PNYNVIDIA Quadro K5000 4GB GDDR5 GPU Memory Graphics Card for Mac VCQK5000MAC-PB

I built a high-end graphics workstation for my daughter who is a senior in college majoring in graphics arts. After months of research, weighing price and features of NVIDIA vs.the competition, I decided to go NVIDIA. I run a team that provides modeling and simulation services to the government. All our machines use NVIDIA Quadro cards. All my technicians swear by them. I consulted other professionals and they universally recommended the Quadro series for workstation applications, mostly because of the drivers. That is the big difference with NVIDIA Quadros, their drivers. I then had to decide how much pain to endure in terms of price. I was afraid the 600-series cards would not be powerful enough for life after college and the 4,000 series prices are just cost prohibitive for me personally. As it is, this card was the single most expensive part of the build. Having said all that, I could not be more pleased. The performance on the Autodesk software my daughter uses is outstanding. No hesitation even with her most demanding 3D animation products. I didn't know much about drivers, but there are more to the Quadro drivers than just making the card work. The features and flexibility you get are unmatched in anything you would experience on your average PC. The ability to create multiple virtual desktops for your different process applications is very useful. My daughter can now have a series of applications open and diaplayed on her dual-monitor rig with a set of views for animation, another for photo editing, another for writing, all by loading the desired profile. All the apps load and the displays pop up in the precise location she wants them, all by selecting a saved profile. Buying this card was a good decision and research pays off. Building a workstation for professional use is much different than building a system for home use or gaming. Lastlyy, I had no issues whatsoever installing the card or installing the software/drivers. It worked perfectly the first time I pushed the power button.

I bought this video card for 3D production (modeling and sculpting) and although there are better options available this is a great video card for someone on a budget looking to do modeling . This is NOT a gaming card and you will not be pleased with its performance if that is your intended use. This product has been designed to optimize the viewport of 3D applications and it offers stellar performance for this (considering it is a 2 GB card) as well as having rock solid stability (no crashes). Additionally, it is a low profile card which means it runs at a low temperature which in turn improves stability of all other components in your system and it also has a relatively low power consumption. Great product overall and I am pretty happy with it.

Quick Pros: It works great; easy install; GREAT support (John).Quick Cons: First two cards were defective; almost gave up on them.At Christmas I built my wife a new computer with a lot of power and this specialized card she needs for 3D graphics work. I spent a lot of time researching the cards that were compatible with the software, and then cross-referencing them with the prospective motherboards to be as certain as possible that the build would go off without a hitch.The 1st K2000 was DOA. Computer wouldn't even boot with it installed.A week later, with the replacement card installed, the video was crummy and I couldn't install the drivers. I sent that card back for a refund, hesitant to order a third.A couple of days later I called PNY mainly to see if there was a known problem with a recent batch. John, possibly the best tech support guy I have ever spoken with, said there was not and listened carefully to the problems I had. He felt that he probably could have helped me through the aborted driver install on the second card, and promised that if I purchased a third card he would be available to assist me if needed. He also gave me some hints.The conversation with John restored my confidence in PNY so I ordered another card. It arrived Monday and the driver installed with ease.So, the PNY was not without it's trials and tribulations, but I find that's pretty well normal with electronics. Last build I had to send memory sticks back and forth for a while. As Roseanne Rosanna Danna used to say, "It's always something."The two important things to take from this are: 1) Buy from Amazon and send it back if it's defective; 2) PNY support was outstanding and that's really, really important.

This card replaced a GeForce 6200 LE. After 22 years of use, I was overdue for a replacement. The Quadro supports DisplayPort MST at minimal cost, along with not needing to upgrade my power supply, or worry about my house burning down if I used said expensive card.