Videocard upgrade

# 1 06-07-2008 , 03:31 PM

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Okaly dokaly guys. Its time for my videocard upgrade. I right now have an ATI FireGL v5000 workstation card. My cpu just fried recently so i decided to rebuild. I was going to stick with the v5000 I got but now I think I want to upgrade that also.

I was going to just go for a Gaming card from Nvideo the 9800, but read up on AMD. Apparently AMD is coming out with the Radeon HD4850 that is supposed superior to the 9800 and just half the price.

Now......for 200 dollars, is that a big performance boost if I used it for Maya and Zbrush? Or should I stick to the v5000? And if I upgraded to another workstation card, what should I go for that would be a lot better than my FireGL v5000 and don't cost me an arm and a leg?

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# 2 06-07-2008 , 05:42 PM

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well i dont know much about graphics cards but my friend told me there's probably gonna be a big price war between ATI and NVidia cuz NVidia screwed up their pricing and their equivalent cards are currently much more expensive than ATI

i think ATI is the way to go atm

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# 3 07-07-2008 , 12:00 AM

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Like Chirone said, you should probably go with the ATI if you do want to upgrade. AMD usually beats NVidia and if the price is right you should go for it ...
BTW, from my experience, if you choose to upgrade you should take just about the best thing on the market (before extreme unless you're swimming in cash and it doesn't sound like it user added image

) in order to postpone the next upgrade as much as possible.
Benny

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# 4 07-07-2008 , 06:41 AM

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I have used both ATI and nVidia cards and found the nVidia is the way to go, due to the huge driver issues that ATI have (They are just plain c**p).

For me I would go either tbh, the difference in performance is not going to be noticed by you, but your PC may note a slight difference. Remeber these tests are very specific and they are done in near perfect conditions and equipment. a nanoSecond here or a mHz there is not going to make an ounce of difference to you. Only the price and the basic specs of the card matter. I currently use nVidia, but theres nowt wrong with an ATI card, until the catalyst drivers get installed lol.

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# 5 07-07-2008 , 07:01 AM

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that and doesn't ATI have problems with directX?

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# 6 07-07-2008 , 12:43 PM

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You could always check the most recent Autodesk Hardware Qualification charts:

https://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...112&id=9683256

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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# 7 07-07-2008 , 03:16 PM

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ATI has problem with directX? I've always thought they were really good with directX, but poor with OpenGL. I think OpenGL is my main concern here since Maya runs on Open GL yes?

And I agree with ATI drivers, they were kind of frustrating to deal with when I had the 9800 XT back in the days. I've been using the FireGL drivers and they work really great to me.

I was also thinking of getting the lower end Quaddros, but not sure if that lower end would be better than a top end gaming card.

I think I might go with the ATI again. Benchmarks for Fire GL, Quaddros and any top end gaming card would be nice. user added image

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# 8 07-07-2008 , 05:15 PM

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Originally posted by Anhslaught
ATI has problem with directX? I've always thought they were really good with directX, but poor with OpenGL. I think OpenGL is my main concern here since Maya runs on Open GL yes?

Originally Posted by

i don't remember, i just know something has a problem with either OpenGL or DirectX

and yeah i think Maya and even 3dsMax run using OpenGL... considering they don't even export to .x files and now microsoft stopped making plug-ins in directX so that you can export to .x files :rant:

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