Good video card for CG, animation, 3dsmax, maya, etc?

[tom3]

I'm building a system for my brother. The two cards I am comparing are the ATI FireGL T2 and the Nvidial Quadro FX500. Both are in the same price range (around $210). Which would be better? Are there other cards I should be looking into?

I am aware that some gaming cards can be soft or hard modded into a openGL professional CG card, but I have chosen not to go down that route.

The rest of the system will be
- P4 3.2E
- socket 478 motherboard using one of the i865 chipsets
- 2GB DDR400
- 160GB HD

thanks!
tom

 

[cirthix]

get a radeon 9800pro and flash the bios to firegl, should work great. honestly, it wont really matter. its practically a no-risk thing to do (if it goes bad, just use a pci video card and reflash teh agp one)

 

[cirthix]

also, why not an athlon?

 

[stnicralisk]

Well since Nvidia owns the cg department destroying firegl at every corner. I would say get a 5900nu and flash it to a workstation card. You can probably find one for around 100$

 

[Matthias99]

I am aware that some gaming cards can be soft or hard modded into a openGL professional CG card, but I have chosen not to go down that route.

Folks, please read threads before replying. Many people want a warranty for a 'workstation', and don't want to deal with possible issues from using a modded card.

I'd look for benchmarks from the specific applications you're going to be using, or recommendations of users of said applications, and base your decision on those. Above post to the contrary, NVIDIA is does not "destroy" ATI at everything, and the relative performance can vary considerably by pricepoint (NVIDIA's pro cards tend to be more expensive than ATI's).

 

[BenSkywalker]

What type of environment is going to be used for working most of the time? If the rig will mainly deal with flat shaded or textured scenes while working then you will likely do better with a consumer level part. Wireframe acceleration and anti aliasing tends to be where the pro boards really come out ahead. Depending on the working environment I would seriously be considering a 6600GT if I were you(not modded mind you, as is).