Graphics card....
 

hmm lol ive just upgraded my computer (yet again lol)

its an

AMD Athalon64 3500 Processor

ASUS SLI PCI-E mobo

Seasonic S12-600 PSU

1gb of Crucial RAM

Would like to know what everyone is currently recommending for a graphics card thats either FireGL or Quadro thats around £150 mark... doesnt have to have SLI... will do without it... just wanting to have a low end card that can cover majority of graphic work

thanks in advance!

i got a X850 Xt 256mb n it runs the dream, for games n maya etc but i duno how maya works but i would of thought it likes video ram a lot and i think i saw a a 512X800XL which would prolly run maya better has a slower core but more ram so i would go for that if your going for a design system rather than gaming.
I saw one on ocuk quite cheap like 150-200 cant remember it wos on a this week only offer i dunno now havea look. Get ATI though cos nvida suck compared, they rip you off u dont get half the bandwidth but u pay double the price its a right rip off. Ive looked at benchmarks ad stuff and the X850 always destroys nvidia competitor and also even higher ed nvidia cards.
Is the RAM u got ballistix cos i have same and there sweet, although im on cl2.0 timings it still rocks, would prefer 2.5 but too expensive.

hmm can anyne confirm the above that a Radeon x850 xt will run maya with little problems compared to a low end quadro card?

I'd be careful going with an ATI card, as some people have mentioned having problems with ATI's drivers and a lack of decent OpenGL support.

hmm duno what those probs are about i never had any probs, i wouldnt ever trust nvidia the mobo drivers are absolute crap and ive only had probs so i wouldnt say ud have ay more luck with nvdia driver than ATI.

I've always used NVidia, and I've never had a single problem with them. I also know plenty of other people who swear by them. Either way, I wouldn't go with one of the pro cards. Just get an upper end gaming card and you're set.

Maybe the ATI drivers are okay for Maya, but as I also use Lightwave, I wouldn't touch ATI with a 10ft barge pole. Judging from what I've heard of the Lightwave forums, the ATI drivers OpenGL performance with Lightwave is truely dreadful. Some people have had good success with them, but others have not. I'd say it's down to the individual system that the card is in. Maybe that's why you've had problems with NVidia. Me on the other hand, I'll happily stay with my GeForce card, and I'd buy another one with no hesitation.

What does anybody else think?

so what kinda level of nvidia gaming card would you say?

i may stretch my budget to about £250 for one...

im not fussed with ATI or Nvidia cards i have had no problems with ATI and my pny quadro agp was fine...

I use an Ati card and it is fine as long as triple buffering is disabled in the settings :D

nah nvidia mobo drivers are the worst that exist they are pretty much a virus with a brand name, i h8 nvidia for the price they dont touch ATI cards, its been proven.

grrr.. guys ive already stated i dont care whats better... im not a fanboy of either card and have had no problems with any i have brought...

I'd personally go with the best that you can afford. I'd definately suggest going with one of the gaming cards though, as they seem to be cheaper, with not a lot of difference from the pro cards.

I'm not a fanboy of either make. I'm just telling it like it is. In about 8 years of using NVidia cards, I have never had one single problem with them.

What card are you using at the moment?

What I tell my customers (I work in PC World), is that if you have had a good experience with a particular brand, go with that. If you have had a bad experience, go with the other type.

I don't want to get into an argument with you, jhubbard, as you are entitled to your opinion, and I am entitled to mine. You may have had problems with NVidia, but I have not, and I've never had need to try ATI. If at some point I did have problems with NVidia, I would probably switch. Also, why do you keep going on about mobo drivers? We are talking about graphics cards. Anyway, this is getting tiring. I'm not defending NVidia, and I'm not rubbishing ATI. I'm just passing on info that I have seen on the Lightwave forums: NVidia drivers handle OpenGL better than ATI drivers. As I said, I have no experience with ATI at all, so I cannot confirm this either way.

hmm well i can't tell you because i don't know how much maya makes use of the videocard for hardware rendering..

But i have seen that alias does not recommend any geforce card.

http://www.alias.com/eng/support/may...win.html#cards

I am not into hardware anymore like i used to be.. but currently geforce does better in the benchmarks then ati. Not too long ago this was the other way around.. and will prolly change once again in the future lol :beer:

kennez, first person that sees how i view things...

ive never had any problems with ATI so i mite aswell stick with them, i dont mind trying out GeForce only if there are a majority of reasons for changing over such as compatability, price and performance etc...

hmmm... I guess i could try sell my PNY Quadro on Ebay and raise a wee bit more cash... shame the quadro i have is AGP grrr lol oh well

Well before you decide to purchase a card google it to search for some benchmarks to see how it stands up with other cards of the same price range :)

Exactly what card do you have at the moment? Is it 64 or 128 Meg? I may be interested for a reasonable price.

Yeah, I know about that, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. The only time I had a viewport error was when I tried a new driver a while ago. The next release of the driver worked fine.
I'm running a FX5600XT