Pro Graphics Cards Revisited

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
C

captainfoot

Junior Member
May 17, 2012
5
0
0
I have read most of the conflicting opinions related to gamer vs pro graphics cards for CAD &c. I have a rather specific question regarding not speed so much as ability to run a great variety of CAD software at all without crashing, and based on cards now available. Lest anyone feel constrained to point it out, I do realize that I am something of a dilletante.

I am quite retired and want to play with graphics on a PC. I am taking college classes now - free due to my age - and so can get new academic software editions pretty cheap. My problem is this: as I am not doing anything professionally, production speed is not terribly important, providing that things actually render before I die of course. However, I will have to be buying the newest editions of the various CAD and pro graphics softwares I would like to try out, and I see that apparently their suggested requirements are becoming higher and higher. I am not really into games but would probably like to do 2d graphics, characters/cartoons, some photo work, possibly some video work, probably some 3d work. I do not need production speed, but I do want to actually be able to experiment with a variety of softwares such as Autocad and Adobe and so on without crashing. I have an extra PC with an i7-920 I think, and 12GbRAM, and I have a 512Gb M4 SSD I can give to it. I would like to use that system, but I am torn about a graphics card. I would think that a reasonably fast gaming card with protocols to access the GPUs would do, but I see that these new softwares typically list only pro graphics cards. I could get up to a Quadro4000 if I had to, but I really don't want to waste heat and power if I don't have to (not to mention money).

I know that 95% of the time I will be able to just use a reasonable gaming card with driver protocols to access the GPUs, but being new to this am not sure about the other 5% of the time: will things I'd be likely to run into just be slower, or will I crash the system too often? Since this will be for fun, after all, I'd like to make it as enjoyable as practical once I set it up.

Thanks
 
3

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
204
106
There are no guarantees for never crashing. Even with the Pro cards you can have something in the software or drivers get broken. With the pro cards you are assured they will fix it as soon as possible. With the consumer cards, it could take a while. Saying that I've only had one instance of a 3D app. crashing on my consumer cards.

Cinema 4D crashed when I turned on "soft shadows" in the editor. It was one particular driver. I rolled back to the previous driver until they issued new drivers and the problem was fixed.
 
cantholdanymore

cantholdanymore

Senior member
Mar 20, 2011
447
0
76
Best thing to do is visit the websites of the software you intend to use and check if they recommend or certify any particular card and get that.
 
C

captainfoot

Junior Member
May 17, 2012
5
0
0
I guess my concern arises mostly from having to buy new editions of graphics software. I would have thought that by now more would use OpenGL or other means to access GPUs in good gaming or consumer cards. Instead, I see that softwares still seem to suggest pro graphics cards - but more, advice in some of the forums seems to imply that the newer software editions throw in more and more features which might require the most advanced pro cards. It is awkward that I can get new editions cheaper than old ones!

Certainly, I am not asking that my system never crash. Rather, I think my question is whether the trend in pro graphics software seems to be toward taking increasing advantage of the GPU hooks in consumer gaming cards (as I would have thought by now, but see little evidence), or whether it seems absolutely heading toward pro cards. I'll probably be taking a couple of courses a season for the rest of my life, so I'm just trying to look ahead. (I know: George Meredith said. 'Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul when hot for certainties in this our life....')

I am thinking that I will be able to extract enough utility from a moderate level consumer gaming card, and then revisit the issue again after a year or two if the newly available software has a clear direction in requirements. Is there any reason to expect my system - which would have an i7 920, 12Gb good RAM, large SSD, and about a $200 graphics card - to utterly fall flat?
 
B

bononos

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2011
3,928
186
106
The big difference in deciding whether to get pro/gaming cards is whether you will be primarily using the 2d/wireframe or 3d/3dplugins in your CAD apps, pro cards will speed up your work alot faster in 3d. If you're just going to be working in 2d then a pro card night not help at all.

If the recent trend in Nvidia cards are anything to go by then Nvidia is widening the segmentation btwn pro vs gaming cards.
 
Jaydip

Jaydip

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2010
3,691
21
81
captainfoot said:
I have read most of the conflicting opinions related to gamer vs pro graphics cards for CAD &c. I have a rather specific question regarding not speed so much as ability to run a great variety of CAD software at all without crashing, and based on cards now available. Lest anyone feel constrained to point it out, I do realize that I am something of a dilletante.

I am quite retired and want to play with graphics on a PC. I am taking college classes now - free due to my age - and so can get new academic software editions pretty cheap. My problem is this: as I am not doing anything professionally, production speed is not terribly important, providing that things actually render before I die of course. However, I will have to be buying the newest editions of the various CAD and pro graphics softwares I would like to try out, and I see that apparently their suggested requirements are becoming higher and higher. I am not really into games but would probably like to do 2d graphics, characters/cartoons, some photo work, possibly some video work, probably some 3d work. I do not need production speed, but I do want to actually be able to experiment with a variety of softwares such as Autocad and Adobe and so on without crashing. I have an extra PC with an i7-920 I think, and 12GbRAM, and I have a 512Gb M4 SSD I can give to it. I would like to use that system, but I am torn about a graphics card. I would think that a reasonably fast gaming card with protocols to access the GPUs would do, but I see that these new softwares typically list only pro graphics cards. I could get up to a Quadro4000 if I had to, but I really don't want to waste heat and power if I don't have to (not to mention money).

I know that 95% of the time I will be able to just use a reasonable gaming card with driver protocols to access the GPUs, but being new to this am not sure about the other 5% of the time: will things I'd be likely to run into just be slower, or will I crash the system too often? Since this will be for fun, after all, I'd like to make it as enjoyable as practical once I set it up.

Thanks
Click to expand...
As u are doing it for fun mostly check this,it will be enough for ur needs.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814195109
 
C

captainfoot

Junior Member
May 17, 2012
5
0
0
Yes, thanks for all the advice. I thought about the v4900, and even more about the v5900 when it is infrequently available just under $300, but I am concerned that I NEVER see a pro workstation with anything but a Quadro. Desktop Engineering magazine a month or so ago had a comparison chart of new workstation PCs - not all outrageously priced - and if I recall right, every one of them used Q2000 through Q5000 cards! That surprised me. At first, as I understand, all the pro software expected and was optimized for Quadro cards - but is that STILL the case? I know that pro softwares are beginning to list AMD pro cards as acceptable, but still, I see practically nothing shipped that way.
 
Jaydip

Jaydip

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2010
3,691
21
81
captainfoot said:
Yes, thanks for all the advice. I thought about the v4900, and even more about the v5900 when it is infrequently available just under $300, but I am concerned that I NEVER see a pro workstation with anything but a Quadro. Desktop Engineering magazine a month or so ago had a comparison chart of new workstation PCs - not all outrageously priced - and if I recall right, every one of them used Q2000 through Q5000 cards! That surprised me. At first, as I understand, all the pro software expected and was optimized for Quadro cards - but is that STILL the case? I know that pro softwares are beginning to list AMD pro cards as acceptable, but still, I see practically nothing shipped that way.
Click to expand...
It depends on ur nature of work.If u use the applications favored heavily by NV there's no point buying a firepro.But u said u will mostly do it for academic purpose and the card I linked will do the job well.
 
sgrinavi

sgrinavi

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2007
4,537
0
76
I'm a bit late to the party here, but I'll give my $.02 anyhow.

I do AutoCAD, REVIT & 3dsMAX 12 hours a day and use Quadro cards for most of it. For a couple reasons

- Seems that the consumer grade cards cause viewport issues, you can see other windows through your view port or you see artifacts on the screen. It happens nearly every session

-Software support, you call AutoDesk and if you don't have one of the "approved" cards they their help is greatly limited.

3dsMAX has some extra goodies that work with the nvidia cards, iRay for example, and they periodically release some really good accelerated drivers that work very well with the quadro cards. I have used my fair share of FirePro cards as well, they work just fine, but lack the support mentioned above.

If I were in your situation I would probably look on ebay for a good used card.
 
3

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
204
106
sgrinavi said:
I'm a bit late to the party here, but I'll give my $.02 anyhow.

I do AutoCAD, REVIT & 3dsMAX 12 hours a day and use Quadro cards for most of it. For a couple reasons

- Seems that the consumer grade cards cause viewport issues, you can see other windows through your view port or you see artifacts on the screen. It happens nearly every session

-Software support, you call AutoDesk and if you don't have one of the "approved" cards they their help is greatly limited.

3dsMAX has some extra goodies that work with the nvidia cards, iRay for example, and they periodically release some really good accelerated drivers that work very well with the quadro cards. I have used my fair share of FirePro cards as well, they work just fine, but lack the support mentioned above.

If I were in your situation I would probably look on ebay for a good used card.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear, is iRay now something that you get because you have an nVidia card? Or, is it still additional cost as part of the "Autodesk subscription package"?

I only ask because people get the impression that if you buy an nVidia card they get extra features, like you mention, but usually it costs extra. Often times, thousands of dollars. like with an Autodesk Subscription. It's $6000AUD (Australian dollar is ~1to1 with USD), the closest location that I can check pricing. IIRC, the last I checked it was ~$5000 in the US per annum for the license.
 
sgrinavi

sgrinavi

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2007
4,537
0
76
With 2012, yes, iRay is "built into max" - iRay was on subscription back in 2011. in 2012 you get to use iray 2.0 & you can use it with active shade with the subscription advantage pack.

Actually I'm pretty sure you can use iRay with any cuda enable card, so maybe OPs best bet is a GTX 570....

Slightly off topic:

I don't know what subscription you're looking at, but I have the Building Design Suite Premium and it's $1200 / yr, our other seats are the older REVIT Architecture suite (REVIT, ACA & CAD) and that runs about $800. Even if all you do is upgrade every 4 years it pays for itself.
 
3

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
204
106
sgrinavi said:
With 2012, yes, iRay is "built into max" - iRay was on subscription back in 2011. in 2012 you get to use iray 2.0 & you can use it with active shade with the subscription advantage pack.

Actually I'm pretty sure you can use iRay with any cuda enable card, so maybe OPs best bet is a GTX 570....

Slightly off topic:

I don't know what subscription you're looking at, but I have the Building Design Suite Premium and it's $1200 / yr, our other seats are the older REVIT Architecture suite (REVIT, ACA & CAD) and that runs about $800. Even if all you do is upgrade every 4 years it pays for itself.
Click to expand...

I looked at Autodesk's site under 3D Max for that info. If you are certain that it's included now though, I must have read something wrong. Thanks for responding. I'll have to reread it. :thumbsup:
 
D

darckhart

Senior member
Jul 6, 2004
517
2
81
to the OP: fwiw, it seems more and more software leans toward directx only and not all offer support for both d3d and opengl.

+1 to the guy that spoke about quadro vs consumer and viewports working
 
C

captainfoot

Junior Member
May 17, 2012
5
0
0
Well, I rather nearly decided to try a v5900 for three reasons: I decided that arguing between FirePro and Quadro series at any price point could go on forever, but I found v5900s for under $300; it draws only 75W; and I thought that having a 2gb frame buffer might possibly be helpful, compared with consumer cards likely to be 1Gb. Then, when looking into a driver for the card, I found that apparently there is no such thing: it seems that drivers are optimized to the specific application software, not just the O/S and CPU! Well, that is a nice touch and doubtless accounts for some of the price, but for me, having as yet no real idea what softwares I will run into let along prefer, I decided to just stay with whatever will be the best consumer/gaming graphics card I can find around my shop. Not much point in getting a pro card with the wrong driver, if the drivers are actually so finicky. So now my plan is to just try the best graphics card I have around for the next year or so, till I've actually had a few more courses, and then make a card (and driver!) decision based on more experience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom