Re: graphics board recommendation

["Tim Leydecker" <BauerOink(at)gmx.de>]

> I really don't mind paying for a FX card, provided its much faster than the
> games counterpart. 7900GT is ~$400AU, FX3500 is $1699...if the performance
> is 2 or 3 times higher, then its worth it no?

I don´t know if the performance is that different.

All I know is, there´s currently the 7600 GS/GT, 7900 GT and 7900 GTX.
Based on the same chipdesign, these cardtypes have more or less pixelpipelines,
come with more or less RAM and may support advanced features like Dual link,
SLI and shadermodel 3.0 in a more or less ideal fashion.

The pro-version range of cards can only derive from the above (or maybe it´s
the other way around), therefore any newly available workstationcard should
pretty much line-up in terms of performance to their gaming counterparts.
The main difference is the driver (some features that may be checked/enabled)
bringing profiles for the major 3D packages plus the lack of a gaming bundle.

E.g., if you can match the FX 1500 to it´s gaming counterpart, you can calculate
it´s price/performance ratio pretty accurate.

Personally, I wouldn´t pay three times the money to get a pro-card that comes
close to the 7600 GT instead of buying a 7900 GT. But, as I said, this depends
on being able to correctly match the types. Where I´m not sure I can currently.

Cheers

tim


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Dc (Gmail)" <james.decolling(at)gmail.com>
To: <XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 12:01 PM
Subject: RE: graphics board recommendation


> So price/performance is defiantly in the games cards camp then?
>
> I really don't mind paying for a FX card, provided its much faster than the
> games counterpart. 7900GT is ~$400AU, FX3500 is $1699...if the performance
> is 2 or 3 times higher, then its worth it no?
>
> Cheers
>
> James,
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of
> Tim Leydecker
> Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 7:44 PM
> To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
> Subject: Re: graphics board recommendation
>
> An addon,
>
> could well be that the Quadro FX 1500 is closer to the 7600 GT
> card range, I may have mixed that up, in that case, the 7900GT
> would of course have a better price/performance ratio than the
> FX 1500. I find it sort of difficult (guess that´s what marketing
> is all about) to identify the gamer vs. pro counterparts of the
> nvidia based cards currently. Some of the QuadroFX cards
> still belong to the older chipsetrevision the 7800 GTX comes
> from, while others are allready based on the 7900 GTX chipset
> family. I can´t point out which is what. That said, I´m happy with
> my 7900 GT card.
>
> Cheers
>
> tim
>
> P.S: One way to discern the 7800´er flavours from the 7900´er
> flavours is to compare the productimages, as most cards use an
> nvidia reference design (with just minor designtweaks to the fan´s
> printing) that should at least give you a hint.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Tim Leydecker" <BauerOink(at)gmx.de>
> To: <XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
> Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 10:43 AM
> Subject: Re: graphics board recommendation
>
>
> > Hi James,
> >
> > just recently bought a 7900GT card, had some driver problems
> > using the current WHQL certified nvidia driver for when having
> > XSI (5.1) and Maya (4.5/6.01) open simultaneously.
> > Installing the 9.x.x. series betadrivers solved this.
> >
> > Am pretty happy with it, shaded mode is very fast, been able
> > to handle geometry in the 250 000 -750 000 triangle range
> > for cleanup and refinement without lag. Unfortunately, this
> > didn´t apply to "wireframe in shaded" and wireframe mode.
> > Experienced significant slowdown when setting that. Umh.
> > Funny enough, NURBS wireframes are very fast (on Maya)
> > while NURBS in shaded gets very slow. Pretty much the same
> > inverted way everything else is between XSI and Maya :-)
> >
> > Price of the card, ~300 Euros including taxes and shipping.
> >
> > The pro counterpart for the above card would be the QuadroFX 1500,
> > chipwise they should be pretty identical but the pro card has a different
> > driver. If you can, either give the quadro a testdrive or see if you´d be
> > willing to shell out an extra ~200 Euros for that card. Right after I had
> > ordered my 7900 GT (slightly overclocked), the cheapest Quadro FX
> > 1500 would have cost ~475 Euros (oem, bulk). I´d have taken that then...
> >
> > Can´t comment much on the ATI cards, we have some at our lab,
> > there´s no serious glitches anymore as there where with earlier driver
> > builds but I can´t really say which model or drivernumber that´d be.
> >
> > Hope that helps somewhat,
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > tim
> >
> > I´d buy another 1-2 (greyish, stripped down) renderslave(s) instead of
> > putting the money in a top of the line graphics card, but that´s
> preference.
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "James Dc (Gmail)" <james.decolling(at)gmail.com>
> > To: <XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
> > Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 9:51 AM
> > Subject: graphics board recommendation
> >
> >
> > > Howdy list, im just about to get a new card and wondering what people are
> > > finding good these days.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Choices are -
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Nvidia 7800 / 7900GT / GTX
> > >
> > > QuadroFX 3450 / 3500
> > >
> > > FireGL 7100 / 7350
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Normally I don't look at ati, but right now their prices are pretty good.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > So I guess the questions is - does XSI make use of the Quadro series as
> much
> > > as say Max / Maya do? I know back in the ol soft3d days a pro was the
> only
> > > way to go, games cards were just too slow.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Also, should I bother with SLI at all? (I run dual monitors, so I think I
> > > cant, it'd just end up being 1 card per screen right?)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Lastly.is there a XSI benchmarking test somewhere? Specbench have tests
> for
> > > Max / Maya + numerous cad apps..but not sure which score relates to xsi
> > > performance in anyway.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Cheers
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > James,
> >
> >
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