Good video card for gaming and CAD?

[TitanDiddly]

I had been looking at buying a 9600Pro/XT, when I discovered that it failed Solidworks' certification test. That's not an option now. I noticed that the 9000Pro passed with a green, but I don't know how well it does for gaming. What kind of options do I have for a (hopefully ATI) video card to give outstanding performance with both gaming and CAD?

 

[Falloutboy]

your best bet looking at the list is too get a quardro if you got the money. or get a geforce 4 4200.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

i have a 9800pro and it works fine with inventor, pro e and autocad. i have never used it with solidworks but i would assume it works ok. with a gaming card you are limited to how many opengl windows you can open at once.

JB

 

[Lonyo]

Get an nVidia card if you're looking at CAD stuff, they're better.

<- ATi user (and fanboy)

 

[TitanDiddly]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
i have a 9800pro and it works fine with inventor, pro e and autocad. i have never used it with solidworks but i would assume it works ok. with a gaming card you are limited to how many opengl windows you can open at once.

JB

It's blacklisted as a no-go by SW.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

thats just so you pay for the high end cards. im sure it would work. ill install solidworks and see how it works if you like.

JB

 

[TitanDiddly]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
thats just so you pay for the high end cards. im sure it would work. ill install solidworks and see how it works if you like.

JB

Do you have it? You can't warez it easily, nor would endorse it. You need a dongle.

 

[SickBeast]

Well, I just softmodded my R9700PRO to a FireGL X1 and it kicks some serious ass in AutoCAD 2002. I can run fully hardware accelerated with 6XAA within CAD, and I can pan and zoom with a highly detailed model gourad shaded like it's some kind of joke. PM me if you want a link to the modified drivers.

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

It looks like the only problem with the 9600 series is that the annotations disappear when you put the mouse over things. Not sure exactly how critical that is in SolidWorks (I use primarily Pro/E) but for Pro/E the annotations are only help or little explanation boxes and not really a concern either way.

Also, even the 9000 fails when tested with the same drivers that were used to test the 9600 (same failure as well). Therefore, it looks like a driver issue that may either already have been fixed or could be fixed in the future. Also, this shows an additional problem which is upgrading drivers can cause a card that used to work to start failing.

I've used everything from a GeForce SDR to a GF2 Ti200 on Pro/E, and they've all worked fine.

Again, I don't have too much experience with solidworks, but I'd recomment trying out a consumer level gaming card just to see if it works. I've definitely had more luck with Nvidia cards, so maybe a 5900XT might be a good start. Looks like the only issue with that is a "limited number of accelerated windows". It says that the video memory limits the number of windows, and that with 64-128MB of ram you get 3-12 windows. I'm guessing that with 128 you'd probably get 6 windows easily, which should be enough for pretty much anything.

Good luck!

-D'oh!

 

[SickBeast]

AFAIK you're limited to 4 hardware accelerated windows unless you have a workstation graphics card, AnnoyedGrunt.

You should be able to softmod your 9600 into a workstation card BTW.

 

[videoclone]

Geforce FX 5900XT into a $1800 Quadro FX3000 workstation card For $150 sounds good read on..
Oh by the way the Quadro FX 3000 is the "worlds" fastest 3D workstaion card.

Ok You may want to do a Softquadro4 mod its allot better then Bios flashing your card.
And its totally reversible buy uninstalling the drivers. And Rivatuna.

Step 1 . Get or buy a Geforce FX 5900XT or GeforceFX 5900 ? try and find a cheap one ive seen them for sale for $150

Step 2.

a) download the latest Rivatuna from http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner&amp;menu=8
b) download Softquadro4 the one that comes with UnpackDriver.bat here http://www.pcekspert.com/downloads/SQ4ScriptPack.zip

Step 3. Install the Geforce FX 5900XT using Forceware drivers version 45.28 make sure its this version because the newer drivers have protection against softmodding.

Step 4.

a) Install RivaTuner
b) Go in to Rivatuna and Instal NVstrap (Do not restart) then go to the adaptor section and change it from GeforceFX to Quadro
c) Unpack 45.28 into a folder (Do not install)
d) copy the UnpackDriver.bat from the Softquadro4.Zip into the extracted 45.28 folder and run it.

Step 5.

Go into the Folder where Softquadro4 is unpacked and. Apply these patch?s to the unpacked 45.28 drivers
a)Apply SQ4 and Nvstrap antiprotection patches
b)Apply AnisoBoosterOpenGl patch
c)Apply DetonatorFXAntiprotector patch

Step 6.

Goto Device Manager and update the graphics driver to QuadroFX 3000 manually. Now Reboot and Install the card if prompted.

Step 7.

Go into NVStap again and in Rivatuna set your graphics card to QuadroFX3000 if it isn?t set as that already. After that reboot. You will now have a Quadro modded FX.

You should set OpenGL VSynch to OFF in the Display Properties for better performance. also enable Overlays and Unified Back buffer. As i have tried these and they help in 3Dmax.

Goodluck. this worked for me and the Quadro FX 3000 runs 3Dmax solidworks great. better then any ATI card would ever! the bench marks prove the Quadro's Demolish the ATI cards in Workstation Graphics.

 

[videoclone]

If your interested in reading more about softmodding go here http://forums.guru3d.com/forumdisplay.php?&amp;forumid=18 there is a whole forum section about it !!!

Now your best bet is to Print out my Instructions on how to get this mod to work. There are other ways on how to get it to work in the Guru3D link i put down but my one is for now the newest and the one that uses the latest unlocked drivers!

Again i gave you the best Way to go about this but if your interested in saving some money you can Turn other Nvidia Cards with the same guide into Quadro's but change them to there corresponding Quadro's "NOT" FX3000

Geforce Ti4200 -> Quadro4 700XGL
Geforce Ti4400 -> Quadro4 750XGL
Geforce Ti4600 -> Quadro4 900XGL
Geforce Ti4800 -> Quadro4 980XGL
GeforceFX 5800 -> QuadroFX 1000
GeforceFX 5800U -> QuadroFX 2000
GeforceFX 5200 -> QuadroFX 500
GeforceFX 5600 -> QuadroFX 700 ??? <- doesnt exist in Driver's May not work.
Geforce 5600Go -> Quadro700Go

And you can also Turn ATI cards into ATI fire GL cards but i'm not sure how to do this ... i will be doing a fire GL mod soon though.

9600 Pro -> FireGL T2
9500 Pro -> FireGL Z1
9700 Pro -> FireGL X1
9800 Pro/XT -> FireGL X2

Again these are untested but from the posts ive read on the guru3D forum they can be done!

 

[howdyduty]

SickBeast: What was the performance in CAD before your softmod compared to after? Thanks.

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
AFAIK you're limited to 4 hardware accelerated windows unless you have a workstation graphics card, AnnoyedGrunt.

You should be able to softmod your 9600 into a workstation card BTW.

You could be right. If you check out the link to SolidWorks' testing, they will tell you how many windows you can expect in their application. It depends on the driver and card though; in some cases you can have slowdowns with less than 4 windows open, while in others the slowdowns occur only after you have more than 15 open.

I'm sure that other applications will experience similar issues, and how many windows you can get open probably depends on the program itself and how it allocates the video memory.

Even 4 windows is often sufficient for smaller designs.

-D'oh!

 

[SickBeast]

According to the benchmarks others have done, performance doubles or triples depending on the situation.

The other thing to keep in mind is that new things are possible with these drivers that otherwise could not have been done. For example I now have AA enabled in AutoCAD.

As videoclone suggested, the nVidia cards are much better for workstation performance. It makes me want to "upgrade" to a 5900.

 

[videoclone]