Question about GPU and workstation cards

Okay, let me see if I can explain this. My girlfriend is interning at a broadcasting stationa nd she is about to go to college for film. They use a video editor called Media Composer 6 by Avid. It normally cost $2500 (I know, are you kidding me?), but if you have a valid student ID, then you can get it for only $300. This si wha she wants, so I will get it for her, but there is ne issue. I messaged AVid about how my card would work for this video editing and their response was pretty rude. I have a GTX 580 SC and when I told them what card I had he said:

Although expensive, it's not supported. Avid only qualifies the nVidia Quadro & Quadro FX series. Bad assumption. The Avid code exploits Quadro and Quadro FX Open GL

Maybe he is confused, or just wants me to buy somethig I don't need. No idea. Here is my question, does a workstation card really do things that much better then my card? If I need one, which one do you recommend. I also have the i5-2500k at stock, but since this is video editing, I might either overclock, or should I just get whatever is the best new processor like the i7-2600k? I have been out of the loop for a few months, so help me guys! Thanks.

If I understand correctly, quaddro cards and those other rediculously expensive cards are actually mostly the same as a gaming card. They use the same gpu, but might have more VRAM and a slightly different PCB and BIOS that allows the card to run highly optimized software. Some of the older radeon cards could be flashed into the workstation variant, but I don't think it's possible with modern cards.

It's an arbitrary distinction, but they do it so they can fund their teams to do nothing but optimize the hell out of drivers designated to only the high end graphic design cards, when in theory the gaming cards would do just as well thanks to hardware similarities.

The guy is right, workstation cards rip through encoding/decoding, if you have any CAD program, run a render and watch, takes forever.

You dont need a better CPU, it wont do anything, even an i3 paired with a workstation card is fine. The card does all the work.

Just for a simple example, download Design Garage from Nvidia's website, and set everything to max, and render.

All I really need is for the card to be able to edit videos using this program. I don't see how a GTX 580 cannot do the same thing for just editing videos. Maybe I need to know more about how the card helps render or something? I'm just getting on edge because I'd like this done as soon as possible for her. LordsLoss

:(Would this card work as a pretty good workstation card? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133382&Tpk=quadro%202000d

You dont need a Quadro card. Yes, it makes things nicer, but its not required.

Why isn't your girlfriend getting financial aide/getting stuff herself? It's the 21st century, women are powerful and independent and are capable of taking care of themselves. :lol:

With that being said, I think the difference in price is mostly the drivers, which cost a lot more to develop per unit sold than the geforce series.

You could try and buy a quaddro off of ebay for a decent bit, the software may or may not work on your card, you might want to check specialized forums for the answer to that.

Well, I'm downloading the 30 day trial now, so we can see how this goes. Nailed, maybe some people were not gifted with having a family to help pay for everything, and seeing how she is still in high school, she is not free of her parental grasp. I came from a wealthy family and can afford to help her on her career path, so shut up.

Well, I'm downloading the 30 day trial now, so we can see how this goes. Nailed, maybe some people were not gifted with having a family to help pay for everything, and seeing how she is still in high school, she is not free of her parental grasp. I came from a wealthy family and can afford to help her on her career path, so shut up.

LordsLoss

Also I was joking around, of course your girlfriend wants you to buy her stuff, that's how girlfriend work.

At what point did I turn this into a blog post? Your post did not sound like a joke, but if it was then sorry for what I said. I just posted my situation, and wanted advice on what exactly to do. LordsLoss

Do you see the emoticon? What do you think that is there for?

Quadro does not help video editing. It helps 3D & filter effect rendering. Unless your transcoding using a program that utilizes CUDA . But, most mid to high end Geforce cards have multiple the amount of CUDA cores than the best Quadro card.. And as long as the Geforce card has equal or better amount of memory along with bandwidth and more cuda cores then a Geforce card will be generally better.

Quadro does not help video editing. It helps 3D & filter effect rendering. Unless your transcoding using a program that utilizes CUDA . But, most mid to high end Geforce cards have multiple the amount of CUDA cores than the best Quadro card.. And as long as the Geforce card has equal or better amount of memory along with bandwidth and more cuda cores then a Geforce card will be generally better.

04dcarraher

That isn't necessarily true. It's all about how they write their software, there may be a function that they have that uses something that only the quadro has support for.

Well with my slow end bandwidth the trial download will take around 3 hours. I'll let you know if my card works. If not, I'll be back for recommendations. LordsLoss

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"]

Quadro does not help video editing. It helps 3D & filter effect rendering. Unless your transcoding using a program that utilizes CUDA . But, most mid to high end Geforce cards have multiple the amount of CUDA cores than the best Quadro card.. And as long as the Geforce card has equal or better amount of memory along with bandwidth and more cuda cores then a Geforce card will be generally better.

NailedGR

That isn't necessarily true. It's all about how they write their software, there may be a function that they have that uses something that only the quadro has support for.

[QUOTE="NailedGR"]

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"]

Quadro does not help video editing. It helps 3D & filter effect rendering. Unless your transcoding using a program that utilizes CUDA . But, most mid to high end Geforce cards have multiple the amount of CUDA cores than the best Quadro card.. And as long as the Geforce card has equal or better amount of memory along with bandwidth and more cuda cores then a Geforce card will be generally better.

04dcarraher

That isn't necessarily true. It's all about how they write their software, there may be a function that they have that uses something that only the quadro has support for.

Ok, so it will be a big increase or just a small one?

Ok, so it will be a big increase or just a small one?

LordsLoss

I installed the trial version and it will not load out all. I did a clean install and everything a second time. When I click on the program it begins to startup, then it goes to a black screen and freezes. If I click anywhere it says Avid is not responding and then I have to close it. Can it be my card? Even the customer support person replied and said my card would work. Any other idea? I have 16gig of ram so it can't be that. Everything else is working fine. Edit: I asked in their forum if I need the newest drivers to get it to work. They replied and said I do not need the newest drivers, only the correct drivers and I would need to experiment. What does this mean? Do I have to revert back to an older driver or just install the newest ones?LordsLoss

[QUOTE="LordsLoss"]I installed the trial version and it will not load out all. I did a clean install and everything a second time. When I click on the program it begins to startup, then it goes to a black screen and freezes. If I click anywhere it says Avid is not responding and then I have to close it. Can it be my card? Even the customer support person replied and said my card would work. Any other idea? I have 16gig of ram so it can't be that. Everything else is working fine. Edit: I asked in their forum if I need the newest drivers to get it to work. They replied and said I do not need the newest drivers, only the correct drivers and I would need to experiment. What does this mean? Do I have to revert back to an older driver or just install the newest ones?XaosII