Advice about purchasing mid level graphics card for 3dsmax 8

[sachin walvekar]

hi guys,

I am using 3ds max 8 & Vray 1.5rc2. Currently I do not have a budget to purchase hi end graphics cards. Need advice for a mid level graphics card that will show Vray materials in my material editor quickly & give me good looking previews of materials applied when I select option "Smooth + higlights". Please advice if there is anthing important I am missing & also some advice about suppport for directx 9, 10.....& if this really matters.

Thanks & regards,
sachin.

[Marcus Krott]

The Fire-GL family seems to have a good price-performance ratio and comes with optimized Max drivers. I am using a older v5000. We also use the v3300 in our office. Both are quite cheap cards with good performance.
Marcus Krott
www.einherzfuerpixel.de
3D Rendering, Animation und Architektur-Visualisierung - Aachen

[Andrew Lynn]

What do you mean by "mid level"? I've got a FireGL v5200 and a QuadroFX 1500, both of which I'd consider mid level, and both are very good.

[sachin walvekar]

hi,

Thanks AJLynn & classix for your advice. I checked the cost of these and they r between USD 400 To USD 500. These r still on the higher side for me....being in India. My budget is about USD 200 max right now. I will need to save for this.

In the meantime if any one is using now I should say low level graphics card & is able to see the VRAY materials quickly in browser ......without having to wait minutes together for the material slots to be rendered, Please do let me know.

Thanks & Regards,
sachin.

[Andrew Lynn]

Showing the Vray materials in the browser is a function of the Vray renderer - which is based entirely on CPU speed, not video card. A video card will not improve this - it will only improve the speed of refreshing, moving and changing things in the viewport windows.

If you want to improve that, first check that you are using Direct3D for your 3D display (Direct3D is best with most consumer video cards) and then, if you want to improve it and don't want to spend on a pro card, go with a Geforce card - you can find a 7950 for about $200 if you shop around.

[Ali Rizwan]

I think you should go for Nvidea 7950 , this is best card in this budget. My friend has it and i have checked with heavy meshes and scenes, it works better than other cards.