Graphics Cards for CAD?

[bobbysq]

Originally Posted by Cory

A $160 Quadro K620 will beat the pants off of every GTX card on the market when running Solidworks in shaded with edges mode (which is my preferred mode and I assume the preferred mode of most).

Why is this the case? CAD software probably isn't going to be more graphically taxing than high-end games. Is it in how the software uses the hardware?

[Joseph DeRoest]

Originally Posted by bobbysq

Why is this the case? CAD software probably isn't going to be more graphically taxing than high-end games. Is it in how the software uses the hardware?

It has to do with OpenGL vs. DirectX. Cory and Sanddrag were talking about this earlier. Basically, Quadro cards are more focused on OpenGL, which SolidWorks uses, whereas GTX cards are more focused on DirectX. However, Inventor is DirectX-based, so both types of cards can run it well.