I think about to buy a K4000 3GB and ask me, how much could be the improvement over my GTX 285. The test would be quite simple - open the bike model -> enable shaded display mode -> _testmaxspeed.
My GTX285 needs approx. 28s for this test (if I turn advanced GPU lighting off 20s ). A Quadro 4000 needs approx. 15s. I’m curious for the K4000. If somebody like, he could disable the advanced GPU lighting off too.
Only doubled speed by a ten times higher price (100$ for an used GTX285 vs. 1000$ for a K4000) … .
There are no really big speed advantages of expensive pro cards and on the other side the speed of the modern medium GTX cards is to slow. At the moment nobody is happy, the semi-pro user and the pro-user don’t get what they want. When this situation will be fixed?
A HUGE advantage of the higher end cards is GPU real-time rendering. The new V-Ray 2.0 will give you some very nice previews in just a few seconds, all by using the CUDA / GPU processors. The Quadro K4000 has 768 GPUs if I remember correctly.
A single K4000 will also easily drive two 27 in (2560 x 1440) monitors. Its amazing for the price vs. performance.
Finally, hell yes, I would some day like my viewports to be more responsive for the price I am paying for these video cards. I am actually glad to see the other complaints on this issue so I don’t have to do it so often.