Are Nvidia Quadro Cards Good For Gaming? (With Examples!)

When I am searching for a new graphics card I am very careful not to mess this up because it will be a very expensive mistake.

But if you are in the market for a PC to use for work and you also want to play some games then you have to go throw all the noise on the net and you may be wondering if Nvidia Quadro cards are good for gaming?

Nvidia Quadro cards are workstation cards designed for 3D graphics creation, CAD, video editing, etc., their drivers aren’t optimized for gaming and this will result in lower performance. Quadro cards run at lower clock speeds than GTX/RTX cards and so they achieve lower frame rates.

In this article, I will get into the topic of playing games on Quadro cards and I will tell you why Quadro cards don’t have the best performance in games, how much lower is their performances compared to GeForce GTX/RTX cards, and in the end, we will explore some gaming performances of some of the more popular Quadro cards. So keep reading!

Can You Use Nvidia Quadro Cards For Gaming?

You can use Nvidia Quadro cards for gaming but don’t expect the same performance that the less expensive GeForce GTX/RTX cards will provide. But still, some Quadro cards will give you a decent gaming experience.

Keep in mind that these cards aren’t designed for gaming, they are designed to achieve great pixel fidelity for professionals that work in different industries.

If you want to use the lower-end Quadros for gaming do it with caution because they tend to have overheating problems and you don’t want to ruin an expensive graphics card.

Buying a Quadro card for gaming is not advised because you can get a GeForce GTX/RTX card almost 4 times cheaper ant it will have slightly better performance in games. So if you want to be a professional during the day and a gamer during the night then you can consider a Quadro card.

Why Nvidia Quadro Cards Are Not Good For Gaming?

Nvidia Quadro cards aren’t very good for gaming because their drivers aren’t optimized for it, they run at lower clock speeds than GRX/RTX cards which are 4 times cheaper than them and many of them will have to overheat problems in games due to the design of the ventilation system.

The cooling system of Quadro cards has a strict blower design, this means that all the hot air is blown out from the back of the card out of the pc case so it will not impact the performance of other components, and this is desirable in a workstation PC.

If you push your card to work on high clocks all that hot ail will blow over the GPU and for this reason, some Quadro cards have overheating problems. When your card overheats it will lower the performance as a safety feature and so you will end up with lower frame rates in games.

The drivers for Quadro cards arent optimized for gaming and you won’t have a new version with every major game release to get the most of your graphics card.

Let us not forget that Quadro cards run at lower clock speeds than GeForce GTX/RTX cards because they are optimized for pixel fidelity and not to run games at the highest frame rate.

The Gaming Pferormance Difference Between Quadro and GeForce RTX Cards.

In general GeForce RTX cards will achieve 20-35% more frame rates than their Quadro equivalent, sometimes we can see the RTX cards having double the framerate of Quadro cards. Because the RTX cards are 2 or 3 times less expensive than Quadro they are the best choice for gaming.

Keep in mind that Nvidia is declaring that Quadro cards are made for professionals and not for gamers so the difference in the frame can be justified by that.

To better understand this performance difference let us look at a real test from the top-of-the-line Quadro RTX 8000 and RTX 3092, and then compare the results:

Game tested	Resolution	Quadro RTX 8000 [avg. frame rate]	RTX 3090 [avg. frame rate]
Cyberpunk 2077	4K	around 85	around 112
Forza Horizon 4	4K	around 74	around 104
GTA V	4K	around 30	around 43
F1 2020	4K	around 134	around 193
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020	4K	around 45	around 59
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla	4K	around 85	around 162
Red Dead Redemption 2	4K	around 28	around 68
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	4K	around 82	around 11
Far Cry New Dawn	4K	around 85	around 162
Watch Dogs Legion	4K	around 37	around 53
Battlefield V	4K	around 58	around 60

As we can see except on Battlefield V the Flagship of the GeForce RTX series has a more than decent advantage over its counterpart in the Quadro series. Again the best choice for gaming remains the GeForce RTX series cards.

Is a GeForce or a Quadro Card Better For Professional Work + Gaming?

If you need a PC for professional graphic work and gaming you can get one with a GeForce RTX graphic card if your work doesn’t include massive projects that have increased demand for VRAM or you don’t need a multimonitor setup with more than 3 monitors.

Now it is clear that GeForce RTX cards are the best choice for gamers but what about professionals working in CAD applications or doing 3D modeling?

Quadro cards offer more stability, reliability, VRAM, and the option to connect more displays than the GeForce RTX cards that are designed for gaming. So you need to sack yourself this: do I need all these advantages? If the answer is NO, then you can get a PC with An GeForce RTX series card and enjoin a good working environment along with good gaming performance.

Many professionals chose laptops or PCs with RTX cards because they are equipped with the same GPUs and the industry where they work doesn’t require special standards for graphics cards.

In some cases, the software that you need to use won’t work with the GeForce standard drivers, but this is not the case for CAD applications.

In most cases where you work on projects that won’t require more than one person then a GeForce RTX card will do the job just fine, but for more complex projects where you unite the work of multiple team members you will need a card with more VRAM and a Quadro card will be the way to go.

Practically if you are self-employed the chance of you working on projects that will benefit from a Quadro card are slim but you still need to answer these questions:

• Is high pixel fidelity very important in my field?
• Do I need more than 3 displays?
• Do the application with which I work require drivers optimized for professional work?
• Does my project need more than 8GB of VRAM?
• Do the projects on which I work to have the tendency to grow in the future?
• Do I need a very reliable graphics card that will last a long time or I will change it after a couple of years?

If you answered YES to any of those questions then you will need a Quadro card but if all your answers were NO then you can easily go with a GeForce RTX card and have the advantage of enjoying the best gaming performance in your free time.

Is the Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 good for gaming?

Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 has good performance in gaming, it will run the newest titles around 30 frames in 4K resolution, so you won’t have problems running any game in 1920×1080 resolution with ultra settings but still, the price is too high to make it a good card for gaming.

Because of the shared power of this card, you will run most games without overheating problems but only time will tell for how long.

Now let us see some test results:

Game tested	Resolution	Quadro RTX 6000 [avg. frame rate]
Cyberpunk 2077	4K	around 27
Forza Horizon 4	4K	around 76
GTA V	4K	around 49
F1 2020	4K	around 143
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020	4K	around 31
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla	4K	around 46
Red Dead Redemption 2	4K	around 45
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	4K	around 54
Far Cry New Dawn	4K	around 84
Watch Dogs Legion	4K	around 63
CS GO	4K	around 232
Battlefield V	4K	around 60

As we can see the results demonstrate that Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 is more than capable to handle gaming at 4k so you won’t have any problems at 2k or full HD but still the big problem here is the price.

Is the Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 good for gaming?

Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 is a graphics card with a tough price to swallow by gamers (around 2500$) but to be fair it isn’t designed for gamers, its main purpose is to handle the intense workloads needed in demanding 3D modeling applications (and much more).

When it comes to gaming it will have a satisfying performance, so if you want a reliable graphics card for 3D modeling that will give you a decent gaming performance you can consider an Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000.

The drawbacks of this card are that it will get highly hot and it is power-hungry, because it is not optimized for gaming you will encounter overheating problems when you push its limits in the more demanding gaming titles.

Now let us see the results of a real test, to see what FPS we can expect from an Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000:

Game tested	Resolution	Detail level	Frame rate [average]
COD Modern Warfare	1920×1080	High	around 151
DAYZ	1920×1080	High	around 167
Ghost Recon	1920×1080	High	around 114
PUBG	1920×1080	High	around 162
Overwatch	1920×1080	High	around 223

As you can see Quadro RTX 5000 has very good performance when it comes to 1080p gaming and the framerates from the test are showing that without a doubt it is capable to run games at 2k.

Is The Nvidia Quadro P4000 Good For Gaming

Nvidia Quadro P4000 has decent performance at 1080p gaming but this comes wid serious overheating problems which can cause a headache because this is not a cheap video card and is surely the main reason why you should use it for professional work.

Everywhere I looked on the web there are people complaining that it is overheating if it is used for gaming.

Game tested	Resolution	Detail level	Frame rate [average]
COD Modern Warfare	1920×1080	High	around 125
DAYZ	1920×1080	High	around 126
Ghost Recon	1920×1080	High	around 94
PUBG	1920×1080	High	around 143
Overwatch	1920×1080	High	around 121

The test shows that it has what it takes to handle 1080p gaming offering a decent experience but the overheating problems and the big price are two big cons for recommending this card for gaming.

Sources

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIeLyiKt9rU
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GntQQYX6rI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkbH5r1u8Ko
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7gWMhYXe7E