A good GPU for CGI?

Hey guys,

I'm really confused as to what counts as a good GPU.
I've been using this benchmarking site to compare them.

I had chosen a GTX580 as it seemed to be the best. With a capacity of 1.5gb I thought thats great.
Then I heard of the GTX590 and saw that's 3gb and at twice the price, so I was going to go with that.
Now I've been told that the Quadro or FirePRO are better choices for CGI and those cards are specifically for gaming; I thought anything good for gaming would be equally good for CGI..
Comparing an $800 Quadro or FirePRO, they tend to be 2gb whereas the GTX590 is 3gb. In a situation with a budget, is it true that one of those would still be the better choice, and if so why?
Does the 'capacity' not mean much, and are there possibly hidden attributes I'm either not hearing or interpreting?

Thanks for your time,
Tony

 

Nope! You really need a good "workstation" graphics card for CAD/CAE, graphics design and CGI/CGA work. Think of this way, both a sports car and a truck can get you from point A to point B. If you need to get there as fast as you can, you take the sports car. But if you have to haul a travel trailer, the truck is the right tool for the job. Even if you buy the top-of-the-line sports car, it still will not be the best at towing trailers. Nor will the top-of-line truck be the best at the track.

Note here, a high-end workstation card can be a real budget buster so you really need to decide what your priority is; work or play?