What videocard for Maya?

[Ancalagon44]

Is a Quadro/FirePro really necessary?

Does Maya have better support for a particular brand?

Its for making video games - mostly low poly models.

 

[Jaydip]

If u are taking it seriously then yes it is.Before suggesting it would be great if we can know ur budget?A pretty thorough review
http://www.cgchannel.com/2011/10/review-professional-gpus-nvidia-vs-amd-2011/

Pick one that suits ur need and budget.I have quadro 5000 and its a beast of a card.

 

[Ancalagon44]

What difference does a workstation GPU make?

So the story is, I'm a software developer wanting to open my own game dev studio. I can do the code, but not the 3d modelling. So I've been in contact with some modellers/artists, to do the work for me on contract (ie I pay them). One dude stands out, but he says that he has some kind of a problem with his computer, and the work will go much faster if I provide him with one.

I know, I know, scam warning bells should be ringing right now. So I am also thinking about how to protect myself in this. The dude is doing concept art, and actual 3d modelling for me, as a gesture of goodwill in an attempt to seal the deal. I havent seen any of it, but I've just asked him to send me some of it. I might buy him the PC as part payment for the work. And yes the work will be broken up into phases, deposit prior to phase start, full payment once its finished and I'm happy with it. Anyway, so maybe we can work the PC into that.

Thanks to difficulty getting finance, I'm looking to self finance the game until I have enough of a demo to get crowdfunding or bankfunding or something. Which means that my budget for this computer would be around ZAR 10k to 13k. Divide by 8 to approximately get USD values. I think that gives me an upper limit of about $1600. Hence why a consumer level card is so appealing.

 

[Jaydip]

The problem with consumer level card is that they are not optimized for the work u r interested in.Get him a Quadro 4000 which is around 800$ and hope that the roi will be worthwhile.

 

[Ancalagon44]

But whats the difference? What does a Quadro do that a Geforce cannot?

For $500, I could get him a GTX 680 - far more powerful than any Quadro card.

 

[Jaydip]

A gtx 680 is a gaming card first and foremost.Moreover its dp performance has been cut from 1/8th to 1/24th compared to 580.Then there is the question of optimization,i think u very well understand that optimization is the key in professional business.Maya would run considerably worse on gaming cards than on pro cards.

 

[Ancalagon44]

I've read some articles that say that was true back in the day, but not really true anymore. That the main difference is in driver support and stability, and even that is pretty good in the GeForce line.

Until this business gets off the ground, I dont think it makes any sense to buy a Quadro when a GeForce will work well enough. Maybe when after the release of the first game and I need to hire a staff, I can afford an $800 video card. Until then, it just makes zero sense.

 

[Jaydip]

It will be at-least true for NV for foreseeable future.They gimp dp performance to sell more quadros.

 

[bononos]

I've read some articles that say that was true back in the day, but not really true anymore. That the main difference is in driver support and stability, and even that is pretty good in the GeForce line.

Until this business gets off the ground, I dont think it makes any sense to buy a Quadro when a GeForce will work well enough. Maybe when after the release of the first game and I need to hire a staff, I can afford an $800 video card. Until then, it just makes zero sense.

Do you have the links to those articles because I don't think gaming cards ever managed to touch pro level performance, driver stability or not. There are pro cards now at gaming card prices all the way down to $110 for the Firepro v3900 ($120 at newegg). Your business could be viable.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/firepro-v3900-review-benchmark,3153.html

 

[Ancalagon44]

http://icrontic.com/article/the-real-difference-between-workstation-and-desktop-gpus

Drivers, support, stability.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-808900.html

Again, performance not an issue, its all about stability and support.

Put it this way - if I buy a Quadro, I'm not buying a Fermi Quadro. THe prices are stupidly high. I could buy a FirePro, which are cheaper, but I'm worried about compatibility. I know Nvidia's driver support has historically been better for professionals. If I buy a GeForce, performance WILL be better, no question. Stability may or may not be an issue. Its a gamble that a lot of people seem to take, and they seem to win. In other words, a lot of people use consumer level cards with no problems.

Heck, its a small business, budget just does not allow for an $800 card. Sorry, it just doesnt.

 

[Jaydip]

What about the quadro 2000?

 

[Ancalagon44]

Why would I spend good money on an old architecture?

I just cant see the benefit for a small business.

 

[Jaydip]

OK,u can wait for Kepler quadros then.But i doubt Kepler will be cheaper in professional space.

 

[Topweasel]

I think people might be struck in the more that professional software needs professional cards. This doesn't seem to be the case. Seems that threw biggest issue is that they don't support using consumer cards and the app can randomly stop working with them.

 

[Jaydip]

Sorry, but i 'm not getting ur point.

 

[Cerb]

But whats the difference? What does a Quadro do that a Geforce cannot?

It works with Quadro drivers.

For $500, I could get him a GTX 680 - far more powerful than any Quadro card.

For $150, you could get a Quadro 600, which is much cheaper than a GTX 680.

Put it this way - if I buy a Quadro, I'm not buying a Fermi Quadro. THe prices are stupidly high. I could buy a FirePro, which are cheaper, but I'm worried about compatibility.

FirePros are every bit as stupidly expensive.

I know Nvidia's driver support has historically been better for professionals. If I buy a GeForce, performance WILL be better, no question.

Maybe, but OTOH, Maya still seems to be one of those apps that benefits greatly from the pro drivers.

Stability may or may not be an issue. Its a gamble that a lot of people seem to take, and they seem to win. In other words, a lot of people use consumer level cards with no problems.

So, then what's wrong with this guy using what he already has?

Heck, its a small business, budget just does not allow for an $800 card. Sorry, it just doesnt.

That's why they have cheaper ones.

Why would I spend good money on an old architecture?

What old architecture? Fermi is still NVidia's mainstream. If you consider that old, don't ever look into buying servers.

 

[richaron]

A 6xx geforce card would be a very bad decision, nvidia seem to be neutering compute.

I'm not sure about compatability.. but if you want a modern card an AMD 7950/7970 would handle opengl/cl & directcompute nicely.

 

[bononos]

http://icrontic.com/article/the-real-difference-between-workstation-and-desktop-gpus

Drivers, support, stability.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-808900.html

Again, performance not an issue, its all about stability and support.

Put it this way - if I buy a Quadro, I'm not buying a Fermi Quadro. THe prices are stupidly high. I could buy a FirePro, which are cheaper, but I'm worried about compatibility. I know Nvidia's driver support has historically been better for professionals. If I buy a GeForce, performance WILL be better, no question. Stability may or may not be an issue. Its a gamble that a lot of people seem to take, and they seem to win. In other words, a lot of people use consumer level cards with no problems.

Heck, its a small business, budget just does not allow for an $800 card. Sorry, it just doesnt.

Performance is an issue otherwise pro cards simply won't exist.
Everyone knew about it and didn't bother mentioning it so it didn't even come up in your first link.

Perhaps you are also unaware that some design/modelling apps like 3dsmax work quite well with gaming cards but many like Maya need pro cards for good performance. There was a 2d/3d CAD thread a few days ago that you might have missed.

 

[Denithor]

Pro cards versus gaming cards - it's not about the hardware (mostly) - it's about the drivers. And not for stability, for simple functionality.

The pro cards come with a different set of drivers than the gaming cards so the design software knows how to properly utilize the hardware. The software is going to issue different instructions to the card based on which set of drivers are present - and in general the work done by the pro cards is much more efficient so you don't need as much horsepower to get the same work done. In many cases, even though a gaming card is more powerful, it will sit there idle because the software doesn't have the required driver to properly use the hardware.

It's much worse on the nVidia side, they seem to be intentionally neutering their gaming cards from the compute side so they can sell more Quadro cards (as mentioned above, double precision cut from 1/8 [GTX 580] to 1/24 [GTX 680]).

If you have to go with a gaming card, you'd be better off with a GTX 580 than a GTX 680. Or even better, go with a Radeon card (7850/7870/7950/7970), where the compute side was beefed up significantly instead of chopped.

 

[sandorski]

You'll probably want to go to a Forum where Maya is used a lot. I fiddled with Maya years ago and for Low Poly Modelling(< 3000 Polys) I had no issues using a 9800 Pro. I do believe that for Modelling the Video card isn't going to be too much of a factor. If you're Rendering Scenes, that's where it matters more(IIRC).

CPU Cores also help quite a lot for Maya. Keep that in mind when building a system.

 

[-Slacker-]

workstation gpuss are an order of magnitude faster than gaming gpus in professional apps. Just look at the benchmarks. So no, it's not just stability, it's also (lots and lots of) performance.

 

[richaron]

If you have to go with a gaming card, you'd be better off with a GTX 580 than a GTX 680. Or even better, go with a Radeon card (7850/7870/7950/7970), where the compute side was beefed up significantly instead of chopped.

Only 79xx cards have good double precision performance.

workstation gpuss are an order of magnitude faster than gaming gpus in professional apps. Just look at the benchmarks. So no, it's not just stability, it's also (lots and lots of) performance.

I tried to find some comparison benchmarks & it's not as easy as I thought. However I think the major problem for the OP (& it would be for me also), is that they would be spending $hundreds for 2 year old low/mid range architecture. A modern high range consumer card is also "an order of magnitude faster" than that.

 

[TidusZ]

From benchmarks I looked at recently, the difference between gaming gpu's and workstation gpu's in Maya isn't just big, its ridiculous. It was something like 3 fps versus 40 fps or along those lines. The high end card is like $4000 though.

 

[sandorski]

From benchmarks I looked at recently, the difference between gaming gpu's and workstation gpu's in Maya isn't just big, its ridiculous. It was something like 3 fps versus 40 fps or along those lines. The high end card is like $4000 though.

Perhaps for some usage, but no way is there that kind of difference for Modelling.

 

[Ancalagon44]

Perhaps for some usage, but no way is there that kind of difference for Modelling.

Unfortunately I think he is right. Previously I was of the opinion that its just marketing, but I looked at some Toms Hardware benchmarks. The difference is plainly staggering.

Yeah, we all know the hardware is the same, so I'm thinking its driver gimpedness. Oh well.