Graphics card recommendation?

[Respa Lio]

Hi,

I`m looking to upgrade my graphics card and need some advice for recommendations on what card to get next. I'm currently using Geforce 570 GTX with i7 2600 and 8G memory.
I use a graphics software like 3d max, autocad and maya. I`m looking for somthing to improve viewport, gpu rendering.

If anyone could help me make a more informed decision, it would be greatly appreciated. What would you recommend getting? How about the Quadro 4800/5000/6000?

Thanks!

[El Dian]

How does the Geforce 570 GTX handle viewport in 3ds max?

[Krisztian Gulyas]

Quadro is better for improving viewport, but if you'll use the card for gpu rendering too you better get a GTX680 or something similar. It has enough on board memory to navigate through large scenes and it can render images fast. But why dont you buy both? A Quadro and a GTX?
Here's a link i found about comparing Quadro/GTX/Tesla graphics cards:
http://jeffpatton.net/2010/11/gtxqua...for-rendering/
I hope it helps.

[Dimitris Tolios]

The latest nVidia GTX cards are not optimal for OpenGL viewport acceleration.
It is a well known fact and did not change much through 400/500 or newer 600 series cards.

OpenGL and viewport performance in general is irrelevant to GPU rendering capabilities. You are in the weird position to own a pretty powerful GPU for GPU accelerated rendering: the GTX 570 is actually faster than all the Fermi Quadros (2000/4000/5000/6000) for that task.

So, it boils down to viewport performance. Quadro 4000+ will give you better viewport performance, but it comes at a great price...
You could also use a Radeon card as your display card - 2GB Radeons could do a great job for OpenGL programs like Maya.
AutoCAD and 3DS are primarily Direct3D accelerated, where GTXs do fine usually.

If you decide to get another card - which i don't know if you need or think you need - and you are still interested in GPU accelerated rendering, consider keeping your GTX 570 to work as a GPU rendering card. No single card will give you enough performance boost over the 570 you already have to make it worthwhile to change. GPU accelerated rendering once you have one 480/570/580 which are some of the best in the field, is getting noticeably better only by adding more cards.

gpu_chart2.png
* The above is from the Chaosgroup VRay official forum.

[Marcin Pabich]

Is it possible to have in computer one radeon card for displays and second another from nVidia for rendering? I wonder how to build such a configuration and how it works?

[Dimitris Tolios]

Is it possible to have in computer one radeon card for displays and second another from nVidia for rendering? I wonder how to build such a configuration and how it works?

Yes.
Just like you can have a Quadro and one or more GeForce cards, you can have multiple radeons etc at any configuration.

Your primary display card is the only one connected to your monitor/monitors.

All the Cuda/OpenCL enabled devices are automatically recognized by the software that takes advantage of GPU acceleration. You don't need SLI/Crossfire or any other physical connection between the cards.

Cards do not need too be the same model / same VRam size etc. The only limitation is that each card has to be able to fit the model + assets (textures etc) in its own VRam Buffer.

E.g. Say you have 3 cards, all recognized by your renderer:
A) 1024MB (1GB)
B) 1536MB (1.5GB)
C) 2048MB (2GB)

If you have a rendering job <1GB, all three can render simultaneusly.
If you have a 1GB < job < 1.5GB, B and C can work together.
If you have jobs moret than 1.5GB and less than 2GB, only card C will contribute.

There have been reported issues with having both graphic drivers from AMD and nVidia active, but un-installing and re-installing them a couple of times usually fixes stuff.

[Marcin Pabich]

Thanks! It's very intresting option. I didn't knew that it is possible. Thanks again