quadro_chart5It was back at NAB in April when NVidia announced they were bringing a new Quadro card, the QuadroFX 4800, to Mac users.  Exciting, definately, but the $1800 price tag makes it a significant investment and reviews have been few and far between. ArsTechnica takes it upon himself to remedy this with a fairly extensive review on some of the best Mac hardware available, and finds the results disappointing:

For some 3D enthusiasts, getting a Quadro is a rite of passage that says “I’m now a CG professional,” but that milestone relies on an image that the Quadro just doesn’t live up to on the Mac side. If the Quadro’s Mac drivers became the norm across all platforms, it would cease to be a Quadro—it would be an slower gaming card with a lot of memory. I can understand why NVIDIA isn’t enthusiastic about adding resources to a niche market within an already niche market, but it would be dishonest not to try and give this card feature parity for Mac users.

A second look at the Nvidia Quadro FX 4800 Mac Edition.