NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400 Professional Graphics Card

This NVIDIA high-end, superfast professional graphics card from the Quadro series makes light work of 3D applications and does a fine job as a gaming card as well

We have always wondered that since games today are so
advanced that they are pretty much animated movies in themselves, and a lot of
3D modeling for the game characters perhaps happens on such professional cards,
how exactly would they perform in a regular gaming environment. This same theory
we wanted to test by putting a gaming card into our 3D test suite to find out
how it would do. We compared the NVIDIA FX3400 with the 6800GS since they are
the closest cores available today. The Quadro FX 3400 is a professional graphics
card from NVIDIA's Quadro series unlike others that are gamers' delight. We
would've preferred the 6800GT but NVIDIA doesn't make it anymore, so it was
not available.

The test results left us stunned. Being incorrigible
gamers, everything we test needs to pass muster in games and that was the suite
we ran on the Quadro card first. We ran Doom3 at multiple resolutions with and
without AA/AF and also the brand new game F.E.A.R. We over-clocked both these
cards with the Quadro being clocked at 401 MHz for the core and 1 GHz for the
memory speed (stock speeds: 350 MHz and 900 MHz). The 6800GS was overclocked to
515 MHz for the core and 1.13 GHz for the memory (stock speeds: 475 MHz and 1.1
GHz).

The gaming benchmarks

In gaming tests, we would particularly like to tell you the scores in the
1280x1024 and 1600x1200 range with 4xAA and 8xAF. In Doom3, at 1280x1024, the
Quadro actually does better than the 6800GS! Of course, the difference is just
under 3 fps so its negligible but even if the Quadro can match an out and out
gaming card, it sure is commendable. A trend we noticed was that at lower
resolutions like 1024x768 and with AA/AF switched off, the 6800GS beat the
Quadro, but when graphics were really stressed at higher resolutions and AA/AF
were on, it caught up with the 6800GS and in instances even surpassed it. This
led us to believe that a professional graphics card can indeed give an excellent
gaming experience. The performances were even more similar when you look at
F.E.A.R, where at higher resolutions the cards exactly matched.

The 3D benchmarks

For 3D benchmarking we used the standard software SpecviewPerf 8.01. This
software benchmarks the card on a variety of 3D apps, from CAD to modeling and
so on.We ran the benchmark at default settings. While the Quadro just zipped
through the tests, our overclocked 6800GS failed to complete the tests and
reaching unsafe heat levels, it was shut down. Despite various attempts with
external cooling fans and , it would not run, so we had to run it at the stock
speeds. This speaks for the professional 3D application capabilities (or the
lack of them!) of the 6800GS. Though the Quadro is not made for this, it does a
brilliant job at it! In all the tests, except for Ensight, the 6800GS scored
half or less than Quadro.

Bottom Line: The Quadro is a mean performer though a
tad expensive at Rs 45,000 plus taxes. Only word of caution is that if you get
this for your graphics expert and find him avoiding work and playing Doom 3,
please don't blame us or him!

Varun Dubey