Maybe you are interested in the information tomshardware provides in the link.
www.tomshardware.co.uk/amd-firepro-v8700,review-31526-10.html
It's about the difference of an ATI workstation grafics card compared to a gaming model. Both cards are more or less the same reading their hardware. But they use a very different driver.
If money is not an isuue the workstation model seems to be the best choice for 3d apps. But they are slow if it comes to DirectX games because the driver is optimized for openGL.
I have an ATI  FirePro 8700. It's amazingly fast with Lightwave but not very good with 3dGames. On the other hand I have an ATI 5830 gaming card. It's good for gaming but only soso for 3d apps.

Regarding poser the 5830 gaming card is ok. I have the feeling that posers grafics engine has room for optimization. Especially if you use the posing or face camera it slows down incredibly. That happens with both of my cards. Seems to be a poser issue not a grapics card one.