- Quadro FX 570
- 256MB GDDR2
- PCI Express x16
Great for the Price for 3D CAD
02/23/2008
This review is from: PNY Quadro FX 570 VCQFX570-PCIE-PB 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Workstation Video Card
Pros:
Runs Solidworks 2007 & 2008 without any problem.
Was rather inexpensive compared to high end GPUs for CAD.
Works just fine in a 2 small monitor setup.
Is a certified card with Solidworks and most other CAD programs.
Fairly quiet fan, and is a relatively small 1 slot PCI-e card. It over-clocks moderately with the Nvidia control panel software.
Cons:
None really. However, if you use CAD programs with hundreds of parts in an assembly, it might get rather slow? But I've had no problems with medium sized CAD models in Solidworks 2007.
Since it's an inexpensive card, you can't turn the Anti-aliasing all the way up in your CAD models without a noticable speed hit. Moderate anti-aliasing settings are OK and look decent without being too slow.
Overall Review:
This video card and extra RAM gave an old 3GHz Pentium 4 computer a second life as a "poor mans" CAD and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Fluid Dynamics (CFD) workhorse.
I updated the video drivers right off the NVidia website. No problems there. I like the Nvidia software as it allows you to control the fan speed (trade off cooling vs. noise) and can overclock right in their software.
I was not satisfied with the way the edges in Solidworks looked (jagged lines) with the settings at "let the application decide", so I manually turned up the anti-aliasing to about 4X (a moderate setting) through the Nvidia control panel. It made the jaggies almost completely go away, without a serious speed hit when rotating 3D models.
It works just fine for casual 3D CAD use. The videocard is even better than the one in my 2 year old D*ll M70 laptop workstation (custom designed for CAD work).
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- Michael K.
-
Owned For:
1 week to 1 month
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