professional vs. consumer

[kpiciulo]

granted non of us are going to spend $1500 on a video card but what are the differences between say consumer top of the line x800xt/6800ultra and the professional cards nvidia's is the quaddro, i'm not sure what ATI's is, if they have any of those cards. if anyone can shed some light on this for me i'd appreciate it.
Kevin

 

[JCLW]

FireGL is ATi's line.

It's the same hardware, just different drivers optimized for 3D apps instead of games. Sometimes they are clocked a little higher, and sometimes have other features (like dual DVI) that the consumer cards don't have. Usually you can take a consumer card and either modify the drivers or flash a new BIOS to turn it into a professional card.

 

[SimGuy]

Professional wise, for more power you'll want to steer towards the 3DLabs Wildcat series of cards, but be prepared to pay through the nose for them.

www.3dlabs.com