Graphics Cards

Quadro is NVIDIA's professional line and GeForce its consumer gaming line. Quadro cards use a professional driver branch that CAD and design software vendors test against, and they are built for long working days in workstations. GeForce cards target games. For engineering, architecture and design software, a professional card is the usual choice.

It depends on the size of your models and how much 3D work you do. For 2D drafting and moderate 3D, a mid-range professional card is normally enough. Large assemblies, big BIM models and rendering benefit from more graphics memory and an RTX card. Tell the team your software and typical project size and they will suggest a class of card.

That depends on four things: the slot and the space around it, the card length, the bracket height, and whether the power supply has the right auxiliary connectors and spare capacity. Send the workstation model, or a photo of the inside, and ServerDove will confirm whether a card fits and whether anything else, such as a power cable, is needed.

Sometimes. Many rack servers need a specific riser, a GPU power cable and a particular fan or airflow configuration before they accept a full-size card, and many 1U servers only take low-profile, low-power cards. Some servers cannot take a graphics card at all. Send the server model and the card you have in mind and the team will check.

Most professional cards drive several displays at once, and the number is set by the card's outputs and specification. Check the listing for the number and type of outputs, and whether your monitors need an adapter. For large video walls or control rooms, ask the team to plan the cards and outputs together with the displays.