what graphics card for cad cam?

[Boonesmi]

im looking for a idea of what video cards would be best at running apps like autocad, mastercam, i dont care about games. (actually i love games but for this pc it will just be running cad/cam type proggies

what card would you pick in the $90 range
what card in the $140 range
and what one in the $200 range

 

[UpGrD]

For Win NT/2000 (would stay away from W98/ME if you can)
*Very lowend, Diamond FireGL 1000 (great CAD card for the money $20??)
*Mid, FireGL 4000 or Permidia 3 based cards, I have seen them from $50 to $150)
*High end ($150 dollar level anyway) 3DLABS OXYGEN VX1

On a side note I have had very good OpenGL results with Gforce2 based cards also. They would give you good game perfomance also.

Throw a post up in the For sale forum, you should find a deal there.
Also check out e-Bay, because of the poor game perfomance of CAD cards you can usualy fine some great deals on these card there.

 

[Boonesmi]

thanks for the info

any other suggestions?

 

[Pederv]

Where I work, we stick the drafters with the G400's or G450's. But with the switch over to Dell they're gonna get stuck with gforce2's.

 

[joinT]

why not get nearly any kind of geforce & get it modded to Quadro

I did to mine - it's now an Elsa Synergy III (MXR) & has sweet drivers for Win2K, AutoCAD & 3D Studio Max

 

[TripperJoe]

how do you mod..say, a geforce DDR? Can you give some linkage? thx

 

[WHATif]

I am using G450 for CAD work. It's not too bad.

 

[dullard]

For so-so CAD performance, get a GeForce 2 GTS, they aren't too costly. Or even the Matrox G450.

For real CAD performance, you need to go with the ATI fire GL2 ($600 more than the Matrox G450) or if you have money buy the 3Dlabs Wildcat II 5110 (about $2000). Nothing else comes even close to the performance of those. Think about DOUBLE the ram of GeForce 3 cards...

Edit: There are good ATI fire GL3 and GL4 cards (for dual monitor support), but I can't seem to find them available yet.