Of course, the boundaries between real-time 3D and ray tracing continue to blur. In fact, out of the list above only Lumion and Twinmotion are yet to support RTX, although it should be coming to Twinmotion soon. In short, the RTX 4000 should be more than adequate for any CAD or BIM application. If that application is CPU limited, then you almost certainly won’t find any GPU that will give you better performance. On the other hand, if it isn’t CPU limited, then it should be able to handle anything you throw at it. GPU rendering

With 50 passes it was faster than the older GPUs and that lead got bigger with 200 passes, but we never found it delivered the same percentage performance advantage over the other GPUs as it did when denoising was off.

Advantages and disadvantages

Hardware support for VirtualLink — new open industry standard meets the power, display and bandwidth demands of next-generation VR headsets through a single USB-C connector 1. Enscape is a real-time viz and VR tool for architects that uses OpenGL and delivers very high-quality graphics in the viewport. Enscape has used elements of ray tracing in its software for some time. Version 3.0 is RTX-enabled, so full ray tracing can be toggled on and off. Later versions will use the more modern Vulkan API and support ray tracing on both Nvidia and AMD GPUs. We didn’t test the RTX 4000 in VR itself but from what we have observed previously with the P4000 and P5000, and taking into account its comparative performance in VRMark, we would imagine it will be a very good card for pro VR. The Quadro RTX 4000 is complete overkill for most 3D CAD applications including SolidWorks, which tend to be CPU limited and often work just as well with an entry-level or mid-range GPU like the Quadro P1000 or P2000. Furthermore, as the Nvidia RTX A4000 is a single slot GPU with a max power consumption of 140W delivered through a single 6-pin PCIe connector, it’s available in a wide range of desktop workstation form factors. This includes compact towers like the HP Z2 Tower G8 and Dell Precision 3650. The compact HP Z2 Tower can host the Nvidia RTX A4000 or Nvidia RTX A5000 GPU

For Nvidia GPUs we used the 416.78 driver, so it could be compared directly to existing results. For the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 we used the 18.Q4 driver. The RTX A4000 and A5000 are mid-range ‘Quadro’ GPUs in everything but name. Nvidia’s long-serving Quadro workstation brand might be being retired, but the features remain the same. Of course, the Nvidia RTX A6000 is complete overkill for most architects or product designers who simply want a capable GPU for real-time visualisation, GPU rendering or VR. And it’s here that the new Nvidia RTX A4000 and Nvidia RTX A5000 come into play.

Video outputs and ports

The Quadro RTX 4000 features a power-efficient, single-slot design that fits in variety of workstation chassis. Other benefits include: Quadro GV100, Quadro GP100, Quadro P6000, Quadro P5200, Quadro P5000, Quadro P4000, Quadro P2000, Quadro P1000, Quadro P620, Quadro P600, Quadro P400, Quadro M6000 24GB, Quadro M6000, Quadro M5000, Quadro M4000, Quadro M2000, Quadro K6000, Quadro K5200, Quadro K5000, Quadro K4000, Quadro K4200, Quadro K2200, Quadro K2000, Quadro K2000D, Quadro K1200, Quadro K620, Quadro K600, Quadro K420, Quadro 410

With many firms re-evaluating office space and working from home policies, we asked Adam Jull of IMSCAD about the role that virtual workstations can play

But the good news is, because the new Quadro RTX GPUs are a significant improvement over previous generations, this will be reason enough for many. Then, when Quadro RTX-enabled software finally starts to ship, design viz folks will be able to generate photorealistic output even faster. The Quadro RTX family Enscape provided two real world datasets for our tests – a large residential building and a colossal commercial development. The GPU memory requirements for these models are quite substantial. The residential building uses 2.8GB @ FHD and 4.5GB @ 4K, while the commercial development uses 5.5GB @ FHD and 6.9GB @ 4K. This was fine for our tests, as all five GPUs feature 8GB or more. It’s a double height board, with a max power consumption of 230W which it draws from the PSU via an 8-pin PCIe connector, but it’s still available in compact towers.