Currently using an Evans & Sutherland Lightning 1200 .
Needs to be accepted & compatible with Pro-E .
Needs to be accepted & compatible with Pro-E .
Best Video card for Pro Engineer ???
- Thread starter CorCentral
- Start date
NVidia ? ................. No , need something for Pro Engineer , not to play games .
Pro-E is a Cad related software program , Considered the best in the field .
Currently looking at the high end cards from Elsa , Oxygen & E&S with prices ranging from $700. - $2,500. +
Pro-E is a Cad related software program , Considered the best in the field .
Currently looking at the high end cards from Elsa , Oxygen & E&S with prices ranging from $700. - $2,500. +
Have a look at Aceshardware
They did a roundup of professional OpenGL cards just the other day, some timing huh?
Oh and Elsa's cards are nVidia based
I hate the link syntax of FuseTalk :|
They did a roundup of professional OpenGL cards just the other day, some timing huh?
Oh and Elsa's cards are nVidia based
I hate the link syntax of FuseTalk :|
If you work on CAD/CAM and 3D works, you need an Open GL optimized GPU.
Your can choose these below :
a. ELSA Synergy 2000 : NVidia Quadro2 EX, 32MB, AGP 2x/4x, [$ 165]
b. ELSA Synergy III : NVidia Quadro2 MXR, 32MB, AGP [$ 310]
c. ELSA Gloria II : NVidia Quadro GLInt, 32MB, AGP
d. ELSA Gloria DCC : NVidia Quadro DCC, 64MB, AGP 4x [$ 675]
e. ELSA Gloria III : NVidia Quadro2 Pro, 64MB, AGP 4x [$ 720]
f. ATI FireGL2 : 64MB, TV/DVI, 4x AGP [$ 749]
g. ATI FireGL3 : 128MB, DDR, AGP Pro [$ 1,355]
h. ATI FireGL4 : 128MB, DDR, Dual Monitor, AGP [$1,959]
I'm not promoting ELSA, but as far as I knew NVidia's Quadro GPU only sold to ELSA.
There is Matrox G series, but it's only 2D; you can't get good quality in 3D works.
And ATI has its own type GPU, the FireGL.
Your need is not a GeForce series, though a GeForce3 Ti550 can't show it's speed on "3D works" which is different with "3D games".
For an intermediate works, you can choose an ELSA Gloria DCC, not too expensive but good on CAD and 3DS as its driver optimized to those programs.
Your can choose these below :
a. ELSA Synergy 2000 : NVidia Quadro2 EX, 32MB, AGP 2x/4x, [$ 165]
b. ELSA Synergy III : NVidia Quadro2 MXR, 32MB, AGP [$ 310]
c. ELSA Gloria II : NVidia Quadro GLInt, 32MB, AGP
d. ELSA Gloria DCC : NVidia Quadro DCC, 64MB, AGP 4x [$ 675]
e. ELSA Gloria III : NVidia Quadro2 Pro, 64MB, AGP 4x [$ 720]
f. ATI FireGL2 : 64MB, TV/DVI, 4x AGP [$ 749]
g. ATI FireGL3 : 128MB, DDR, AGP Pro [$ 1,355]
h. ATI FireGL4 : 128MB, DDR, Dual Monitor, AGP [$1,959]
I'm not promoting ELSA, but as far as I knew NVidia's Quadro GPU only sold to ELSA.
There is Matrox G series, but it's only 2D; you can't get good quality in 3D works.
And ATI has its own type GPU, the FireGL.
Your need is not a GeForce series, though a GeForce3 Ti550 can't show it's speed on "3D works" which is different with "3D games".
For an intermediate works, you can choose an ELSA Gloria DCC, not too expensive but good on CAD and 3DS as its driver optimized to those programs.
I tend to be somewhat partial to the FireGL 2/3/4 personally, excellent cards for all around 3D animation/CAD work. Their supported by Pro-E and performance is quite admirable.
Driver support is fantastic, and the drivers are highly optimized for many CAD proggies including Pro Engineer.
A FireGL card would probably be my first choice personally.
If you have a slower processor the 3DLabs Wildcat II 5000 would be ideal, as it's one of the least processor dependnt cards available with extremely highly optimized T&L engine, and can take more of a load off the processor then most any other card. It's also very good if your using a slower dual processor system, as 3DLabs drivers contain some pretty decent SMP optimizations.
I've not used many of E&S's more recent cards, so I can't give an opinion there. They are always a viable option though, and it would certainly be worth checking into what their more recent cards can offer.
Elsa's Gloria III/Gloria DCC are very capable cards, and do extremely well under light shading operations but they tend to fall back in wireframe design. They also have very powerful, though somewhat less optimized T&L engines. If you want to do some gaming on the side, they'll blow many of the rest out of the water in that respect.
The FireGL line also has the FireGL 8700/8800 which are fairly versatile all-around CAD cards, backed up by FireGL's excellent driver team. They can offering gaming performance to match the Gloria DCC. Availability is rather low for the FireGL 8700/8800 though.
If your buying an entirely new system, then the 3DLabs Wildcat II 5110 becomes an option. It's blazingly fast, and extremely powerful CAD card. but with a price to match. the WildCat II 45110 is only available through Dell and other such vendors in a complete workstation however, and isnt available separately.
Driver support is fantastic, and the drivers are highly optimized for many CAD proggies including Pro Engineer.
A FireGL card would probably be my first choice personally.
If you have a slower processor the 3DLabs Wildcat II 5000 would be ideal, as it's one of the least processor dependnt cards available with extremely highly optimized T&L engine, and can take more of a load off the processor then most any other card. It's also very good if your using a slower dual processor system, as 3DLabs drivers contain some pretty decent SMP optimizations.
I've not used many of E&S's more recent cards, so I can't give an opinion there. They are always a viable option though, and it would certainly be worth checking into what their more recent cards can offer.
Elsa's Gloria III/Gloria DCC are very capable cards, and do extremely well under light shading operations but they tend to fall back in wireframe design. They also have very powerful, though somewhat less optimized T&L engines. If you want to do some gaming on the side, they'll blow many of the rest out of the water in that respect.
The FireGL line also has the FireGL 8700/8800 which are fairly versatile all-around CAD cards, backed up by FireGL's excellent driver team. They can offering gaming performance to match the Gloria DCC. Availability is rather low for the FireGL 8700/8800 though.
If your buying an entirely new system, then the 3DLabs Wildcat II 5110 becomes an option. It's blazingly fast, and extremely powerful CAD card. but with a price to match. the WildCat II 45110 is only available through Dell and other such vendors in a complete workstation however, and isnt available separately.
You'll definitely want a Quadro or a nice ATi Fire based card. As a former draftsman (turned law student), I am partial to Fire GL cards.
I used Microstation J.
I used Microstation J.
I know exactly what pro-e is I use it myself although currently only 2000i, I also use 3dsmax and acad 2000/2002 and believe me any nvdia card will run these very well. I would get yourself a cheap geforce3 ti200 it will perform better than any comparable priced card.
I was looking to build new drafting machines for my company and tested out three different cards...
I got a GeForce 3 Ti 500, Elsa Synergy III and an ATI Radeon 8500... I know two of those are gaming cards... but I was on a budget and couldn't really spend more than 300 bucks on a card (which eliminates ATI Fire GLs and wildcat cards)
first off, both the GF3 and the Elsa Card significantly out performed the Radeon Card. As for the nvidia cards, I couldn't really tell much difference. The system I used was an AMD XP 1600 on a Epox 8kha+ w/512 MB ram. My company used Architechual Desktop 3.3 which is basically autoCAD 2002.
I ended up buying the ELSA Card for the rest of the machines I built. It just seemed like the right way go. but the one GF3 ti 500 machine we have works just as good.
both cards are about the same price... I basically concluded you get what you pay for in cards vs performance.
I got a GeForce 3 Ti 500, Elsa Synergy III and an ATI Radeon 8500... I know two of those are gaming cards... but I was on a budget and couldn't really spend more than 300 bucks on a card (which eliminates ATI Fire GLs and wildcat cards)
first off, both the GF3 and the Elsa Card significantly out performed the Radeon Card. As for the nvidia cards, I couldn't really tell much difference. The system I used was an AMD XP 1600 on a Epox 8kha+ w/512 MB ram. My company used Architechual Desktop 3.3 which is basically autoCAD 2002.
I ended up buying the ELSA Card for the rest of the machines I built. It just seemed like the right way go. but the one GF3 ti 500 machine we have works just as good.
both cards are about the same price... I basically concluded you get what you pay for in cards vs performance.
Mingon is correct. Any Nvidia card should be just fine. I used to run the Student version of Pro/E 200i2, (which is basically the same thing as the full version), on a 333 Celeron with a 32 MB TNT2 M64 PCI, and it was OK for small parts and simple assemblies. I was just using the standard Nvidia drivers, but Nvidia drivers are great in Opengl. This is an area where ATI needs serious improvement.
I now have an 800 duron and the now famous 32 MB Geforce2 GTS-V from newegg, all connected to an ECS K7S5A with 512 MB DDR. I used the Soft Quadro hack on the standard Nvidia drivers and I get some halfway decent scores in Specviewperf 6.1.2. Well, I only get about 76 fps in the first part of the benchmark, and I can't remember the rest off the top of my head. That's pretty low compared to some machines on the Specviewperf 6.1.2 results page, but the Nvidia card did run the tests OK with no rendering problems that I could see. And I didn't spend much on that combo, at least not much compared to what some of those machines cost on that results page.
If I had a faster CPU and at least a 64 MB Geforce2 TI card then I would be able to compete much better with them, and my setup would still be cheaper they they were.
I now have an 800 duron and the now famous 32 MB Geforce2 GTS-V from newegg, all connected to an ECS K7S5A with 512 MB DDR. I used the Soft Quadro hack on the standard Nvidia drivers and I get some halfway decent scores in Specviewperf 6.1.2. Well, I only get about 76 fps in the first part of the benchmark, and I can't remember the rest off the top of my head. That's pretty low compared to some machines on the Specviewperf 6.1.2 results page, but the Nvidia card did run the tests OK with no rendering problems that I could see. And I didn't spend much on that combo, at least not much compared to what some of those machines cost on that results page.
If I had a faster CPU and at least a 64 MB Geforce2 TI card then I would be able to compete much better with them, and my setup would still be cheaper they they were.
I hope I caught you in time to save you hundreds of dollars. While not quite as fast as an expensive Wildcat or something like that, a Quadro2 Pro does extremely well in all professional graphics applications. The Gloria III costs $715 new on pricewatch. Don't be fooled, any Geforce 2 chipset is a fully functional Quadro card. A very simple modification of 2 tiny resistors on the card will change it to a 100% real Quadro. I have modded three of these cards with perfect results. The Gainward Pro 450 is at Newegg for $103 shipped. Buy this and then mod it, if you are afraid of soldering small parts have a professional do it for a few bucks. A simply bios flash to the Nvidia Quadro 2 Pro reference bios allows you to use the stock Gloria III drivers, or any Detonators you choose. This is absolutely no difference between the modded card and the real thing, it is the same. The Quadro 2 Pro actuallly outperforms the Quadro DCC in video apps, but not in 3d games. Look at my sig, a good compromise is the Gainward Gerforce 2 Ti 500. I modded it and flashed the bios and then overclocked it to 285/523. It screams in games and video apps, it only costs $136 shipped. If you want to try this I can give you the links, it is very easy!
I don't run any professional video programs to test it, but at these speeds I bet the Geforce 2 Ti 500 Quadro might just outperform the Wildcat!
I don't run any professional video programs to test it, but at these speeds I bet the Geforce 2 Ti 500 Quadro might just outperform the Wildcat!
Here are some links:
http://guestbook.cgi.net/ECE9?messpointer=40
http://www.geocities.com/tnaw_xtennis/G-Quadro-2.htm
Both mods for the Gainward 450 Pro and Geforce2 Ti 500 are in the data base.
http://guestbook.cgi.net/ECE9?messpointer=40
http://www.geocities.com/tnaw_xtennis/G-Quadro-2.htm
Both mods for the Gainward 450 Pro and Geforce2 Ti 500 are in the data base.
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