Best for Autocad etc under £150

thecremeegg · 12 Jun 2008 at 12:47

Gf doesnt game at all, but needs a decent graphics card for things like autocad and form-z

Would a quaddro (sp?) be the best or something like a gaming card be better?

jrodga2k5 · 12 Jun 2008 at 13:44

thecremeegg said:
Gf doesnt game at all, but needs a decent graphics card for things like autocad and form-z

Would a quaddro (sp?) be the best or something like a gaming card be better?

Cad is fine on anything really, god our office systems have Intergrated graphics chips for cad so it is only the 3d renderers like Form-Z, Sketch Up, Archicad, Artlantis, Studio 4D and the like you really need some power for.

Mate to be perfectly honest any cheap and decent graphics card would do well. I would recommend from my experience that the NVidia cards might be the better bet. In certain 3d apps the standard ATi cards struggle a bit in OpenGL! However their dedicated cad cards i.e the Fire GL do so fine.

Any NVidia card with decent horsepower would be perfectly fine for your GF mate. basically buy an 8600GT upwards since they are pretty cheap as they are right now and will handle both admirably!

thecremeegg · 12 Jun 2008 at 14:12

cheers for that.form z will run ok on an 8600gt then yea?if so i'll recommend she gets one

jrodga2k5 · 12 Jun 2008 at 14:36

Yeah mate should be fine

a 256mb DDR3 version should be way under £50 now anyways! Definately no need to spend much but as I said avoid ATi consumer graphics for any 3d architectural app as they aint great at all!

thecremeegg · 12 Jun 2008 at 15:16

right ok cheers for the help

Cyber-Mav · 12 Jun 2008 at 16:34

seeing as how your budget is 150 quid, you may as well spend 105 quid and get yourself a 8800gt and then soft mod it to become a quadro FX card.

that way you still get some gaming performance if need be and you go some serious hardware acceleration for the cad work.

jrodga2k5 · 12 Jun 2008 at 19:19

Cyber-Mav said:
seeing as how your budget is 150 quid, you may as well spend 105 quid and get yourself a 8800gt and then soft mod it to become a quadro FX card.

that way you still get some gaming performance if need be and you go some serious hardware acceleration for the cad work.

His gf doesnt game at all mate so best to just spend less imo as I have already suggested!

kylew · 12 Jun 2008 at 19:48

jrodga2k5 said:
Cad is fine on anything really, god our office systems have Intergrated graphics chips for cad so it is only the 3d renderers like Form-Z, Sketch Up, Archicad, Artlantis, Studio 4D and the like you really need some power for.

Mate to be perfectly honest any cheap and decent graphics card would do well. I would recommend from my experience that the NVidia cards might be the better bet. In certain 3d apps the standard ATi cards struggle a bit in OpenGL! However their dedicated cad cards i.e the Fire GL do so fine.

Any NVidia card with decent horsepower would be perfectly fine for your GF mate. basically buy an 8600GT upwards since they are pretty cheap as they are right now and will handle both admirably!

Oh wow, interesting you said ArchiCAD! I use this in work, but I was under the impression it's not that widely used.

Really, you don't need anything powerful at all really, at my work, we've got old crusty Quadro 540s which are pretty bad, but they work well for what we do. We use AcrhiCAD, and I use ArchiCAD and sketchup at work (i'm more of the CAD/3D enthusiast there

). When it comes to rendering, a fast GPU isn't needed as most apps will render on the CPU, so you could get away with the bottom end of graphics cards unless you're using something that uses OpenGL accelaration like sketchup and ArchiCAD for example.

Gregeff · 13 Jun 2008 at 00:02

thecremeegg said:
Gf doesnt game at all, but needs a decent graphics card for things like autocad and form-z

Would a quaddro (sp?) be the best or something like a gaming card be better?

you mention she uses AutoCAD. If she is doing 3D modeling in AutoCAD then I find a good gaphics card very usefull... I too would say get the 8800gt and then soft mod it to become a quadro FX card.

Dark_Angel · 13 Jun 2008 at 00:10

jrodga2k5 said:
His gf doesnt game at all mate so best to just spend less imo as I have already suggested!

He clearly stated to softmod it to a Quadro, which is for professional 3d rendering / graphics work :confused:

kylew · 13 Jun 2008 at 08:33

Dark_Angel said:
He clearly stated to softmod it to a Quadro, which is for professional 3d rendering / graphics work

3D rendering very rarely uses the GPU to do the rendering though.

jrodga2k5 · 13 Jun 2008 at 09:24

kylew said:
3D rendering very rarely uses the GPU to do the rendering though.

Exactly Kylew!

Look guys I am providing advice on direct experience with all these programs! In terms of CAD and Form-Z which I have used from Day 1 at Uni doing Architecture I know what kind of hardware you require. This is why I'm suggesting she doesnt spend more than she has to. There simply is no need whatsoever!

I could easily have said pay X amount on an 8800gt or 3870 and just soft mod them to their Quadro FX and FireGL compatriots but as I said there is no need!

kylew · 13 Jun 2008 at 10:44

jrodga2k5 said:
Exactly Kylew!

Look guys I am providing advice on direct experience with all these programs! In terms of CAD and Form-Z which I have used from Day 1 at Uni doing Architecture I know what kind of hardware you require. This is why I'm suggesting she doesnt spend more than she has to. There simply is no need whatsoever!

I could easily have said pay X amount on an 8800gt or 3870 and just soft mod them to their Quadro FX and FireGL compatriots but as I said there is no need!

Same with me, I work in a drawing office, and I'm a CAD technician. I'm very aware of the needs of computer hardware when it comes to CAD programs. Rendering basically doesn't require a powerful GPU because all rendering is done on the CPU unless you have special plug-ins that accelerate the rendering using a GPU, and these are not very common at all. On the other hand, if it will be being used to display 3D objects using OpenGL, then I would advice to get a decent card, but then that would only be a 3850 or even 3650 as sketchup, for example, doesn't need that much of a powerful GPU to run (with AA added too). I currently run sketchup on my Dell 2407 (native res) with a cheapo X1600 (cheap temp card until 48XXs

) and I get adequate performance. So save yourself money and just get a something between a 3650-3850 if you think it'll be needed to display OpenGL, otherwise, a low end graphics card because you won't be needing the 3D acceleration.

jrodga2k5 · 13 Jun 2008 at 10:50

The reason I said to go for the 8600gt is basically down to the sometimes fussy drivers with open GL in the 3d apps for cad! Im sure he'll make the sensible choice!

FrostedNipple · 13 Jun 2008 at 11:48

kylew said:
Same with me, I work in a drawing office, and I'm a CAD technician. I'm very aware of the needs of computer hardware when it comes to CAD programs. Rendering basically doesn't require a powerful GPU because all rendering is done on the CPU unless you have special plug-ins that accelerate the rendering using a GPU, and these are not very common at all. On the other hand, if it will be being used to display 3D objects using OpenGL, then I would advice to get a decent card, but then that would only be a 3850 or even 3650 as sketchup, for example, doesn't need that much of a powerful GPU to run (with AA added too). I currently run sketchup on my Dell 2407 (native res) with a cheapo X1600 (cheap temp card until 48XXs ) and I get adequate performance. So save yourself money and just get a something between a 3650-3850 if you think it'll be needed to display OpenGL, otherwise, a low end graphics card because you won't be needing the 3D acceleration.

LOL i have an x1600xt and i can run cod4 on it! I'm pretty eager to upgrade soon though. Just waiting for either an amazing new card at around £100 or a price drop in the 8800gt. If i can run cod4 on an x1600xt then something like an 8600 should be fine and there only about £50, which means you can use the other £100 on a 8800gt for you

Energize · 14 Jun 2008 at 16:56

Why don't cad programs use the gpu for rendering, I thought they are far faster than cpus, hence why they are used in games?

kylew · 15 Jun 2008 at 00:10

Energize said:
Why don't cad programs use the gpu for rendering, I thought they are far faster than cpus, hence why they are used in games?

While you're right in thinking that GPUs are faster at rendering, GPUs aren't really used for rendering within programs such as 3DS Max. From what I've heard, the reason is while the GPU can 'render' the scene, it can't render everything in the way a CPU would, but I could be talking crap

Quadro

FireGL

Mr.Bon · 15 Jun 2008 at 00:56

jrodga2k5 said:
Yeah mate should be fine a 256mb DDR3 version should be way under £50 now anyways! Definately no need to spend much but as I said avoid ATi consumer graphics for any 3d architectural app as they aint great at all!

I'm looking to build soon,
And I have kind of decided to get the PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 "Special Edition" 1024MB GDDR3 (I am aware of new cards soon, thats why I havent actually bought this card/started building yet )
Mainly going to be used for a bit of AutoCad, a bit of Photoshop, a bit of gaming, Movies, HD movies.

Is that card OK for AutoCad then?

kylew · 15 Jun 2008 at 01:39

Mr.Bon said:
I'm looking to build soon,
And I have kind of decided to get the PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 "Special Edition" 1024MB GDDR3 (I am aware of new cards soon, thats why I havent actually bought this card/started building yet )
Mainly going to be used for a bit of AutoCad, a bit of Photoshop, a bit of gaming, Movies, HD movies.

Is that card OK for AutoCad then?

The X2 will be fine, the only problem with it is that you'll only get GPU acceleration from one of the RV670 cores. If you were to opt for a 4870 instead, you'd have a very nice PC for games/CAD/Photoshop and so on. From my personal experience with ATi graphics cards, I've had no issues with them and CAD applications, they've all ran well even with loads of AA and AF (16AA and 24AA - Edge Detect, with 16AF). I hate using CAD apps without turning the AA up (sketchup especially)! You'll definitely be happy using an ATI gaming card for all that.

Mr.Bon · 15 Jun 2008 at 02:10

Nice one Kylew
So I will wait for the newer card then ...so do I want 4870 or 4870 x2?

EDIT: Ok from reading the other thread 4870 is out real soon. And will this be better than the 3870 x2?

But wouldnt the 4870 x2 be the improved version of 3870 x2 ? ....so wouldnt that be the one I'm after? Damn, I need to read up more on GFX cards...