There is absolutely no information or results performed on the quadro vs gaming cards so I went through the trouble.
I purchased 2 quadro fx 4500 video cards off of ebay for these tests.
Obviously the GTX 260 beats the evga 8800 GTS but the 8800 does the trick! The Quadro enhances nothing for my computing needs and bottle necks performance because of its dated components. ( Graphics workstation, mainly photoshop and after effects for now)
$200 for a used 4500 Quadro and $130 for a new 8800 GTS
QUADRO VS GEFORCE
Test results ran from:
CPU:i7
RAM:12 Gig DDR3
Display = 2 monitors at 1920×1080
Power Supply: More than capable
THE RESULTS ARE IN:
Windows Experience Index (Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit)
Quadro 4500-
Graphics- 5.1
Gaming Graphics- 4.9
Geforce 8800 GTS –
Graphics – 6.7
Gaming Graphics – 6.7

and here are the results that mattaer in my opinion:
Photoshop CS4 64 bit (time to run filter ‘render clouds’ at 20,000 x 20,000 72pi)
both cards enabled seamless zooming and panning features
15.6 seconds / 8800
15.9 seconds / 4500
After Effects CS4 (1st 40 frames of logo swirl from aetuts lossless avi render)
62.4 seconds / 8800
61.4 seconds / 4500
2d game Continuum (Windowed 1920×1080)
120-240 avg fps – 300 max fps / 8800
80-130 avg fps – 160 max fps / 4500
Breakdown of what I learned:
The main price increase for the quadro reflects driver support and compatibility. You will have a hard time getting photoshop support from a gaming card. But who needs it these days? Plus the quadro is made to render ‘perfect’ pixels vs speed and compression like the gaming cards are optimized for. So quadros might push dual or triple monitors a bit better without artifacts. THERE ARE NO MAJOR DIFFERENCES. Save your money and purchase the latest game performing video card. One other thought is that the quadros have cuda.. and if you have a ‘SPECIAL’ application that is programmed to utilize this feature it is worthless for ever day uses.
HERE ARE LINKS TO VIDEO CARDS WITH 100% SUPPORT. (just in case)
A video Card only helps panning and zooming in photoshop, if you want quicker filters, get a better cpu, more ram (64 bit supports more than 4gb or ram)
PS I have the GTX 260 at home and it only slightly out performs the 8800 GTS so SAVE your money and just keep getting the latest and greatest every 2-3 years (cheapest high performing CPU, RAM, Video Card available at the time) and you will always have one of the quickest graphics machines.
