oxygen vs geforce

[MrPG]

Just wondering if someone could justify why 3d labs oxygen cards are so expensive as compared to geforce cards... from the specs i don't really see a differnce that would justify a oxygen gvx1 costing $500usd and a geforce3 costing $300usd.

This is not for gaming... i'm thinking of purchasing a card for 3d work/compositing and I have the change to buy a oxygen gvx1 agp refurbed for 300 or a geforce3 or even 4 for around the same price, but from the few benchmarks I've seen of the oxygen card its seems to get pretty good competition from a geforce2 so one would assume a gf3 would blow it out the water?


Anyone use a oxygen card? or know anything about em.

 

[aldamon]

Why stop at the GF3 comparison? The GeForce4 professional cards are now out and they are EXTREMELY impressive AND cost effective:

Professional Card Roundup

I don't think an Oxgen can touch those numbers.

 

[rogue1979]

The Quadro2 Pro or Geforce 2 chipset outperforms the Quadro DCC or Geforce 3 chipset in professional 3D applications. You can save a bundle by simply buying a Geforce 2 Ti 64MB card for $80 and having it resistor modified to a Quadro 2 Pro. You can then flash the bios to the Nvidia reference bios and load true Gloria drivers if that's what you want. It is very easy to do, lots of info available for the mod. Quadro2 mod. Or there are plenty of people on this forum who can do it for you. Check out my sig, this is what I have done to my Gainward Geforce 2 Ti 500, but I don't have any professional graphics programs to test it.

 

[RSMemphis]

Anyone use a oxygen card? or know anything about em.
Two words for you: line anti-aliasing.

This makes lines appear much smoother, which is important for CAD applications, but it is better suited than regular anti-aliasing.
For word processing, DVDs, games, a GeForce will perform same or better.
For CAD/CAM, technical drawing, the oxygen is a good idea.

 

[AA0]

While the cards might not be too impressive, its the drivers you pay for. Nvidia drivers can't even get close to true professional drivers, and now that nvidia's only quadro manufacturer is gone, they are in trouble.

Both the oxygen and fire cards are able to do a lot more then normal graphics cards. They typically come with faster and more memory then standard graphics cards too. Image accuracy is more important then speed most of the time.
The GF4 is very fast, but both the firegl 8800 and wildcat III are fast, and you get the support you pay for.

 

[Rand]

The Oxygen VX1 is a couple years old and wholly out-dated and easily out-classed by any modern professional graphics card. The WildCat II is 3DLabs current low-to mid renage series of graphics cards. I wouldnt in any way suggest purchasing the VX1, even when compared to the mainstream GF3's.

If your comfortable with potentially iffy support for the Quadro 2 Pro in the future then that is an excellent low end option, and a mainstream GF2 Ti/Pro can easily be 'converted' into a full Quadro 2 Pro.
The Quadro DCC still has some driver/performance issues and a regular GF3/4 would not be a better option then the Quadro2 Pro for 3DModelling/Animation/CAD etc.

From what you've said I'd personally strongly recommend looking into buying an dconverting a GF2 Pro/Ti into a full Quadro 2 Pro. If Elsa's demise and the and hence nVidia being left to their own potentially dubious abilities in the professional market worries you then I can only suggest spending the bit extra for a FireGL 2, or WildCat 4110/WildCat II 5000 which are certainly extremely good cards with excellent driver support, and very respectable performance.

This thread may be of interest to you.