used fireGL V7700 ... good choice?

[pablo scapi]

Hello:

I am in the process of changing my actual Nvidia GTX 275 Super OC because i don´t like it´s performance in MAX.

In other posts a was asking for other gamer cards such as the ATI HD5870.

 

But now i have found an used fireGL V7700 near my zone, i have some doubts since it´s a 2 years old card, but i see it´s still selling new for arround 500€ here and this one is for 150€ with 6 months of use.

 

But as always when facing the purchase of a Vcard, as i can´t test it i´m not confident of the performance i get for such a pro card in comparison with my actual one.

 

Please advise me in this matter, as also in the price, i think is a good price ... or maybe not??

 

thank you.

[pablo scapi]

Wow, i have just see this thread:

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/40484-dell-precision-470-graphics-card-advice.html

 

so in newegg it for 180 U$, and here in spain it cost arround 500€, wow.

http://www.alternate.es/html/product/Tarjetas_graficas_ATI_Workstation/ATI/FireGL_V7700/345590/?tn=HARDWARE&l1=Tarjetas+gr%C3%A1ficas&l2=Tarjetas+PCIe+ATI&l3=Estaci%C3%B3n+de+trabajo

 

i´m now thinking in ordering one from USA, even if i have to pay the dutty tax fee it´s a good deal.

 

BTW, how about the Displayport this card comes with, i need 2 monitors on that card so, is there some adaptor for DVI to Displayport?

 

Thank you

[AJLynn]

There are Displayport to DIV adapters, just do a search on Newegg or your favorite parts store. As to whether the 7700 will be an improvement... hard to say, really... pro card vs. faster consumer card, it's all a bit of voodoo, isn't it. I'm hoping to get some testing done soon.

[blumentopferde]

I run a ATi FireGL V7700 (actually I run a hacked consumer model with FireGL drivers but practically it is the same, with the sole difference that I can't run the latest drivers as the hacked ones don't update very often) and I cannot recommend it!

The viewport speed is theoretically quite good but practically desastrous as it has problems with most common CAD-Programs which means that you have to run them with no hardware accelleration at all most of time.

There are selection bugs in Maya and Sketchup (which makes it practicalle impossible to use hardware accelleration in these programs!), there are display errors in Autocad (lines sometimes look broken) and in Rhino (Icons won't show up but this is a solvable problem). I don't know if these bugs were fixed in the latest driver versions but i doubt it since they persist since years. If anybody knows if these problems have been solved please let me know!

If you are interested in hacking a consumer card you might visit the "Rivatuner" section of the guru3d forum: http://forums.guru3d.com/forumdisplay.php?f=18

[Jeff Mottle]

I just completed all of my testing on the following cards NVIDIA FX4800 FX3800, FX1800, FX58, ATI V8750, V8700, V7750, V5700, V3750, HD5870. I'm also waiting for the GFX 285 and 480. Right now the current results are being reviewed by Autodesk, NVIDIA and AMD to ensure everything is correct.

 

There are some "concerns" about me comparing gamer and pro cards, so that is being resolved at the moment. The current results were quite surprising, but I don't want to comment further until I have validation from everyone first, as these results are not going to be popular. All this to say that a review will be posted within the coming weeks if all goes well.

[blumentopferde]

There are some "concerns" about me comparing gamer and pro cards, so that is being resolved at the moment. The current results were quite surprising, but I don't want to comment further until I have validation from everyone first, as these results are not going to be popular.

Let me guess, theres no significant speed and viewport quality increase with "Pro" cards compared to "Gamer" cards, at least none that would justify the price difference? At least that's what I've experienced...

[Jeff Mottle]

Let me guess, theres no significant speed and viewport quality increase with "Pro" cards compared to "Gamer" cards, at least none that would justify the price difference? At least that's what I've experienced...

 

I'll comment on the NVIDIA results early next week as I've been able to speak with them at length and they have confimed my methodologies, but I have to re-run the tests in 2011 this weekend to confirm some results first. What you say is true in some cases, but not all. The results are actually pretty interesting. Different than I expected in some cases. One thing I did find interesting is that DX10 is not very well supported in 3ds max. If you're not using NVDIA's performance drivers, then DX9 is the way to go.

[AJLynn]

I'll be interested to see Jeff's results but I want to comment on Alexander's post.

 

In my experience FireGL drivers are usually quite good, but there are almost always problems with those hacked solutions. Those problems are almost certainly the result of the hack and not the FireGL driver itself.

 

Alexander's results are not a reflection on the quality of an actual FireGL card.