Hmm, can't help much but I can clear up some 'misconceptions'.

FireGLs are not that bad for playing games, its not that they are technically incaperble, but thier drivers are geared to high end OpenGL rendering, not your dodgy DirectX. Since FireGLs are based on the Radeon and the Quaddro is based on the GeForce, they are both as caperble at working on general 3D graphics but workstation cards do tend to be better at high end apps like Maya - mostly due to optimised drivers.

Also, just like in gaming, certain workstation cards are geared towards certain programs, so you should see benchmarks (I get them from 3D World) to figure out which is best for your intended app.

However workstation cards are designed be more reliable than your gaming card - some by Sapphire are really dodgy.

Furthermore, Alias does not recommend GeForce cards for Maya due to incompatibility problems. Apparently, this is still a cause for people frothing at the mouth.

And yeah, I read that alot of studios are dumping workstation equipment for cheaper stuff, but then, I think that they just can't afford better equipment. Just becuase more people use doesn't mean its better.

Can't help much with which card to use, one is optimised for Maya but has a smaller memory, one has more memory but could be slower.