Advice for buying graphic card for 3d application

[LuckyStudio 13]

256mb vs 512mb ?? Is there a real need to go higher than 256mb ?

Also, what are the benefits and perks for going with Nvidia Quadro ?? Is the Quadro the standard of the industry or are they any other choices available ??

What about the cheaper gaming graphic card ?? Is it better to get 2 SLI card vs 1 quadro ?

Thanks again for all your wisdom and help.

 

[Anhar_Miah]

Using a Graphics card will help towards displaying the viewports of your 3d application, however do not be mistaken in thinking it will have any impact on render times (unless you use GPU rendering solutions such as Gleato form Nvidia)

As I understand it the Nvidia Quadro is used in some 3d workstations and has good feedback, it is expensive hence many users tend to by the lower spec'ed 8 and 7 series and use a soft modification that allows them to work somewhat like the Quadro (although in terms of hardware there are some differences).

Take a look at Tom's hardware Webpage for more details on the Quadro and check out the 3d benchmarks for comparisons.

 

[AbstracTheory]

I wouldn't spend the money for QuadroFX unless I had deep pockets.. Assuming you're using an PC, i would set up an SLI config using whatever the newest nvidia (prob 8800) and that should help with rendering.. And there shouldn't really be any difference with the quality between the different cards, its rendering time.. The better the card, the faster your render.. Don't forget, that your cpu processor is also a variable in the equation..

 

[Anhar_Miah]

Huh? Graphics cards has no effect on rendering times, it will be the same UNLESS you use GPU rendering, eg. Nvidia's "Gleato", which I've tried and I'm not to thrillled by its renders.

Now if your talking about viewport rendering then yes, you would see a difference in that case.

 

[Matt Grunau]

Huh? Graphics cards has no effect on rendering times, it will be the same UNLESS you use GPU rendering, eg. Nvidia's "Gleato", which I've tried and I'm not to thrillled by its renders.

Now if your talking about viewport rendering then yes, you would see a difference in that case.

What he said. We are not talking gaming here, where a graphics card can flex its muscles and be noticed. None of the 3D programs I have even heard of will by default take a standard graphics card and have it assist in the render. It just doesn't work that way.

As Anhar mentioned, you can get something like the Gleato, or even the Quadro series (which are workstation cards and not a gaming cards) and if you have things set up properly, it will assist in rendering.

A standard Nvidia card will not. Again, as Anhar said, such cards will help with display, they will speed up rotations in your perspective view with lots of textures, but that is where they stop. They are not meant for rendering, and that is why there is an entirely different class of cards (much more expensive) that will assist with the render.

It seems like a waste of perfectly good computing power, and it is, but that's the way the software is set up. If you want a card to assist in rendering, you are going to pay out the nose for it. And while it will help, for the money you spend on it, you could probably make 4 custom built computers (nothing more that absolute bare bones systems at about 300 per) and make yourself a nice render farm.

But a standard "gaming" card will do nothing for rendering.