Does anyone know it the Gainward G-Force 3 cards...

[Blueshound]

use the full OpenGL ICD or does it use a mini GL?

I'm putting together a new CAD workstation and use full version AutoCAD 2002. Having a full Open GL ICD is important for working with shaded solid models. I've been leaning towards the 3D Labs Oxygen GVX1 Pro 64 meg but a user in a newsgroup, for a rendering app I use, has a G Force-3 64 meg card that turned in some astounding results. Now I'm confused because cards that support gaming are not supposed to be that great for CAD.

Any imput would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Frank

 

[vss1980]

All nvidia based cards and drivers have a full OpenGL ICD as long as you use or are using drivers based on nvidia's detonator drivers.

The days of mini ICD drivers are long gone and are only used in cases where extreme performance is needed or for resolving compatability with a certain application.

 

[Quetzalboat]

Dear friend Blueshound,

I think there's something wrong with your system or may be unproper installation I can't guess.
But my friend uses ASUS CUV4X-P, P!!! 550MHz, 384MB Kingston SDRAM PC133, Windows 98SE, ELSA Gladiac GeForce2 GTS 32MB, 40GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus ATA100 7200rpm.
And he works well on Audesk AutoCAD2000 and 3D Studio Max 4.0, no problem at all.
I also work on "graphic" matter like AutoCAD2000, Photoshop 6.0 and CorelDraw 9.
My system : IWill VD133 Pro Raid, P!!! 650MHz (OCed to 733MHz), Gainward GeForce3 Power Pack Golden Sample 64MB, 384MB Corsair SDRAM PC133 CAS2, 3 x 40GB Quantum Fireball AS ATA100 5400rpm (RAID), Windows 98SE. (I have no plan to migrate to Win2K, WinME or WinXP).
Win 98SE designed for workstation and very stable, it's enough to work with!
Win ME designed for wives and children to watch movies and hear MP3 plus chatting on the net.
Win 2000 designed for e-corporate and e-banking and server
Win XP designed for wider and bigger e-corporate and e-banking and super server
I do not care on what Mr. Bill "The Hell" Gates says or promotions on his "new OS"
(which a great hunger for huge memory of course!)

 

[tazdevl]

If you are doing CAD etc... best idea might be to go buy one of the new FireGL 8700's with 128 MB of RAM.

 

[Blueshound]

Right now, I'm really kicking myself for not keeping up on the technical side of things. The last machine I built was an Intel DX4 100, way back when. Byte magazine was my bible. Since then I've fallen way behind the curve on this stuff, concentrating mostly on the apps I use. I bought my last machine, a PCV 150 Sony, from Egghead when they still had stores ) That's how far behind I am and why I'm asking for advice.

So, I suppose what I'm really asking for is some sort of clarification of the differences between the two cards. I know that the GVX1 Pro has stereo support but, aside from that, are there any differences that justify spending almost $600 on the GVX1 Pro card when the Gainward Geforce 3 seems to outperform it at about half the price?

Considering the price differential, there must be something I'm not seeing. I mean, there must be some reason that the Oxygen cards are so popular in the CAD industry. For instance, even though the GVX1 Pro is a 64 meg card, it will use up to 250 MB of system memory for texture storage. Do the Gainward cards do the same thing? For another thing, on my current card, an Nvidia TNT2 based card, I had to install the Nvidia reference drivers and disable most, if not all, of the direct-x support to get it to work right with AutoCAD. Is this still a problem?

Oh, and right now $600 is about my limit, budget-wise, for a graphics card. If it weren't, I'd be agonizing over a Wildcat 5110.

I admit it. I'm lost.

Frank