Video Card Question

[meatarian]

I am a high school student currently in an advanced AutoCAD/Viz class. I am currently working on a 3d model of the Back to the Future 2 DeLorean. Because of the detail in the 75 mb file, 3dorbit is very slow (3-4 seconds per frame). I currently can tell no difference between hardware and software graphics. I also am rendering it in Viz and it is even more sluggish.

 

I am wondering if anyone has had experience with the Quadro FX 540 or 500 on large files could tell me if this would speed it up in viz and AutoCAD. I am willing to spend the money, I just want to make sure this will solve my problem before I invest.

 

Brandon Schwabauer

[chuck]

Yeah, thats a tough one. It depends on what card you are currently using really. The main advantage you'll have is the ability to use maxtreme drivers with a quadro card, but i cant honeslty tell you how much faster it will be.

 

I use a quadro 1300 at work, and an ati 700 (256mb) at home. there is a difference, but i personally wouldnt spend all that money for an entry level quadro card. i get out of memory errors with the 1300 (128mb RAM) if i'm doing a lot of multi-tasking with VIZ.

 

if i were you i'd buy a nvida 6800 ($400-500 at comp usa, cheaper online) and soft mod it to a quadro 4000. this is what i plan to do in the future.

 

the idea is that the 6800 is nearly identical to the quadro as far as hardware is concerned. you then flash the bios and make it think its a quadro. then you install the quadro drivers. seems like a good idea to me. the drivers will allow you to push those huge poly numbers you need. it sounds like its a simple procedure that "shouldnt" fry your card.

 

here's a link to cgtalks thread on it:

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=191214&highlight=softquadro

 

you'll also find some very strong opinions on quadro cards and if they are really that much faster than gamer cards- it seems it really comes down to the drivers.

sad really.

 

 

chuck

[AJLynn]

I got curious and put Rivatuner on my laptop, which has a GeForce4 440 Go 32MB, and using NVStrap got it to think it was a GeForce4 440GoGL. Maxtreme won't install because it doesn't think I have an nVidia workstation card. Is there something else I should do? Or does a 440GoGL not qualify as a workstation card? (Probably wouldn't be that fast anyway, but I'll take what I can get

 

Does this trick work on a newer card like a 6600GT? Or would I need to wait for the SoftQuadro software they're talking about on the thread chuck linked?

[meatarian]

Thanks for the advice and the link. I had never thought of this but now think this is the way to go. On that link, some of the results have not worked out so well. If it doesn't work to soft mod the nvida 6800, will I see considerable performance increases from my current Radeon x300. Thanks again for your recommendation.

Brandon

[AJLynn]

Meaty: Yeah, I think that 6600 is going to beat that x300 by a good margin. But not as much as that faux-Quadro would Not sure what the ETA on the release version of the appropriate software would be.

 

BTW, I'm not sure exactly what I did but it was cool I now seem to have a Quadro4 500 GoGL with 32MB RAM on my laptop. Maxtreme still doesn't work, but (and this might be me imagining things) I think Max is faster. Can anybody give me a link to a benchmark I can test this with?

[chuck]

i dont know if you can just soft mod any card...and you cant turn an ati into a nvida quadro card for sure. i think the card must share the same hardware, like the 6800 is the same as quadro 4000 or whatever.

 

i almost bought a 6600 instead of the ati 700, but it was $50 more at the time i think...maybe for the GT? anyway, that 6600 will rape the x300. i wish i would have done some benchmarks in viz before i switched up. my purchase was based on gaming mostly though...it runs HL2 perffectly with a gig of ram, 3.0 ghz P4.

 

a bit off the subject now, but my dell originally came with that 300. entry level for sure. i junked it the day i bought half life 2.

 

chuck

 

(one x300 fore sale $1199.00 obo)