it was announced to only work with M$ certified drivers, and thus there were concerns/questions whether OpenGL would even be allowed, only DirectX. So Autodesk moved Inventor and AutoCAD from OpenGL to DirectX. While Autodesk was doing this work, there was enough backlash that M$ caved and allowed OpenGL on Vista, thus leaving most cad in OpenGL, but Autodesk is DirectX. Autodesk also benefit from other perks being DirectX over OpenGL, as they "only" require WHQL certified drivers which means they no longer need to check every major card with each driver version to provide a certified list.
But, I can understand that Autodesk (or any cad company) wouldn't officially state this, as it would p-off Nvidia/ATI if they told customers there's no need to buy the massively marked up "CAD" cards and a gaming one would suffice, as that's potentially going to directly harm the gpu manufacturer's profits...
An Autodesk Inventor programmer wrote an in-depth reply about their reasons to swap from OpenGL to DirectX back in 2006-2007ish:
https://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/files/autodesk_inventor_opengl_to_directx_evolution_788.pdf
As proof that in Autodesk applications, there's no real benefit from a CAD card over a gaming one, check the AutoCAD results graph at the bottom of the review's page:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/amd-radeon-vega-frontier-edition-16gb,review-33968-6.html
Quadro P6000 & P5000 were pretty much the same as a 1080ti, with a 1080 not far behind.
Basically, for Autodesk software, (assuming nothing major has changed in the last 5-8 years) there's no longer a NEED or real benefit using certified Quadro cards. (but there might be for OpenGL CAD software like Solidworks)
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Apr 2014
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- Hampshire
It's mostly a software limitation than hardware. Drivers are optimised for compute performance, rather than gaming.
Similar reason why quadro cards aren't as good for gaming - they're powerful enough to be, but poor driver support for games.
As long as you're not working on assemblies with hundreds of parts, and looking to render, you'll be absolutely fine on a GTX980
Similar reason why quadro cards aren't as good for gaming - they're powerful enough to be, but poor driver support for games.
As long as you're not working on assemblies with hundreds of parts, and looking to render, you'll be absolutely fine on a GTX980