GTX 590 'downgrade'?

[NBraz]

Hello all,

 

So, the past few days in the last week i've been testing Octane and Iray with a GTX 590 to see if i suited to this gpu renderer workflow and it turns out... i didn't adjusted. I'm aware that the GTX590 isn't the ideal card (memory wise), but i just wanted to grab a speedy card and see how it performed. There are many things to mature still (software and hardware wise) and i don't feel comfortable toasting a gaming card for hours to do an interior render that i can do in vray in much less time.

 

So, that brings me to the main subject: Previously i had a HD5450 on this workstation and i'm now stuck with a GTX 590 and i really don't need that much power.

 

3ds maxViewport performance on the gtx 590 is smoother than on the hd 5450 (as anyone expects anyways...) but i really didn't feel that it justified the price difference as i do a lot of layering inside 3ds max and almost never get my viewport to show gigazillion polygons.

 

I'm thinking in ditching the HD5450, sell the GTX 590 (don't need that much power) and get a similar performer to the GTX590 in 3ds max viewport and save the change. Any advices? Perhaps a used GTX460, 570 or 560?

 

No Quadro's for me thanks The nvidia 600's series are out of my budget and from what i can see from forums posts they don't offer any increased performance in 3ds max viewport compared to 400 and 500's series. That is... unless someone proves me wrong

Edited December 25, 2012 by NBraz
post corrected

[komyali]

The same question about viewport is on my minde all the time For better viewport I think Quadro is best but, and for faster production I think SLI will do the work

[Dimitris Tolios]

6xx cards indeed do not offer noticeably better viewport performance than 4xx or 5xx cards.

That doesn't mean 6xx cards don't have noticeable benefits over those: they draw far less power and are less noisy in general.

 

The 590 is nothing more than a pair of under-clocked GTX 580s in SLI, on the same board.

SLI is not supported by 3DS max, so the 590 is actually utilizing only one of the 2 GPUs, to an end result that is slower than a GTX 580 and on par with a 570 (or a GTX 480 for what matters). At the same time, the second core on the 590 is probably idling, yet still producing as much heat as a Kepler card would @ half load - what you probably see in 3DS max anyways.

 

So....

 

For viewport acceleration I would not recommend a 5xx/4xx if you could do with a 6xx.

 

4xx series worths it if you really want a fast CUDA card on a tight budget: a GTX 480 (1.5GB is all you can find) is amazing value for money at least in the used market here in the US - where you get them used for $160 (eBay etc). Those run hot (and your PSU feels it), those run loud, but provide some serious horsepower for GPU renderers, MARI etc.