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Question about graphics card...


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I'll be configuring a new workstation in the near future but cannot decide on graphics.

Most probably I'll get 30" LCD from DELL (or hopefuly two of them). Their resolution is 2560x1600 and they require Dual-link DVI (or Dual Dual-link DVIs for dual monitor setup) As far as I know there are only 3 cards that support Dual Dual-link DVIs:

nVidia QuadroFX 4500 (512 Mb)

nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX (512 Mb)

ATI FireGL v7350 (1Gb)

 

I've always been using Quadros, but FX 4500 is older than 7900 GTX (and 3 times more expensive) and there is no Quadro version of 7900 GTX (not yet)... Also I know nothing about FireGL...

 

And the 3D performance (OpenGL)... Will running 2x 30" monitors from a single card degrade performance too much? Or it's a better idea to get 2 cards for each monitor?

 

The applications I use: AutoCAD (we're getting 2007 soon), MAX+VRay, Photoshop...

 

Thanks in advance.

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I have a similar question... I will soon be getting a McLaren F1 car. I am thinking of getting two of them. The question I have is should I get a spoiler on it or not. Will that effect my gas mileage? Mainly will be using it to go to and from work.

 

Get the Ferrari.

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Wow. As Chris suggested, I don't have the frame of reference to answer that question. If you have the budget you seem to have, get the high-end Quadro, that will outperform the others in Max. Check whether your motherboard has dual PCI Express x16 slots, and check with your vendor wheher you can use two cards for two monitors and whether they can be different cards. You're probably not going to have Max 3D viewports on both, so my suggestion would be to get one Quadro and if you are not happy with the performance, later on add a second card, which does not have to be as good as the first.

 

I use a FireGL v5100 with a 1600x1200 monitor and am happy with it, but Quadros are faster in Max. I don't have enough info on the new set of FireGLs to say much about those.

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To Christopher Nichols

 

I was serious...

The monitors can be purchased from ebay for $1,600 with warranty and stuff...

It's the price of a decent 32"-37" LCD HDTV...

Plus the tv won't have that resolution...

 

To AJLynn

 

I know that Quadro is better for MAX (been using Quadros w/ 2x 22" CRT @1600x1200 for years) the only problem is Quadro is "older" than 7900 GTX and also 2x7900 GTX cost less than 1xFX 4500.

 

Personally I think that for Arch. work QuadroFX 1400 is more than enough but it does not support resolutions higher than 1920x1200...

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We are running pretty packed Dell precisions P4 (4gb-ram/3.4 Gz) with the Nvidia GTX 7800 PCI Express 512 on board, it has standard two DVI output-slots and yes...two flatpanel FP2100 20" (1920px res). Never had a problem, running very smooth with the larger datasets.

 

Go for that option, regards.

Dennis

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To DennisHolland

As I said I've been using 2x 20-22" displays for years and now I definetly want something larger. 2x 24" @ 1920x1200 might be an option but they have only 320 pixels more than regular 1600x1200 20"-22"... The larger options are either 2x30" or 3x or 4x 20"-22"... But personally I never worked with more than 2 monitors so I don't know...

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