Graphics Cards...

AshleyTayles

Hey guys.

I'm currently building an i5 system and all's going well apart from choosing the all crucial GPU. I use Nvidia software like the photoshop plugins and a few bits and bobs, would these run on an ATi card?

Basically, I have £120 to £130 (£140 stretching it) on a graphics card, what would you guys recommend based on experience with either ATi and nVidia?

eld

I'm pretty sure all those nvidia tools run through software.

AshleyTayles

Ok, but will 3DS Max and what not work with ATi? From what I've heard game devs should stick with Nvidia. But they're damn expensive compared to ATi.

Xoliul

Nvidia is still safer to choose. They just tend to work properly all the time. I've had many examples of ATi cards acting up with my shader in Max, while every single GeForce worked fine with it (except for Rasmus' 6100 ). There's probably more cases where ATi has problems with certain things.

vik

GTX260

Calabi

I'm using an old X1950 works fine in all the 3D packages I've tried(which is alot and I'm using 3DSMax now). There drivers are no more and no less reliable than Nvidia's unless someone comes up with definitive evidence to say otherwise.

Its a simple fact but at the moment(and I'm not being a fan boy in saying this) ATI have the cheapest and most powerful cards at the moment.

So if you want to spend more for less, then buy Nvidia. Otherwise buy ATI, perhaps the ATI HD 5770(if you can find any).

CompanionCube

ditto for the GTX260

waldo

Used a ATI in my last computer, 4870X2 card. Had lots of crash problems in Maya 2009. Then that computer got stolen and I bought a new one with the exact same components but changed the graphics card to a Nvidia GTX295. No problems at all, so if I were you I would chose a Nvidia.

Don't know if they are better or not, just worked better for me.

falcon21e

I would strongly suggest a Radeon HD 4870 512MB
Its the best card, in my opinion for, under $125.
Its got some nice specs, compared to other cards at the same price.

If you wanna stretch your wallet a bit further, then you could go for any of these 3 cards, which are slightly more expensive than the 4870 512MB:
-Radeon HD 4870 1GB
-GeForce GTX 260 (Core 216)
-Radeon HD 5770

These are all good choices to go for!

renderhjs

Always hated the driver model of ATI cards (catalyst interface,...). Their drivers were always less stable as the NVIDIA ones. So I choose to never pick up a ATI card anymore because it screwed to many times in combination with 3d apps and professional tools (i.e not games).

I am not saying that the NVIDIA drivers are perfect but they are way more stable and reliable for 3d working apps.

arrangemonk

its mostly a question of chipset, with my amd chipset the old ati card ran without issues and stuff, but the new nvidia gave lots of crashes (but this could also be related to the size of the card ruining the case intern air flow)

Ged

gtx260 good straight forward card, my ati4850 gave me no end of problems

FlyByKnight

Does anyone know which cards (nvidia or ati) are more suited to Maya and Lightwave?

Malus

If you look at Maya's 'qualified hardware' charts the NVidia GeForce cards aren't actually largely tested or in fact supported.

http://download.autodesk.com/us/qualcharts/2010/maya2010_qualifiedgraphics_win.pdf

Its the same with Max.

http://download.autodesk.com/us/qualcharts/2010/3dsmax2010SP1_qualifiedgraphics_win.pdf

Personally I've had numerous issues in Maya with the 7,8 and 9 series Geforce cards in recent times, both at work and at home.


I think we've all just been lucky for the most part. :P