Choosing a video card

luishs1024

in Integration and Hardware • 1 year ago

Hi,

I'm searching for a new computer and I want to make a good decision about the graphics card to use with Processing and OpenGL to have some extra power for some sketches.

The thing is, I'm primarily an Industrial Designer, so my search of video cards has taken me to the NVidia Quadro and AMD FirePro families, better for precise CAD rendering, but in the other hand are the multimedia-gaming video cards like the GeForce 's or Radeon's, better for fast image rendering and increase frame rate.

I don't know really how do the cards work or how OpenGL manage the tasks sent to the card, but will it make a huge difference between choosing one or another video card? I tend to think that maybe a multimedia one could be better because visual sketches basically render plenty of fps, but if I knew it I wouldn't ask ;)

I appreciate your advice

Luis H

Replies(3)

barlow011

Re: Choosing a video card

1 year ago

beware with GeForce 400 and 500 lines:

"It has been reported by users as well as developers [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] that nVidia 400-series cards have severe performance problems with 3D content-creation applications such as Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max, Blender, Rhinoceros 3D—as well as some OpenGL games—to the extent that video cards two generations older routinely outperform 400-series in such applications and games. The problem, which affects any OpenGL application using textures, involves accessing framebuffer contents or storing data on the GPU. So far, one customer using an OpenGL based application got a response from nVidia support indicating that the behavior is expected in the GeForce 400 line of cards, and no software update will help improving the performance of the hardware.[21]. The problem can be worked around with a hack by using a CUDA memory copy to access the buffer object."

d.

barlow011

Re: Choosing a video card

1 year ago

any advice?
I'm getting crazy with my Nvidia GTX 560...

luishs1024

Re: Choosing a video card

1 year ago

Hey thanks for the answer, it helps me a lot because I was thinking about a GT 560M (I need it for laptop) and now I guess is not an option. I had also GTX 660M on mind, but I've research some more and I found that Professional cards could work better (NVidia Cuadro and AMD FirePro).
According to NVidia and AMD sites, those cards are designed specifically for tasks that involve 3D content-creation and are optimized for software like SolidWorks, Rhinoceros and several Autodesk Software. I also found on Dell's site some recommendations for choosing a graphics card that give a clue about what to choose, though they recommend always the same ( http://content.dell.com/ca/en/business/d/help-me-choose/hmc-precision-graphics-card).
I'm now almost decided to get a Quadro K2000M or a FirePro M4000, they look like powarful enough and affordable. I'll give some feedback here when I get it, maybe about a month.

NVidia Quadro: http://www.nvidia.com/object/workstation-solutions.html
AMD FirePro: http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphics/ati-firepro-3d/Pages/ati-firepro-3d.aspx

LH.

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