Best Video Card For Graphic Design

[swizz182g]

I have the Samsung 22 Inch Widescreen Moniter and i need to know what is the best video card i should get for graphic design, some 3d design in poser, and flash

 

[Impr3ssiv3]

well most graphics design programs like Photoshop and Illustrator don't really use the GPU that much but when you do 3D work it will benefit more from having a workstation GPU.


The workstation GPU's are

nVIDIA~Quadro

ATI~FireGL

these aren't cheap cards, even at the low end, but they are design for 3D animation and designing

 

[swizz182g]

I was actually thinking about getting ATI X1650 Pro 256Mb

 

[lovely?]

uh no, i dont know why but those lagg terribly when made to render 3D in programs other than games

 

[tlarkin]

go with a quadro, you can get a decent work station card perfect for rendering, and yes design applications take advantage of the GPUs for not that expensive.

We run Quadro cards in our CAD/Animation labs, except for the mac labs they run DDL Nvidia 6800s.

 

[The_Other_One]

If you don't get a quadro, get something like a 6200 or 7300. I used a 6200 for Poser and it worked much better than my current 7600GT. I think it's some compatibility issue with OpenGL... But either way, a card like an x1600 is more for gaming.

 

[tlarkin]

"There is a small set of specific hardware features that the Quadros
have that the GeForces don't.... In general use you don't notice them being missing.

There is one (other) potential feature of the Quadro that would make it superior to a GeForce. That is in its memory management. The Quadro is advertised as having a special set of code for dealing with large objects that consume most of the memory on the card and for dealing with multiple GL context windows...

Now the above is irrelevant for 'Hardware Rendering' in Maya since you never render (or playback) two different views at the same time.

Where could the difference actually matter? In Maya you often have four different views open... for editing your scene.... If the (model) is large and really hammers on the graphics card (during the editing process), that is where you should expect to notice a difference between the two cards (in terms of performance)."

source: http://barefeats.com/quad04.html

interesting read and it shows why workstation cards are better over gaming cards for specific tasks.

 

[SubDude199]

I was actually thinking about getting ATI X1650 Pro 256Mb

NOOOOO I just sold mine.. I bough it a month ago and I got out good with only a $60 loss.. it gets TERRIBLE scores in 3dmark06. 1,900 to be exact.. compared to the 7900GTO scoring 6000 stock for only $50 more!

 

[heyman421]

If you don't get a quadro, get something like a 6200 or 7300. I used a 6200 for Poser and it worked much better than my current 7600GT. I think it's some compatibility issue with OpenGL... But either way, a card like an x1600 is more for gaming.

quaddro is the way to go

you can get them with up to 1 gig of video memory, to make up for low system memory speeds in apps like photoshop that are HIGHLY ram speed dependant