Workstation Card for Professional-Class Imaging Workstation?

[Twitch22]

Hello Everyone...hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving Holiday!

I'm looking for advice on what video card I should recommend/buy for an up-coming build for a family member. It'll be a professional-class imaging workstation for digital photography. He's looking to run Adobe Master Collection CS4 suite, Adobe Lightroom, a bunch of plug-ins, etc. He already has over a Terrabyte of photos, video and such spread among several HDs. His current machine is a Dell with a P4 3.0, Windows XP Pro and 2 Gigs of DDR2-400! Yeah, time to upgrade... :disgust:

So far, we've come-up with a rig consisting of:

- Intel Quad-Core Q9450
- GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Motherboard
- 8 Gigs DDR2-1066 RAM
- 1 Seagate 500GB HDs for Primary OS and system programs, (4) Seagate 1TB HDs for Logic/Storage in RAID 1 array
- SansDigital MobileSTOR MS4T JBOD Firewire External Enclosure w/(4) Seagate TB HDs for external back-up and hot-swappable drive capability
- LG Blu-Ray Burner/HD-DVD drive
- PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750w PSU
- Eizo ColorEdge CG241W LCD Monitor
- Windows Vista Ultimate x64 OS

Now, that's a build! The only things he's not buying are a Lian-Li PC-65 case I'm giving him and his Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers.

My only concern is the video section. What are the pros and cons of running a workstation-card vs. a standard "desktop" card for such a build? IOW, where should I be looking for stability, efficiency, color fidelity and raw imaging resolution? Of course, the power to drive that Eizo LCD is also a must.

I would imagine that, should a desktop card be a good enough solution, going with a 260/280 GTX or 4870 1GB would be the bare minumum as far as providing the resolutions, image quality and connectivity this machine would demand.

But I have no idea what to look for in a workstation card. I've been looking a bit on Newegg, but I'm not sure how much card is enough when you're looking at these cards. And, while it may sound funny considering how expensive this build is already, if I don't need a $300 - $500 desktop card, could a cheaper, but more applicable, workstation solution suffice?

This is a new area for me, build-wise. I've built my fair share of "mom & pop" PC's, gaming rigs and media/home servers. But I've never built a rig that is dedicated to such a specific, optimized purpose. Frankly, I can't wait to get started and see how it comes out!

Thanks for any info or suggestions!

Twitch

 

[Rubycon]

Any decent desktop card will suffice just fine.

Workstation cards typically are installed in machines running Esprit, AutoCad, Unigraphics, Pro-Engineer, Maya, True Space, 3DStudio Max, etc.

 

[sgrinavi]

ATI has a line of 2d workstation class cards; FireMV. Nvida has a card, Quadro CX, that is optimized for Adobe Creative Suite® 4

 

[wwswimming]

i've used the ATI FireGL series & regular "gaming cards" in workstations
for CAD & 3D animation.

the gaming cards are just as fast - but you do sometimes run into driver
hassles. if you go the gaming card route, it's important to exercise the
machine using critical applications early in the build, so that if you need
to return the video card, you can.

i think the 4870 & 4850 are a good choice. they've been out for 6 months
so there's been some time for "public beta-testing", that is, time to refine
the drivers. the 4850 especially runs hot so it's a good idea to get the
cards that have better heatsinks, not the stock heat-sink.

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: wwswimming
i've used the ATI FireGL series & regular "gaming cards" in workstations
for CAD & 3D animation.

the gaming cards are just as fast - but you do sometimes run into driver
hassles. if you go the gaming card route, it's important to exercise the
machine using critical applications early in the build, so that if you need
to return the video card, you can.

i think the 4870 & 4850 are a good choice. they've been out for 6 months
so there's been some time for "public beta-testing", that is, time to refine
the drivers. the 4850 especially runs hot so it's a good idea to get the
cards that have better heatsinks, not the stock heat-sink.

The OP is not doing CAD or 3d Animation, looks like it is more along the lines of 2d image work.

FWIW my experience with gaming cards is similar to yours until you get into large models. At that point the workstation cards are more stable and, depending on the app, faster.

 

[Seggybop]

The workstation-type cards will provide no benefit whatsoever for the software listed (and I use these programs constantly).
Don't spend more than $50 on the video card.
This would work ok; it's got 2x DVI out and 512mb of RAM which is potentially useful when you've got gigantic images. A stronger GPU will not help you at all.

 

[qbfx]

I suggest you go either for one of the cards sgrinavi mentioned (though I'm not sure they're worth the price premium over gaming cards) or for a mainstream/gaming card for $50-$100 (which you can try to flash with the FireMV/QuadroCX drivers because that's what oprimizes them and boost their performance in a number of supported applications, otherwise they use the same GPUs and quite the same hardware architecture).

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Seggybop
A stronger GPU will not help you at all.

Actually, a stronger GPU will help alot. Photoshop CS4 now uses the GPU and VRAM: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservic...do?externalId=kb404898 I wouldn't want to use anything any slower than a 9800GT, personally.

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: Seggybop
The workstation-type cards will provide no benefit whatsoever for the software listed (and I use these programs constantly).
Don't spend more than $50 on the video card.
This would work ok; it's got 2x DVI out and 512mb of RAM which is potentially useful when you've got gigantic images. A stronger GPU will not help you at all.

That is my sense & experience too, I just wonder why both ATI and Nvida have optimized cards for that sort of 2d work.

If you are going to go with an office or gaming card I suggest that you at-least get an HDMI output to keep your options open -- maybe an All In Wonder board would work? . It would give you some capture options.