[Adam Thomas Lutton]

I want to use autodesk maya 2012. The Nvidia 5000 Quadro will be my autoCAD GPU for that program. BUT, I also want to play games and the Quads are built for one thing, 3D design, not playing high detailed games. I want a mars 2 for my GPU gaming. I want a Monitor for AutoCad, and a Monitor for gaming, is there any way to do this on the same motherboard WITHOUT using SLI ?

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You answered your own question. The Quadro 5000 is a "workstation" graphics card which is designed, not just for 3D modeling, but for CAE/CAD too. So basically, the Quadro is a serious work truck and you want to treat it like a race car.

While certainly you can race around in the truck, and you can haul junk around in the car, but you can't expect either to excel doing those things. They just were not designed to swap roles.

I am going to tell you what I tell my clients who want to use their work machines as game machines, "Don't!". Instead, go buy a Playstation, X-Box, or Wii, or build a gaming computer just for games. Otherwise, expect and accept compromises - and less than optimal performance.

You could buy a gaming graphics card and swap them in and out as needed. But that is not practical, and potentially risky, due to constant handling and digging around inside the computer. Not to mention, wear and tear on the PCIe slot causing the contacts to lose tension, affecting the mechanical connection (essential for a solid electrical contact). So to me, that is not an good solution.

Alternatively, you could buy a good gaming card and just use that - but, like the race car, real "work" performance will be greatly limited. So again, not a good solution.

[Digerati]

You answered your own question. The Quadro 5000 is a "workstation" graphics card which is designed, not just for 3D modeling, but for CAE/CAD too. So basically, the Quadro is a serious work truck and you want to treat it like a race car.

While certainly you can race around in the truck, and you can haul junk around in the car, but you can't expect either to excel doing those things. They just were not designed to swap roles.

I am going to tell you what I tell my clients who want to use their work machines as game machines, "Don't!". Instead, go buy a Playstation, X-Box, or Wii, or build a gaming computer just for games. Otherwise, expect and accept compromises - and less than optimal performance.

You could buy a gaming graphics card and swap them in and out as needed. But that is not practical, and potentially risky, due to constant handling and digging around inside the computer. Not to mention, wear and tear on the PCIe slot causing the contacts to lose tension, affecting the mechanical connection (essential for a solid electrical contact). So to me, that is not an good solution.

Alternatively, you could buy a good gaming card and just use that - but, like the race car, real "work" performance will be greatly limited. So again, not a good solution.

[Adam Thomas Lutton]

i was thinking the same thing about 2 hours after i posted, just making a separate rig for gaming, i realized that i couldnt actually use the quadro for gaming, or working with the mars, but I was trying to see if i could have both on the same board, limiting cases, and monitors and what not. But thank you for you reply, ill go with that.