Video card advice for 3D apps

alyen

What video card is best suited for using both Maya and 3D Studio Max?
My main 3D software is Maya so I have been considering an Nvidia FX, but they seem like it could be outdated and expensive if a new version of Maya is release that is more compatible with other/new video cards.

Has anyone tried a GeForce 8 series with Maya and/or 3DS Max? I really would like to get the hardware rendering to work.
I would think this would be good for gaming and quite possibly for 3D Max.

I will most likely try to hold off on buying a new system until a new version of Maya is release.

Jesse Moody

yeah go with Nvidia. Ati has had major issues with maya and i can talk about that first hand. Can't go wrong with the new 8 series either. Look around on Toms hardware for reviews. While it's nice to go after that 8800 GTX ULTRA MEGA SUPER DUPER PLANET EXPLODER LIQUID COOLED version you can usually get 2 of the middle range cards for the price of one of the high end ones and your performance will be much better.

Rob Galanakis

Avoid the 8600.

I would go with one or two 7900's if you don't want to plunk down for an 8800.

Jesse Moody

why avoid the 8600? and I meant more go towards the 8800 GTS. You can get 2 for under 700.

CrazyButcher

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_NVIDIA_Graphics_Processing_Units

the best value to compare performance of cards is comparing "fillrate". You will see that the cheaper geforce7/8 cards have similar performance as say top model of 5 year old geforce4. However what is more important is that latest cards are more capable in features, be aware so that actual speed might be equal to such older cards.

as maya is opengl-based I'd also agree to stick with nvidia, their opengl support is better so far.

alyen

Thanks for the advice guys.
I am considering going for one Nvidia 8800 or possibly two 8600. I'm not likely to do much gaming with this system, but I would still like to try some out every now and then.

Rob Galanakis

alyen: You have your answer for compatibility (nVidia), if you are going to spend the money it'd be worth doing a bit more research and advice from hardware-specific forums, such as http://icrontic.com/forum/

They will make sure you purchase the optimal card for your budget and taking into account your current system specs.

CrazyButcher

don't forget that power consumption on the top cards can be insane, and require higher power supply. Also keep in mind that 3d apps, mostly do not render viewport stuff in the most efficient way, like game engines can, as topology changes and so on. Also because raw perfomance in those top cards is more towards shading power, which isnt used much in viewport either... so before spending lots of money on a top card, try to do more research as professor suggests.

almighty_gir

more RAM > top of the line card.

cheaper too.

alyen

I have been researching more, and am narrowing down my limitations and selections. My system will probably functiona more as a work station and am not likely to play any games on it.

It's probably more important for me to get a fast processor and more RAM than worry about the video card. A good Quadro card that has support for Windows Vista 64 Bit would be too expensive. I would like to be able to do hardware rendering in Maya, but I could do without it.

alyen

Has anyone tried the Quadro FX4600? I'm assembling a new system on sale and considering to go for this video card. The card is not on sale, but would bring my system performance up.

Does the price for Quadro Series ever drop in prices like game cards? The Quadro looks to be a speciality item everywhere. I only started monitoring the prices for the Quadro recently, but feel the price may never or not significantly be lower.

CrazyButcher

quadros biggest benefit I think is special drivers (think maxtreeme) that accelerate wireframe drawing mostly... I never fully understood the cost/performance benefit of them. We have several "CAD" cards like fire GL and quadros at university, but I couldn't see huge performance boost over regular cards... though the cards we have arent top of the line either.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_ws2007.html

here is some benchmarks, sadly no comparison with normal cards... but maybe one can get the tools they used for benching

EarthQuake

IMO quadros simply arent worth it, you get way more for your money just buying say a 8800 or something. Theres no real value in that market, they make cheaper quadros but those are even more worthless. As CB says, they're mostly good at things like, drawing antialiased wireframe and shit with tons of polys, totally useless when you consider if you've got 1,000,000+ polys you'll likely be viewing it smooth shaded in a program like mudbox sculpting on it. Wireframe performance and this like that related to gamedev, 99% of the time you'de be worried about that on a lowpoly model, which your grandma's video card could probablly handle just fine.

I could be wrong here, and someone with exp with these cards feel free to let me know if i am. But you will spend a fuckton of cash on a good quadro card, that will be matched/outperformed by a top of the line 8800 in most every usefull situation with gamedev related production.

So put that extra money you would spend into the cpu, and as much ram as you can posibly get(4 gigs atleast?), because for super high res stuff that is what actually counts, not your video card.

aesir

i'd agree with eq. I dont see much of a difference between using a high end quadro and nice gamer cards.

However, rendering time certainly is improved with the quadro at work. but thats not so much gamedev related.

EarthQuake

Also whats with the 8600 hate? Is this latest *600 model shit or something? I've got a 7600 at work here and a 6600 gt in my home system and both cards have given extremely good performance for their price.

Asthane

[ QUOTE ]
Also whats with the 8600 hate? Is this latest *600 model shit or something? I've got a 7600 at work here and a 6600 gt in my home system and both cards have given extremely good performance for their price.

[/ QUOTE ]

According to Tom's Hardware, the 8600GT "slightly beats" the 7600, and I've had other people gague it significantly slower than a 7900, so sounds like crap with DX10 slapped on the label to me, though I have no direct experience with it.

Jesse Moody

[ QUOTE ]
According to Tom's Hardware, the 8600GT "slightly beats" the 7600, and I've had other people gague it significantly slower than a 7900, so sounds like crap with DX10 slapped on the label to me, though I have no direct experience with it.

[/ QUOTE ]

BUT if you did not have a 7900 previously which is still more expensive then 8600s then it's not a bad card to get. Usually people wont upgrade from a 7900 to an 8600 so it does make sense and if you are looking for a cheap dx10 card this is an entry level one to get which does have a leg up on any dx9 card for dx10 based games.

I still have a 7800 GTX in my desktop and i'm happy with that until i build my quad core rig. (PRICES JUST DROPPED BY INTEL BY THE WAY)

EarthQuake

Actually the 7900 is pretty close in price to the 8600 seems like they go for like $115-160 on newegg these days, and the 8600 is in the 100-115 range. But honestly, $100 for a dx10 card? Not really what i'de consider all that crappy.

Asthane

[ QUOTE ]
BUT if you did not have a 7900 previously which is still more expensive then 8600s then it's not a bad card to get. Usually people wont upgrade from a 7900 to an 8600 so it does make sense and if you are looking for a cheap dx10 card this is an entry level one to get which does have a leg up on any dx9 card for dx10 based games.

[/ QUOTE ]

Eh, maybe, but I expect the next generation of a specific number to be more than 'slightly better' than last year's. Most users likely don't have Vista and if they're buying cheap cards, they'll probably be ready to upgrade by the time they do anyway. That's how I see it though, I'm not exactly the expert

Jesse Moody

[ QUOTE ]
Actually the 7900 is pretty close in price to the 8600 seems like they go for like $115-160 on newegg these days, and the 8600 is in the 100-115 range. But honestly, $100 for a dx10 card? Not really what i'de consider all that crappy.

[/ QUOTE ]

i haven't checked prices to compare lately so i guess i am a bit off. I know when i tried to get another 7800 gtx to go with mine so i could sli they were still like 350. So with that price i would just get a new 8 series card.

m1ND

Stay away from GeForce if you will be using Maya - thats all i have to say.

Jesse Moody

[ QUOTE ]
Stay away from GeForce if you will be using Maya - thats all i have to say.

[/ QUOTE ]

WHAT? I think you got that backwords... Everyone has issues with ATI cards from what I understand. I know that was the case for me. I have never had a problem with my nvidia cards and maya.

CrazyButcher

http://www.spec.org/gpc/downloadindex.html

one can get the "pro benchmark" here, it would let us allow compare quadro with regular cards... Sadly they never use regular cards in comparisons (their website and others only have numbers for quadro and such)...

alyen

I just a my new system and am glad I went with the NVidia Geforce 8800GTS. It seems to run quite fast with 3D/2D software.
Now I just have to wait till software is Vista Ready and 64 bit.