graphic cards

[Buffalo Bills]

Anyone,

 

I purchased a Dell workstation 450 not too long ago, and in it contained a ATI,Fire GL X1, 128 mb, 1-2 VGA/DVI graphics card in it. Well I was having so many problems with the computer itself running really slow that I had Dell ship me a new machine. Well when they sent me my new machine they slipped in a nVidia, QuadroFX 500, 128 mb dual VGA or single DVI/VGA, graphics card. I went on Dell's website this morning to see the difference between the 2 graphic cards and it looked like the discontinued the ATI card because it wasn't an option to purchase anymore. Are these two graphics cards similiar? I just want to make sure I'm getting my moneys worth and not getting jipped. If anyone can help that would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

the last time i got a machine update it had an ATI 128 something or other. i used it for a week, and then had the IT dept. take it out, and install a nvidia geforce 4 128. ahhh... it ran so much better.

 

...then i found out that my machine came with a nvidia quadro nvs 64meg. they replaced it with the ATI (the one i had taken out) because it had more ram. i switched from the geforce to the quadro with 64 megs of ram. it smokes both of the 128 meg cards i had.

 

basically, you got a better card.

 

i do not know what model of quadro i have, but i am guessing it is either the 200 250 or 400. by applying murphy's law, the 500 should be better.

[Buffalo Bills]

Crazy homeless guy,

 

Thanks for your imput. I've been searching for discussion groups all day talking about graphics cards and you can't find a straight answer. There are just so many graphic cards out there that hard to decifer anything. I guess I will try this one out and if it doesn't seem to work, then I will be searching for another type. Glad you are happy with yours. What program do you use to create your 3D in? It seems to me that many people choose their graphics cards based on the 3d programs they use.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

i model in formz, and render/animate in max. my geforce 4 worked great with formz, but wasn't up to the load that max puts on it. ...i run 2 monitors off of one card, so i am sure that was not helping either. although i do set the second monitor to 16 million colors to lighten the load a little.

 

as a company, i think max recommends its users to get quadro cards.