frank1331 Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 I need to replace my current video card. I am looking for some advice on an inexpensive card that still performs. I have a couple of hundred to spend on the card. Any advice would be greatly appretiated. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 I got a FireGL v5100 on Ebay about 10 months ago for $225 new (pulled from a new computer, anyway) and it's pretty good. Probably under $200 if you found one now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank1331 Posted September 11, 2006 Author Share Posted September 11, 2006 Thanks AJ, I'll keep a look out for one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 I got a FireGL v5100 on Ebay about 10 months ago for $225 new (pulled from a new computer, anyway) and it's pretty good. Probably under $200 if you found one now. are you really pleased with that piece? I'm trying to figure out what I want for whatever new system I build and can't decide between a mid-range FireGL or a high end gaming 7900/7950gt (Quadros are just outta my range ATM)... which probably come out to about the same cost. The pixel pipes and clock speed of the gaming cards is just downright impressive but may not be worth it if the drivers are too lousy:confused: note: I don't game... on a computer;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 Well, I can beat 5000 in Cinebench OpenGL, and it does quite well in Cinema and Viz - my Boston model, which killed configurations I had before and became my benchmark for models that make a computer suck (I'm talking 1-3 FPS on a good day) is more like 10 FPS now in Viz and smooth in Cinema. That's with ATI's custom Max/Viz driver. So yeah, I'm very happy with the performance I'm getting. A lot of that is also driven by CPU speed. I had it in a P4-2800 before, and it was good but nowhere near spectacular. It outperformed my Athlon64-3000/Quadro4 900 and Macbook Pro 2.16/ATI x1600 256MB by a reasonable margin, but that's not much of a test for workstation 3D. I'd like to see what people are getting with OC'ed Core2's and Geforce cards. Might be that the CPU and RAM are so fast, a Conroe with a Geforce can perform as well as an older CPU and a Quadro, but I really don't know how to get numbers on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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