Workstation versus standard GPU (AMD)
by petejc from LinuxQuestions.org on (#54TMA)
I hope this is on-topic as most of the posts here seem to be about hardware issues rather than choosing hardware.
I'm looking at updating my my dual monitor setup and moving to a single 4k, with a thought of possibly adding another 4k later if I really miss the dual monitor setup.
My current GPU, which is an ancient new old stock workstation card does not support 4k so I'm looking at buying a new card.
I barely game, I've got Kerbal Space Programme (on another PC) but have not run it in a while for example and first person shooters give me motion sickness. I do sometimes do a little photo editing in Gimp, but don't do video editing and occasionally some work in Kicad. So I don't exactly use much GPU horsepower. On the other hand, maybe I don't because I have suffient GPU available to do little else anyway?
Looking at graphics cards I can get an AMD Radeon Pro WX 2GB and a Radeon RX570 4GB for around the same price, or, jumping up a price point 4 and 8GB equivalents of each.
A lot of sites online seem to cover the marketing blurb reasons for picking one or the other and maybe mention certification for applications I don't and probably will never have for the workstation GPU.
Obviously I'm running linux and would stick with the open source drivers for an easier life when updating kernels (I frequently build newer kernels than my distro). It seems, feature wise, that I get some more sane socketry in general on workstation cards e.g. all display port rather than a mixture of display port, HDMI and DVI-D on a workstation card and maybe ECC memory and double precision maths, but at a cost of half the memory.
If a newer GPU makes Virtual Box / Qemu desktops more responsive that is a win, but I'm not sure that it will? I tried and failed with GPU passthrough.
So I wonder which is better, or given my usage does it not really matter? The other plan is just to by the cheapest card on eBay that supports the resolution and has sufficient connectivity.
I'm looking at updating my my dual monitor setup and moving to a single 4k, with a thought of possibly adding another 4k later if I really miss the dual monitor setup.
My current GPU, which is an ancient new old stock workstation card does not support 4k so I'm looking at buying a new card.
I barely game, I've got Kerbal Space Programme (on another PC) but have not run it in a while for example and first person shooters give me motion sickness. I do sometimes do a little photo editing in Gimp, but don't do video editing and occasionally some work in Kicad. So I don't exactly use much GPU horsepower. On the other hand, maybe I don't because I have suffient GPU available to do little else anyway?
Looking at graphics cards I can get an AMD Radeon Pro WX 2GB and a Radeon RX570 4GB for around the same price, or, jumping up a price point 4 and 8GB equivalents of each.
A lot of sites online seem to cover the marketing blurb reasons for picking one or the other and maybe mention certification for applications I don't and probably will never have for the workstation GPU.
Obviously I'm running linux and would stick with the open source drivers for an easier life when updating kernels (I frequently build newer kernels than my distro). It seems, feature wise, that I get some more sane socketry in general on workstation cards e.g. all display port rather than a mixture of display port, HDMI and DVI-D on a workstation card and maybe ECC memory and double precision maths, but at a cost of half the memory.
If a newer GPU makes Virtual Box / Qemu desktops more responsive that is a win, but I'm not sure that it will? I tried and failed with GPU passthrough.
So I wonder which is better, or given my usage does it not really matter? The other plan is just to by the cheapest card on eBay that supports the resolution and has sufficient connectivity.