NVIDIA Quadro K5000 VS Quadro FX 4800

[BrioBriss]

Alright, after a couple of searchs I think I pretty much found which kind of Graphic Card I need. I'm actually woking in 3D with Maya 2013 on BootCamp on a 4.1 Mac Pro/32 GB of RAM with the acual Graphic Card: GetForce GT 120 512 MB.

I'm looking for faster renders and was wondering about which Graphic Card should be the best at the moment. Here's some of my questions about it:

1.Will I need to update to Montain Lion to install these (I'm actually with Snow Leopard)?
2.Considering I'll probably buy the next Mac Pro when it'll be out, should I spend $2300 for a Graphic Card or should I go for the $1000 one.
3.In the line of the previous question, I really don't know the Graphic Cards market, so is the prices drop are usual or it'll stick to $2300 for long time?
4.Also, I saw some topics saying the Quadro FX 4800 seemd to disapoint and that the FX 4000 was better. Considering the specs etc, the FX 4800 looks better to me, what's the deal between these 2?
5. I know the next Mac Pro isn't out yet, but considering your knowledge, is these Graphics Cards should works on the next Mac Pro?

Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[OS6-OSX]

Knowing Apples track record they will probably put a "just OK" graphics card in the 2013 MP. Then you will have to spend more $ just to get a good card.
The best thing to do is go to the Autodesk forums and see what specs those users have. If you see a pattern and those particular users are not having issues, that is probably "the" graphics card.

MacPro 2008 3.1 | 14GB Ram | Quadro 4000 | MC6.0 | OS 10.6.8 | MOTU HDX-SDI | ATTO R644| LaCie 324

 

[DJenkins]

Alright, after a couple of searchs I think I pretty much found which kind of Graphic Card I need. I'm actually woking in 3D with Maya 2013 on BootCamp on a 4.1 Mac Pro/32 GB of RAM with the acual Graphic Card: GetForce GT 120 512 MB.

I'm looking for faster renders and was wondering about which Graphic Card should be the best at the moment. Here's some of my questions about it:

1.Will I need to update to Montain Lion to install these (I'm actually with Snow Leopard)?
2.Considering I'll probably buy the next Mac Pro when it'll be out, should I spend $2300 for a Graphic Card or should I go for the $1000 one.
3.In the line of the previous question, I really don't know the Graphic Cards market, so is the prices drop are usual or it'll stick to $2300 for long time?
4.Also, I saw some topics saying the Quadro FX 4800 seemd to disapoint and that the FX 4000 was better. Considering the specs etc, the FX 4800 looks better to me, what's the deal between these 2?
5. I know the next Mac Pro isn't out yet, but considering your knowledge, is these Graphics Cards should works on the next Mac Pro?

Thanks for the help in advance!

I think the FX4800 is an older card compared to the Quadro 4000 and probably uses a different architecture. Although on paper the clock speeds etc. seem higher, I think the 4000 makes up with it in newer generation technology and more bandwidth. Plus it has more memory.

You are getting ripped off at $1000 for an FX4800, have a look around before you buy!
You could probably get the Quadro 4000 for around that price as well.

I can only imagine you have got those prices from a specialist video/broadcast retailer who have incredibly high markups. But it's your choice to buy from them if you're not confident in replacing a card yourself or buying online.

I'm not familliar with Maya 2013 but make sure the renderer you're using is geared towards GPU rendering if you plan to see an improvement. Traditionally most rendering is handled by CPU, but there are plenty of others around now which get better performance from GPU CUDA core rendering. There are some people even using gaming cards e.g. GTX570 and GTX680 for their massive CUDA core count.

Even though the new mac pro may have a higher PCIe 3.0 bandwidth, these cards should still work at legacy 2.0 speeds.

 

[thekev]

I think the FX4800 is an older card compared to the Quadro 4000 and probably uses a different architecture. Although on paper the clock speeds etc. seem higher, I think the 4000 makes up with it in newer generation technology and more bandwidth. Plus it has more memory.

You are getting ripped off at $1000 for an FX4800, have a look around before you buy!
You could probably get the Quadro 4000 for around that price as well.

I can only imagine you have got those prices from a specialist video/broadcast retailer who have incredibly high markups. But it's your choice to buy from them if you're not confident in replacing a card yourself or buying online.

The thing is you have to know exactly what you need and get the name right. I wouldn't go with a 4800. It's older and likely won't be supported as long. The 4000 would be a better option. It's a mid range rather than a high end card, but it's a generation newer. I concern myself with support life as well as performance.

I'm not familliar with Maya 2013 but make sure the renderer you're using is geared towards GPU rendering if you plan to see an improvement. Traditionally most rendering is handled by CPU, but there are plenty of others around now which get better performance from GPU CUDA core rendering. There are some people even using gaming cards e.g. GTX570 and GTX680 for their massive CUDA core count.

Even though the new mac pro may have a higher PCIe 3.0 bandwidth, these cards should still work at legacy 2.0 speeds.

He probably wants it for viewport speeds. Mental Ray is the bundled renderer and it's 100% cpu based. NVidia's iray experiment never made it into maya. The 4800 is lacking enough ram to be used in offline rendering anyway. Given that it was labeled FX 4800, I looked it up to make sure it wasn't one of the ancient ones with that prefix. It is from around 2009. The Quadro 4000 wasn't the successor to this. The FX 4800 was the predecessor to the Quadro 5000. The Quadro 4000 and the Quadro FX 4000 are two different cards. The OP will not want the FX 4000. It came out nearly a decade ago. The Quadro 4000 came out a couple years ago and dropped to around $750 from $1200 after a year or so. The newest generation uses a K in the name. The K5000 replaces the 5000. I haven't seen a K4000 yet. The other oems still offer the 4000.