It’s taken awhile, but the new generation of NVIDIA GPU graphics cards are out.

Why does it matter? Well, short of performance issues—and these cards are fast indeed—the Kepler GPU represents a product inflection point for NVIDIA. It’s the “new model” – the presumptive choice among NVIDIA graphics cards for CAD workstations.

Up until now, NVIDIA has been shipping justs a few models of Kepler-based cards. The Lenovo W530 notebook that I’m using to write this post has a Quadro K2000M (the “K” means Kepler, the “M” means mobile), which is their fastest card for 15” class mobile workstations. The high-end K5000 has been out since October.

Here’s a table, listing the range of Kepler-based cards for desktop workstations:

QUADRO KELPER DESKTOP WORKSTATION SPECIFICATIONS
BOARD FEATURES	K5000	K4000	K2000	K2000D	K600
Memory Size	4GB GDDR5	3GB GDDR5	2GB GDDR5	2GB GDDR5	1GB DDR3
Max Power	122W	80W	51W	51W	41W
Power Connector	1x 6-pin	1x 6-pin
Number of slots	2	1	1	1	1
Simultaneous Displays	4	4	4	4	2
Display Connectors	DVI-I (1)DVI-D (1) DP 1.2 (2)	DVI-I (1)DP 1.2 (2)	DVI-I (1)DP 1.2 (2)	DVI-I (1)DVI-D (1) mDP 1.2 (1)	DVI-I (1)DP 1.2 (1)
Single Precision Performance (GFLOPS)	2168	1244	732	732	336
Price (MSRP)	$2,249.00	$1,269.00	$599.00	$599.00	$199.00

You probably want to know which card you should choose, don’t you?

Let me tell you about the extensive comparative benchmark test I ran on the full line of NVIDIA cards. Or not. Instead, of doing that, I called my old friend David Cohn, and asked him what he thought. David regularly does full-on tests and reviews of graphics cards. For example, he reviewed the Quadro K5000 in the January issue of Desktop Engineering, and was duly impressed. Even though it’s the top of the Kepler line, it provides a lot of bang for the buck.

His observations confirmed my experience, which is that most CAD users should choose the mid-range card. In this case, the K2000 (or the K2000D, which comes with different display connectors.)

While the K600 is a perfectly competent card, it is noticeably less responsive in run-of-the-mill CAD use than the K2000. The difference in performance is more than worth the $400 difference in price.

And, while both the K4000 and K5000 are smoking hot cards, you only experience their power when running visualization type applications. The simple shaded models used in day-to-day CAD work just don’t require the capabilities of a high-end GPU.

Of course, all this is a big fat generalization. There are plenty of exceptions—cases where software developers have specifically tuned applications to use GPUs to their full potential.

Here’s how I’d put it: If I were to get a phone call from the brother-in-law of a friend, and he wanted to know what GPU card to buy for his CAD system, I’d tell him to get a  K2000. But, between you and me, when it comes to which card I’d get for my own workstation, the answer is different.  I choose the K5000.  I’ll tell you why in an upcoming post.

NVIDIA www.nvidia.com