Not only do professional workstation graphics cards offer better performance and stability, but they are optimized for professional applications and certified by top software vendors like Autodesk and Solidworks, promising better results.

In NVIDIA’s case, consumer GeForce cards are built by outside partners such as PNY, while professional Quadro is manufactured by NVIDIA internally and is therefore “vouched for,” allowing you access to technical support, which doesn’t come with the consumer cards.

Lower-end Quadro boards like the Quadro FX 380 and 580 are now just as cheap as consumer cards, yet offer these additional features not available with GeForce.

The differences are sublte architectural and design differences, because they generally do have the same memory bandwidth and pixel pipes as their GeForce Counterparts. Its more a matter of how the card uses it resources. If you really want an in depth technical explanation, take a read of this:http://www.3dprographics.com/workstationgraphics.pdf
it is a bit old, bit still applies.

In simplest the Quadros support some graphics processing that the gaming cards don’t. The gaming cards are good, but they dont need to be able to handle the same range of tasks that one designed for a more general graphics workstation. If you’re working with Maya/3d Studio/ect you’re going to be much better off with a Quardo based card.

The NVIDIA Quardro cards are a workstation graphics card. They are built for heavy graphics processing. If you can afford one Id drop it on the Quadro. That is if your serious about working with heavy 3d graphics and video. Otherwise, stick to the GeForce line they are a great card especially the higher end ones. It may suit your needs unless you intend to make money doing 3d modeling and animation.