Elliot Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I am going to buy a new video card for my machine. I have a Quadro 1100 and want to try something better. I have heard that the FireGL v5xxx are very good. Which one should I get? Is there something better than this....? I heard these card are beating the Quadros..... Which one? Elliot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Oh come on now, 464 posts and you can't do better? What are your specific needs and budget? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Drew It is very simple.... SolidWORKS, AutoCAD 2009, Revit 2009, All Adobe and 3D Max 2009. Budget .... up to 2K. I need a darn good card that will not make my computer continue hanging up when I have a complex images. The 4 workstations have 1,000 watts Power Supplies. Each of the computers have 4gb of ram. This card I will transfer it to the new system when the new XEON's become available (if they are any good) My basic specification is very simple, SPEED, what ever it contributes to make my computer faster with a good display. I see so many different stories, some people say the Quadro other people say the card with the AMD chip, which one...... Thanks Elliot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 You used the R word (Revit). There are some pretty nasty bugs with Revit and Geforce cards, so rule those out. Adobe... well, Photoshop CS4 has some nVidia only acceleration but it's only simple stuff like panning and zooming giant files, so don't sweat that. I'd say go FireGL (AKA FirePro) - it handles Max and Autocad about as well as a Quadro while outperforming in Revit (and having the fewest bugs in Revit) and dealing with Solidworks at least as well. Benchmarks don't matter nearly as much as how well your hardware works with your software but FWIW the FirePro 8700 beats the Quadro 5600 in SpecAPC Max2008 and Specviewperf Solidworks (and pretty much everything else) while costing a lot less. I don't see any compelling reason to get the more expensive FireGL 8650 - it's got 2GB RAM, which won't help you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Drew Thanks for the info. I will order the FirePro 8700 tomorrow. Since I updated to the 2009 suites of most of these products my computer hang upon rotating complex images. I am not up to speed on Revit, but this new Revit and the Autocad MEP 2009 have some kind of bug. They make my computer to slow down. I am just rying to twek the computers before I build the next workstation. I am waiting for that new XEON, I am in no rush but I can not afford any more hang up's. I used to keep myself busy with reading about these issues but not anymore. If you guys suggest something to speed up the computers I will try them. Thanks Again Elliot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 With Revit you do have to turn on OpenGL hardware acceleration to get an advantage from you video card. I wouldn't really recommend doing this until you get the nVidia card out of there though. Autocad MEP can also run away with the model complexity and strain your system, I hear it's even worse for that than Autocad Architecture. That Quadro 1100 is pretty darn slow by today's standards. If you get the FirePro and your computer still runs slow, you can't blame it on the video card Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Drew Hi hi hi That's how I think..... If slow after the video card..... well I guess I will wait for the XEON's or just do the i7. In the meantime if by adding the video card it improves..... nothing to loose.... The AutoCAD MEP 2009 is way too slow..... it is frustrating. Revit is even worst.... I noticed the Newegg has them for about 1,500. I will check the local guys tomorrow before calling Newegg. Thanks Elliot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 (edited) Drew I was at Newegg, I looked at the card and noticed that on the back of the card there is only one white connection for the digital monitors. There are two more type of connector that I am not familiar with. Will this card allow multiple Monitors. The link where I was vieweing this is http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.aspx?CurImage=14-195-079-S02&ISList=14-195-079-S01%2c14-195-079-S02%2c14-195-079-S03%2c14-195-079-S04%2c14-195-079-S05%2c14-195-079-S06&S7ImageFlag=1&Item=N82E16814195079&Depa=0&WaterMark=1&Description=ATI%20FirePro%20V8700%20100-505554%20Workstation%20Video%20Card%20-%20Retail There is another card with more memory. Will more memory, 2gb could perform better. Interesting the one with more memory is less expensive.... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195069 Thanks Elliot Edited February 6, 2009 by Elliot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Those two ports to the side of the DVI port are DisplayPort ports. It's a new technology that will probably replace DVI in a few years, but there aren't that many monitors for it so they include a DisplayPort to DVI adapter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Drew Thanks for the information. I looked at Solidworks site and they recommend the card. It is funny my 2.5 year old Quadro 1100 or 1200 ( I forgot) is not even listed. On my laptop I have a Quadro 1500 and it is listed. I will order it right away from Newegg. I noticed the Firepro 8700 has all those processing units...... With luck I will get it Saturday.... As soon as try it I will let you know. I am still going on with your comments about the possible new Xeon's. During the last few months I updated all my programs and these 2 or 3 year old computers are not working very good. I have a workstation with only AutoCAD and SolidWorks and that one works a little bit better. The faster one (an older one, 3 years) has only 35 processes open. The slow one (the newer) has 50 processes open. I am sure this has something to do with the speed. Thanks for your input Elliot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Drew Bad News.... The FirePro 8700 requires a PCI Express 2.0, my motherboard will only support PCI 1.0 x 16. Back to redoing the whole box..... Elliot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamir Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 (edited) Drew I was at Newegg, I looked at the card and noticed that on the back of the card there is only one white connection for the digital monitors. There are two more type of connector that I am not familiar with. Will this card allow multiple Monitors. The link where I was vieweing this is http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.aspx?CurImage=14-195-079-S02&ISList=14-195-079-S01%2c14-195-079-S02%2c14-195-079-S03%2c14-195-079-S04%2c14-195-079-S05%2c14-195-079-S06&S7ImageFlag=1&Item=N82E16814195079&Depa=0&WaterMark=1&Description=ATI%20FirePro%20V8700%20100-505554%20Workstation%20Video%20Card%20-%20Retail There is another card with more memory. Will more memory, 2gb could perform better. Interesting the one with more memory is less expensive.... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195069 Thanks Elliot Hi Elliot The 9170 Fire Stream card is not a video card per see', it is a GP-GPU card for general purpose computing. Use it if you want to crunch numbers on your DNA mapping and molecular calculations. Drew Bad News.... The FirePro 8700 requires a PCI Express 2.0, my motherboard will only support PCI 1.0 x 16. Back to redoing the whole box..... Elliot Your best bet - in terms of value/dollars - is the ATI FireGL V8600 1G frame buffer. this card has the same 320 core GPU as the 8650, but is nearly 40% less in price. The Fire GL architecture will work with 1.0 version PCI-E 16 lane, (even though it would benefit from the 2.0 version). The fire Pro is a next generation architecture and as such is not backward compatible with older chip-sets. The decision between ATI or nVidia should hinge on the perofmence side (ATI) or the driver side (nVidia). in other words: ATI has superior hardware architecture, while nVidia seem to be making better drivers - usually. IMO, In terms of bang for the buck; ATI is a clear winner. Edited February 7, 2009 by Tamir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 Tamir Thanks very much for your posting. I will look into this card. Right now I am fairly convinced to leave this computer as it and just build a new workstation. Thanks again for your advice Elliot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Schatz ASAI Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 FX1100 I imagine, that's the card than came out the week after I recived my first BOXX with a fx1000 and dual Z's, That is at least 4+ years old. Balancing the dam hardware with software is an art, I have 2 hand builts and 2 current BOXX's, For that fact with times as they are, one of the boxx's is an extra, and costing me $, first set of pro computers I leased it 8 years, times were better in Aug or at least looked better. Enter Oct 2008. PM me if you might be interested in a fast patch (3D-BOXX-W7550/2x2354 2.21GHz/4Gb/FX3700/150-10KHd/XP-64) I call it a mid range Workstation, but renders fast as ____hell. To bad I don't render as much and no one to use it. Need a car, a House, no not the house, maybe a cat, is it the right stick for that motherboard, Bus speed?!. Ahhh. Sorry for Rambling. Built or buy, modern Shakespeare, changes every X at X time. FireGL is a great card, but you will need All New hardware. Beside you now have dedicated surfing box to keep the new machine clean and happy:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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