Best CAD/3D Animation card for under $1000?

[yhelothar]

I'm helping a friend out who has a doctorate in 3d animation.

I was looking at the Quadro FX 4600, but that thing costs $1500.

I'm thinking about just getting her the GeForce 8800GTS 512MB. I'm quite certain that's still quicker than anything she's used so far.

How would the quadro fx 4600 compare with the geforce 8800gts 512MB?
If it's only 2-3 quicker, I'd just have her get the 8800gts. But if it's significantly quicker, then it'd probably be worth it for her to pony up the extra cash to buy it, since money isn't that big of an issue fo her. But at the same time, she doesn't want to spend an extra thousand+ for something that's not going to give her significant gains.

 

[imported_wired247]

From what I've heard through the grapevine, gaming graphics cards are practically worthless for workstation type of applications.

I am not an expert, so please don't take this as gospel, but gaming cards are not the way to go.

 

[yhelothar]

I thought they're the same thing aside the fact that quadros have special drivers that allow them to run extremely boosed opengl performance enhancements?

The fact that you were able to softmod the geforces to quadros for the longest time is a testament to this. Unfortunately, now nvidia has found ways to circumvent this technique, on top of the additions of 1.5GB quadros.

 

[biostud]

apperently the the Ati fireGL v7600 should be good:

http://www.hothardware.com/art...Graphics_Card/?page=11

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: astroidea
I'm helping a friend out who has a doctorate in 3d animation.

I was looking at the Quadro FX 4600, but that thing costs $1500.

I'm thinking about just getting her the GeForce 8800GTS 512MB. I'm quite certain that's still quicker than anything she's used so far.

How would the quadro fx 4600 compare with the geforce 8800gts 512MB?
If it's only 2-3 quicker, I'd just have her get the 8800gts. But if it's significantly quicker, then it'd probably be worth it for her to pony up the extra cash to buy it, since money isn't that big of an issue fo her. But at the same time, she doesn't want to spend an extra thousand+ for something that's not going to give her significant gains.

Which applications ?
I do 3d animation and the only application that I have used that really benefits from a quadro card is Maya 2008. The performance increase is not over the entire application but just when using a few parts of the program.

8800GTS will work fine 99% of the time. You want as much ram on the card as possible . Go for a 640MB card if you can. I have used a 7900gtx with scenes upwards of 20million polygons without problems.

The main thing you get from a quadro card is support. If your having problems with the program and its video related, with the quadro you can contact nvidia and they will do their best to solve the problem. With gaming cards your pretty much on your own.

I haven't had to contact nvidia in a long time though.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

the video card wont do jack for rendering performance. the 8800gts should display whatever shes working on just fine.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
the video card wont do jack for rendering performance. the 8800gts should display whatever shes working on just fine.

Not entirely true.
When you start working with lots of polygons the video card does have to render those in the viewport. Even more so with textured polygons. Thats why I said all the memory you can, because texturing in 3d often uses very large textures. 4096x4096 is not uncommon and those use vram like crazy, especially at high resolutions.

Also if you use gelato it uses the fpu on the card to render final output.

 

[yhelothar]

I actually found a 1GB 8800GT at newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814121225
This looks pretty ideal. The price is outstanding.

So the Quadro FX 4600 at $1500 won't really have any advantages at all to this $300 card? Am I getting this right?

 

[cboath]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
the video card wont do jack for rendering performance. the 8800gts should display whatever shes working on just fine.

Not entirely true.
When you start working with lots of polygons the video card does have to render those in the viewport. Even more so with textured polygons. Thats why I said all the memory you can, because texturing in 3d often uses very large textures. 4096x4096 is not uncommon and those use vram like crazy, especially at high resolutions.

Also if you use gelato it uses the fpu on the card to render final output.

Viewport rendering it will help with, obviously. Final output rendering - no. There are additional apps Render(something or other) that claim it makes use of the gpu on final renderings. Not sure how valid that is though, but no program does it natively.

If your friend is getting a doctorate in animation, should they know what card they want? I can't imagine being at that level of talent and education in the field and not knowing exactly what card i want - and for what particular reasons. I've got years of animation and modeling background and I do know what card I want - and it's the 4600. Paying for it is another issue

 

[yhelothar]

I just found this
http://features.cgsociety.org/...p?story_id=3321&page=2

It seems to show even the lowest in quadro being much more powerful than the 7800GTX.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: cboath


Viewport rendering it will help with, obviously. Final output rendering - no. There are additional apps Render(something or other) that claim it makes use of the gpu on final renderings. Not sure how valid that is though, but no program does it natively.

Nvidia Gelato works with any nvidia card and does make use of the gpu to decrease render time.

Maya has built-in support for hardware rendering on the video card.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: astroidea
I just found this
http://features.cgsociety.org/...p?story_id=3321&page=2

It seems to show even the lowest in quadro being much more powerful than the 7800GTX.

The only problem with the article is its age.
It was done with old drivers and old versions of the programs.
Ask around the cgtalk forums and you will see many people prefer the 8800 cards.

Of the cards I use on the low end is the 7900gtx and the high end is the quadro 5600.
I really can't tell the difference between the 8800 and the 5600, except that maya supports hardware rendering better on the 5600.

 

[tuteja1986]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814195051 << fastest for CAD under $1000.

 

[yhelothar]

Thanks,
I think I'm going to get her that FireGL card in the end.
It looks like a good bang for the buck.

 

[sgrinavi]

The last generation of dedicated modeling video cards and software were optimized around openGL and built for stability. The new versions 3dsMax are optimized for directX, they work VERY well with the 8800 series cards.

I have a dual processor xeon workstation with a 4500 quadro card at the office, I gave it to one of my draftsman to use and "downgraded" to a quadcore with an 8800GTS-- I get better results and am actually more stable. At home I run my 6600 OC'd with an 800GTX, it smokes the quadro.

I would look at that 8800GTS (g92).

 

[qbfx]

@ sgrinavi: the GTS smokes the quadro in what ? rendering
Make 300 spheres with 100 segments each, put some 2048x2048 textures and try to move them in the viewport, you'll see who smokes who ... GeForces ought nothing to Quadros, Wildcats, FireGLs etc

 

[sgrinavi]

No so much on the rendering... but, ya, with an app optimized for DirectX, I use 3dsMAX 9, my 8800 cards outperform my quadros. The low end quadros are not even in the same league, the high end one is fair, but still not as good as the 8800...

Originally posted by: qbfx
@ sgrinavi: the GTS smokes the quadro in what ? rendering
Make 300 spheres with 100 segments each, put some 2048x2048 textures and try to move them in the viewport, you'll see who smokes who ... GeForces ought nothing to Quadros, Wildcats, FireGLs etc

 

[Randybob]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: cboath


Viewport rendering it will help with, obviously. Final output rendering - no. There are additional apps Render(something or other) that claim it makes use of the gpu on final renderings. Not sure how valid that is though, but no program does it natively.

Nvidia Gelato works with any nvidia card and does make use of the gpu to decrease render time.

Maya has built-in support for hardware rendering on the video card.

True, but I haven't seen any good results from it yet. Software rendering has done a much better job from what I've seen.

 

[gorobei]

maya playblast is usually done with the hardware render setting. animators generally need playblasts to check general shot timing at the correct framerate because the OGL playback isn't guaranteed to play correctly even with skip frames turned on. though you don't need the highest end card to do a playblast.

the fireGL and quadro cards really only pwn when it comes to anti-aliased realtime wireframe rendering. that's when the custom drivers really come into play.

 

[qbfx]

Originally posted by: gorobei
the fireGL and quadro cards really only pwn when it comes to anti-aliased realtime wireframe rendering. that's when the custom drivers really come into play.

You forgot to mention that they pwn also when you're using complex models with many objects and polygons and large textures. In other words, for a professional, they pwn all gaming cards in general. If you make a 100-object-model with a couple of hundred tousand polygons it's clear you wont notice a difference. Once you try to model a master plan with 50-100 buildings, each with furniture and textures, I'm sure you'll know the 8800 should stay where it belongs to - low-poly RT pos