which graphics card should I tell the office to spend money on?

[TheArch]

If I understand correctly, max 9 now runs naitively in DirectX 9.0c, instead of OpenGL. That being said, if my office provided me say 700$ to spend on a card for a new quad-core workstation, would I do better to get the 8800 GTX or is a traditional workstation card (say the Quadro 1500) still the way to go?

 

Thanks in advance for the input!

[Antisthenes]

my advise would be to get the GeForce 6800 Ultra and GeForce 6800 GT @ Quadro FX4000 and softmod it to a quadro so you have the best of both worlds for a low price.

 

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=95150

 

 

how you would explain that to your people i don't know . but it works for me

[AJLynn]

For Max9 though... I don't think the softmod would do much or even anything for it in Direct3D...

 

Could you drop $300 on a good 7900 series card and spend the other $400 on more RAM, CPU, monitor, printer, a gold plated USB drive or beer?

[TheArch]

Thanks for the replys folks.

 

The machine is currently slated to be a Quad-Core intel, with 4gb of RAM, a speedy hard drive, etc. Our tech guy just didn't know what to spec for a graphics card. The only thing that won't be spuer-speedy would be the card. He isn't too keen on dropping 2000$ on a workstation card. So I thought that maybe the new 8800gtx's seem to be speedy, but maybe not appropriate for max.

 

and as far as beer goes ... I make those selections personally ... I don't trust other people to buy my beer for me. I take that responsibility VERY seriously!

[DavidR]

The graphics card depends on what you do. If you work with huge scenes, speed and memory may be most important, and if you do texturing in games then features like DX10 support may be paramount. I work with 1.5-3 million polys, and we have Quadro FX3000 at work, but at home my old Ati 9600 pro was really good (until it burned out and Ati refused to warantee it -I would never buy Ati again) with these same scenes. I'd probably go for an up-to-date high-end game card over an older Quadro.

[Hazdaz]

Well you should feel lucky that your IT guys even asks what you think concerning hardware for your 3D station - we have an IT guy that barely knows what he is doing when it comes to networking and regular computers running MS Office, and then orders up stuff that he knows nothing about (3D).... and this after I gave my boss a "recomended" hardware list.

 

OK, sorry for the rant.

Well normally I would recomend you get something like a 6800 or 7900-based chip... BUT it looks like you have a decent budget - why not just go for the 8800 chip and be done with it? Like honestly, it is probably overkill and have lots of extra features that will never get used in MAX, but then again, it is still under your budget and should last you a long time (especially being DX10-compliant). Splurge - the company is paying for it!

 

(oh, and I see absolutely NO reason to go for a workstation card - total waste of money)

[neil poppleton]

Quadro 1500 works fine for our team

[Zdravko Barisic]

"Pro" Grpaphic cards are ABSOLUTLY wasting of money.

they belong to the past to the Voodoo5 prehistorical eons.

Working on Oxygen or on the TNT2 DID make the huge diference.

But, NOWADAYS, it is only for TV station (using 2+ Quadrocards w/net card on itself, for real preview od Adobe apps or maybe for some UGS or Solidworx)

the only battlefield where Quadros take the victory is making clusters of VGA cards, and MAYBE wirefrime mod, but it depends on apllication driver).

LWO, Maya, MAx has no (more) benefiets of Quadro.

[TheArch]

I suggested the 8800gtx ... *crosses fingers*

 

thanks for the input!

[Hazdaz]

You better post up a review on the 8800 if you get it... it truly is a next-gen videocard.