Vid card for beginner workstation

[getem]

I'm just wondering about what card I should get for pretty much a beginner at 3D Animation. Ive already ordered a 3.06 P4, a gig of pc3500 memory, 2 120gig ata133's, and an asus p4g8x mobo. I know that the Nvidia Quadro line is the card for workstations, but they're insanely expensive for obvious reasons. My main question is that for 400 I can get a GeForce FX 5800 Ultra and it it probably going to be the biggest baddest card on the market as far as gaming goes. Would this card hold up for using things like maya and 3ds MAX?? So the comparison is a $400 Quadro card vs. a $400 GeForce FX card thats going to be hands down the best when it comes out. THanks a lot...

 

[Bulldog13]

I've heard good things about voodoo's.

 

[Soulkeeper]

the quadro cost more and i don't think it is much justified
the Geforce FX line is great (less performance than ati's latest tho)
and since everything else is top of the line on that system might as well get a top of the line vid card

but for 3d rendering stuff like yur talking there is no real work being done on the vid card so anything will really work unless yur playing games

 

[getem]

So the FX5800Ultra Supermegabadass ... The 5800 Ultra would suffice? I figured that the rendering would be a major chunk of operation of the maching and it would mostly depend on CPU and memory which I think I have covered, and composition would be a vid card job that the 5800 wouldn't have too much of a problem with...

 

[KidChaos]

I believe there may be a way to software mod a 9700 pro to a high end Ati 3d workstation graphics card. For info, check Guru3D. Think the mod is called softFireGL.

 

[Remedy]

Read this.

 

[getem]

Wow, there is an obvious performance diff. I would imagine though that a 5800FX would perform obviously better than the 4600? I guess my main question is would a $400 quadro (obviously a lower model but still more geared towards 3d animation etc) out perform a 5800Ultra...

 

[Remedy]

It's not about just raw performance. Also wireframe(atleast for me) modeling accuracy is another feature to be looked at as well. Here is another review featuring Quadro's here. Me myself, I'm going for a WildCat VP560 this week or maybe even a Fire GL4(depending on finnancial partnes concentr

) But I don't work with 3DSM. If you're a Beginner, I can't really see you beating up 3DSM that bad where you would actually notice a difference. If you're looking for a Quadro below 400$, The Quadro 550 featured in that article can be purchased here or the Q4 7xx. Both cards seem to fit your budget of the 400$ mark. It's up to you on which one you want.

 

[Czar]

I'm learning 3ds max now ( 1 2 3 4 ) and I have a Radeon 9700 pro, it is enough, more than enough.

You do NOT want the Geforce fx dustbuster because when you are working in 3d you tend to work for hours with 3d in use and therefor the dustbuster in LOUD mode.

I'd recomend the Radeon 9500 pro for now, it has fast enough 3d and doesnt cost that much. When you get to the level of not being a 3d beginner then consider buying something fansier.

 

[Shooters]

You have to understand that the difference between professional 3D cards and gaming cards is that 3D workstation cards emphasize image accuracy and quality over speed. Even high end gaming cards can't produce the image that a professional 3D card is capable of; they simply can't render the finer details of a complex 3D model or scene. If you're serious about 3D workstation stuff then you won't get a gaming card. To tell you the truth, most of the Quadro line of cards are relatively inexpensive when compared to other professional 3D cards like the Wildcat which cost a few thousand dollars.

 

[Czar]

might also want to visit cgtalk.com and ask the people there

 

[Remedy]

You have to understand that the difference between professional 3D cards and gaming cards is that 3D workstation cards emphasize image accuracy and quality over speed

Exactly what I said. Couldn't agree more. If you can afford to build a Pentium4 3Ghz with that kind of memory and those HD's. There shouldn't be anything stopping you from purchasing a Quadro4 for work. It just makes sense.