Building new GIS Workstation - is it worth upgrading to a workstation GPU?

Posted by bsigrist on Super User See other posts from Super User or by bsigrist
Published on 2010-06-07T14:52:11Z Indexed on 2010/06/07 14:53 UTC
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workstation

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We are currently building a machine from scratch to act as a GIS workstation. The primary software used is ESRI's ArcGIS and we are mainly working with vector data using raster data only for contextual background imagery. In the past I have built a GIS machine and used a consumer grade gaming GPU (Nvidia 9800GT) and found it to perform fine. However, I have always wondered if I would have been better off equipping it with a workstation GPU such as a Quadro series.

Would a workstation GPU make a noticeable difference doing 2D GIS operations or should I save money on the build and equip it with another 9800GT?

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