Best Workstation Graphics Cards
For some people, it’s hard to know whether you need a workstation graphics card. Some of the Best Workstation Graphics Cards can be very expensive. On the one hand these workstation graphics cards are able to compute the billions of polygons required by computer aided design applications but on the other there are the “gaming” graphics cards which also can have very good performance. Having more compute units within the workstation graphics cards make its performance a lot better in CAD applications.
These graphics cards are specifically deigned for this kind of task and have a much better performance as you may need to render and create large scenes. However, you should only get one of these workstation graphics cards if you’re going to be doing a lot of CAD or other compute intensive applications as the price can be very high. These graphics cards will not give great price to performance within gaming, but will within CAD. We recommend to look at the what is Quadro article from PNY. Let’s dive into the Best Workstation Graphics Cards.
If you’re looking for a video editing graphics card check out our article on the Best Graphics Cards for Video Editing.
Table of Contents
PNY NVIDIA Quadro P4000 8GB
First up, we have the PNY NVIDIA Quadro p4000. This card is on the pascal architecture but it still gives great performance in compute intensive applications. It has got 8GB GDDR5 memory, 1792 CUDA Cores, a memory interface width of 256-bit and memory bandwidth of 243 GB/s. This is a mid range card coming in at about $900.
The great thing about this card is the 4 Display Port 1.4a with the ability to power 4 5K displays at 60Hz. Furthermore, this graphics card is single slot and can fit in almost all cases. Since this card is single slot, you can connect multiple via Quadro Sync II and have the same number of slots used as cards used. PNY state the card “enables users to create large, complex designs, render detailed photo realistic imagery, and create detailed, lifelike VR experiences.”
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Good performance | Older pascal architecture |
| 8GB GDDR5 memory | Expensive |
| 4 DisplayPort 1.4a | Can be harder to find |
| Single Slot | |
| 5.2 TFLOPS Single precision FP32 Performance |
PNY NVIDIA Quadro P2000 5GB
Next up we have the PNY NVIDIA Quadro P2000 5GB. This card comes with 5GB of GDDR5 memory as standard. It is based off of the older pascal architecture and is also a mid range to entry level workstation graphics card. It has 1024 CUDA cores in addition to a lower memory interface width of 160-bit and a lower memory bandwidth of 140GB/s.
Like the Quadro P4000 it contains 4 Display Port 1.4a with the ability to drive 4, 5K displays at 60Hz. This graphics card is a lot easier on your wallet but, it does not feature the performance like some of the other cards when it comes to CAD. The Quadro P2000 however, is still great at creation of large complex 3D models and scenes.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Good performance | Not as good performance as the others |
| Cheaper (compared to other cards) | Entry Level card |
| Has GDDR5 memory | Only 5GB GDDR5 |
| 3.0 TFLOPS peak single precision FP32 performance | No ray tracing or AI |
PNY NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 8GB
Here we have the PNY NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 8GB. It features Turing architecture and is the worlds first real time ray tracing GPU. Further more it has AI from Turing architecture with 288 Tensor cores. There are 2304 CUDA cores, 36 ray tracing cores as well as 8GB of GDDR6 memory. The memory bandwidth is large at 416GB/s. This means this card has great performance at CAD and other compute intensive applications with high polygon counts. Furthermore the RTX ray tracing can be used with certain programs to make your scenes look great with real time ray tracing.
This card is single slot and can be linked together for Quadro Sync II using very little space. There are 3 Display Ports and 1 USB-C VirtualLink which can also be used as another Display Port via an adaptor. This is an expensive card but it’s performance within 3D applications and CAD are reflected within the price.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Has USB-C to connect VR headsets | Price to performance isn't as good |
| Good performance | Server Card (not designed for gaming) |
| Server Card (Can be multi use) | Cooling could be better |
| Single Slot |
PNY NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 16GB
Here we have the PNY NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 16GB. This card is also a Turing card with the latest real time ray tracing and AI. There are 3072 CUDA Cores, 48 Ray tracing cores and also 384 Tensor Cores. It has a large 256-bit memory interface width as well as a bandwidth of 448 GB/s. A large 16GB of GDDR6 memory is used in this card for fast compute speeds.
There a 4 Display Ports, 1 DVI in addition to 1 VirtualLink with the power to become another DisplayPort. The Quadro RTX 5000 tops the charts in performance for compute intensive applications. You can connect multiples of this card to get even better performance. This card is dual slot and requires more space however.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Great performance | Very expensive |
| Has USB-C to connect VR headsets | Cooling could be better |
| Has ray tracing and AI from Turing | Server Card (not designed for gaming) |
| Server Card (multi use) |
PNY NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 24GB
Moving up from the Quadro RTX 5000, we have the PNY NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 24GB. This card has great performance for even the most computational complex tasks and high polygon scenes. It feautres 4608 CUDA Cores, 576 Tensor Cores in addition to 72 Ray Tracing Cores. This makes it great for scenes and applications that support real time ray tracing.
The Tensor cores bring the power of AI enhanced workflows to this graphics card. The all new USB-C VirtualLink connector brings the ability to connect high resolution VR headsets easily with 1 cable in some cases. This card features a massive memory bandwidth of 624 GB/s in addition to 24 GB of GDDR6 memory. There are 4 Display Ports 1.4a and also 1 USB-C VirtualLink connector. The USB-C has the power to become another DisplayPort via an adapter.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| 24GB GDDR6 memory | Expensive |
| Ray tracing and AI | Can be hard to get |
| Turing architecture | |
| 16.3 TFLOPS single precision FP32 performance | |
| 4 DisplayPorts and VirtualLink |
PNY NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 48GB – One of the Best Workstation Graphics Cards
The PNY NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 48GB is a very very powerful card. It’s performance is represented in it’s price as it is a very expensive card. It features 4608 CUDA Cores, 72 Ray Tracing Cores in addition to 576 Tensor Cores. This allows for a huge 130 TFLOPS of deep learning performance.
The cores allow for great real time ray tracing and AI within these graphics cards. There is a massive 48 GB GDDR6 memory with a massive memory bandwidth of 672 GB/s. Nvidia NVLink can allow multiple cards to be connected with a memory of up to 96GB for this graphics card. This card is designed for the most complicated memory intensive tasks out there. There are 4 Display Port 1.4a and 1 USB-C VirualLink.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| 48GB GDDR6 Memory | Very Expensive |
| Turing architecture | Can be harder to get |
| Ray tracing and AI | Consumes a lot of power |
| Can be combined NVLink to get 96GB | |
| 16.3 TFLOPS single precision FP32 performance | |
| 4 DisplayPort and VirtualLink |
PNY NVIDIA Quadro GV100 32GB
The NVIDIA Quadro GV100 is based on the Volta architecture. It features real time ray tracing and AI with great performance. It incorporates 5120 CUDA Cores, in addition to 640 Tensor Cores. This means it has the ability to deliver 7.4 TFLOPS of double precision FP64 performance. Furthermore, it can do 14.8 TFLOPS of single precision FP32 performance.
For its deep learning there 640 Tensor Cores capable of 118.5 TFLOPS of performance. There is a huge 32GB of HBM2 memory. This allows for great performance in even the most memory intensive applications. There are 4 Display Port 1.4a connectors. This however, is a very expensive graphics card but has great performance in CAD and compute intensive applications.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Great performance | Very very expensive |
| 14.8 TFLOPS single precision FP32 performance | No VirtualLink |
| 4 Display Port | Can be hard to get |
| Very powerful | |
| Memory bandwidth: 870 GB/s | |
| 32 GB HBM2 memory |
Conclusion
Workstation graphics cards can be very expensive. However, if you’re going to be doing a lot of CAD and rendering with certain applications then it is definitely well worth investing the money. The latest Nvidia cards feature ray tracing and AI which is great for CAD and very useful to have. We recommend getting a card with ray tracing. However, if these cards are to expensive it’s worth getting the cheaper p2000 or p4000 cards as they are the older cards but still have great computing performance. Check out our buyers guides and best graphics cards lists here.
