Recommended Quality Graphics Card for Workstation (Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe)

[kuphryn]

Greetings,

Planning for a high-performance workstation (Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe). Here is the discussion on the CPU.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1904072&enterthread=y

Next, I would like to talk about graphics card (PCI Express).

As mentioned in the post about CPU, I spend much time on developing software, including compiling multiple applications, and watching DVD. Sometimes I play PC games especially RPG and simulation. Great if the graphics card could provide exceptional visual effects when playing games (RPG) and watching DVD.

What are some quality graphics cards that would match well with the new high-performance workstation?

ATI or Nvidia? What quality is the driver software especially on windows platforms (xp and vista)? Which graphics card?

Kuphryn

 

[rhino56]

my choice would be the x1900xt if you can budget it in. great card that i actually dont even have to overclock.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Are you going to use any workstation related apps?

Well if your Quadro. Nothing can beat Quadro becaue it just dominates the benchmarks AND have better driver support.

 

[Kromis]

So no FireGL or Quadro?

 

[zephyrprime]

If he's not doing any 3d modeling, there's no point in getting a quadro or firegl.

Get a 1900xt of 1900xtx.

Also, dvd image quality isn't much affected by the video card. Be careful in selecting your monitor if dvd quality is a big issue for you.

Be sure to get a 4MB cache c2d or xeon 51xx. Cache helps a lot for compiling. The conroes are the fastest processors for compiling right now by a pretty big margin.

 

[TheRyuu]

Are you doing 3d modeling??? Then get a Quadro.

If not, get a X1900XT.

 

[kuphryn]

Down to these graphics cards:

ATI Radeon x1600 Pro 512MB PCI-E
GEFORCE 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E

Never bought ATI graphics card. Always bought Nvidia

Nvidia features really stable windows driver software. ATI not as good before radeon driver software.

I have noticed ATI graphics card displays clearer, more accurate images on windows platform. Noticeably better than Nvidia (Geforce 2).

How good is ATI driver software on windows platform - present and future?

ATI: clear, accurate image display

Nvidia: stable driver software and great performance especially games even if hardware is old

Experience says Nvidia. Optimism and desire says ATI.

(Planning DirectX 10 graphics card when available.)

Kuphryn

 

[Griswold]

I'm using a 7800GT since last october and I miss the clear and solid driver policy of ATI. Nvidia's driver strategy seems like a total mess to me - there is no clear path, just lots of official and unofficial betas, bugged final drivers that get replaced by new betas instead of a new WHQL release etc. Make no mistake, I'm currently running on an (old) set of drivers without problems (and my motto is: dont fix it if it aint broke) but the whole driver policy doesnt leave a good impression.

my 2c.

 

[gsellis]

No to Quadro or FireGL. Even though the OP is building a "workstation", his tasks are not what a workstation would be running.

OP... If you are going to drop the change, why not get a 79xx or 19xx series card? Then again, you plan on replacing it in 6 months, so maybe a 16xx or 76xx is not a bad compromise until then. Games are less CPU bound as GPU bound lately.

 

[imported_Truenofan]

it seems to me that nvidia's drivers lately have been going to crap, but ati's arent doing so great either, i'v heard bugs on both. i've never used nvidia, always ati and i've never regretted it either.