from what I'm gathering, and I'm still new to the whole graphics card thing, maya needs OpenGL to do everything it's capable of. From the two cards I've had and used the OpenGL ones will allow the hardware rendering.

This is mayas qualification chart for graphics cards for Maya 8.5
ATI FireGL V3300
ATI FireGL V3400
ATI FireGL V5000
ATI FireGL V5100
ATI FireGL V5200
ATI FireGL V7100
ATI FireGL V7200
ATI FireGL V7300
ATI FireGL V7350
Nvidia Quadro FX 1400
Nvidia Quadro FX 1500
Nvidia Quadro FX 3450
Nvidia Quadro FX 4400
Nvidia Quadro FX 4500
Nvidia Quadro FX 4500X2
Nvidia Quadro FX 5500