FirePro M8900 or Quadro 3000M

[materax]

Sorry about that question, I'm Confused I don't know what to take, a FirePro M8900 or Quadro 3000M for design intensive CAD and DCC, is that the FirePro is compatible with "Mental Ray" or just the Quadro?

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

They both will work with your programs, but the nVidia is optimized for CAD, Mental Ray, and other programs thanks to CUDA. However, Quadros are much more expensive than FirePros, which can get the job done just as well (mostly).

It's a trade off that you have to make. Optimized with special drivers, or go with the cheaper price?

[materax]

thank you for your help.

[kunekaden]

Only the FirePro 9800 is certified/recommended by Autodesk for those programs
Autodesk - Certified Hardware - Find Graphics Hardware
edit: nevermind, was looking at desktop/workstation, not mobile. Neither are certified, so I'd pick Quadro for CUDA accel in 3ds

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

While there are certifications for cards, in reality pretty much any professional GPU (be it either Quadro or FirePro) will be great for CAD and other programs. While the Quadros have extra-specialized drivers for these programs, FirePro drivers are only slightly behind (and I mean slightly).

You might be interested in the information in this thread: ATI M8900 VS nVidia Quadro 4000m VS ATI 6970 Crossfire performance difference

[materax]

and the GTX 485M is what it is optimized for 3ds max, Mental ray and iray?

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

The GTX 485M can run those programs relatively fine. Only difference between gaming and professional GPUs is the specialized drivers. The consumer GPU won't run those programs as efficiently as possible, but they will run.

[materax]

thank you Mr. Privatejarhead for your advice, what do you advise? Knowing that my budget is limited to $ 2400 max and I'm going to use 3ds Max with mental ray and iray.

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

$ 2400 max

I know that a Lenovo W520 with a Quadro 2000M to my config is $2k, so I think that a 3000M-based laptop might break your budget. If CUDA support isn't absolutely needed by your school/work, you can do just fine with the FirePro chip