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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Graphics card for 3D work.

Discussion in 'Archive: Scifi 3D Forum' started by Chris_F, Dec 21, 2003.

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  1. Chris_F

    Chris_F Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 8, 2003
    Up until now I was planing on buying a ATI Radeon 9800pro, but I'm not sure now.

    What cards will work well?
     
  2. Darksteps

    Darksteps Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    May 15, 2001
    nVidia cards are great for 3D work... and actually, if you can get your hands on a GeForce 2 card and know a little about soldering, you can turn it into a GeForce Quadro card... the Quadro cards are usually $800+ cards which are intended for 3d work... you can find the schematics online for doing it, but you'll need the skill and some good eyes, cuz the resistors are tiny...
    ;)
    Darksteps...
     
  3. InvidShocktrooper

    InvidShocktrooper Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    May 10, 2003
    My buddy tried it and it worked. Though the resistors are real tiny!

    h++p://www.plasma-online.de/index.html?content=http%3A//www.plasma-online.de/english/upgrade/tweak/fixes/fix_geforce_mod.html
     
  4. Corrin_Wyndryder

    Corrin_Wyndryder Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 17, 2001
    If you got $4,000 you could try this one: PURE
    It's a render-farm PCI card. (I want one)
     
  5. Chris_F

    Chris_F Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 8, 2003
    That looks like a cool mod but the Quadro4 750 XGL is only $335.
     
  6. Corrin_Wyndryder

    Corrin_Wyndryder Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 17, 2001
    Beh...

    You people and your budgets. (and by you people, I mean me, too.)
     
  7. Dr. Jones

    Dr. Jones Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 6, 2000
    "the Quadro4 750 XGL is only $335"
    Well of course, if 335 isn't a lot for you, why not. But tell us about your skill. I mean, Quadros are usefull if you have to animate huge scenes, with over a million of polygons. It would be sad to spend 300$ when a 200$ card is enough. you could spend the 100$ left in HDD, Ram, Girls,
     
  8. George Mezori SCIFI 3D

    George Mezori SCIFI 3D Scifi 3D Forum star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 1999
    Yea. For general 3D work you could use an Nvidia card like a 5200 or something, will play all the current games for the next year or two also... and get it for $50-$100. That's what I use. Geforce 5200. Nothing wrong with an ATI either. I personally never put $300-$400 into a cutting edge "gaming" video-card, and I have never bought a Wildcat or some other $1000-$4000 video-card either. I remember long time ago they were peddling a render-farm box.. I forget the name now.. like 9 years ago. It was pretty kool but now I look back on it... you shouldn't buy stuff like that unless it's making you money. Otherwise you'll be obsolete very soon.
     
  9. Dr. Jones

    Dr. Jones Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 6, 2000
  10. Jyro-Kyrn

    Jyro-Kyrn Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 26, 2002
    Boxx Technologies and Alienware both build high end 3D boxes for 3D artists (kiss your wallets goodbye, especially at Boxx). They often use the Quadra cards. I think I'm going to stick with the ATI 9800 though. Don't need to go bankrupt, just have a little fun.
     
  11. darthviper107

    darthviper107 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 26, 2003
    Is Alienware really worth it for 3D work?
     
  12. Chris_F

    Chris_F Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 8, 2003
    Nah, I rather build my own workstation.

    Here is what I think I've decided on:

    2x Intel Xeon 2.66GHz
    Iwill DPI533-SATA
    Mushkin 184 Pin 1GB PC3200
    Western Digital Raptor 36GB
    Western Digital 160MB
    Quadro4 980 XGL 128MB

    Total is around $2000. That's about the same some people pay for 3GHz OEM's with a Radeon 9600XT, lol.



     
  13. darthviper107

    darthviper107 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 26, 2003
    You can get an Alienware with a 3.0 Ghz processor, 1 Gb RAM, 160 GB hard drive, 128 MB graphics card, Windows XP Professional, a DVD drive and a flash drive, and some kind of motherboard for about $2,000, I thought it was expensive?
     
  14. Darksteps

    Darksteps Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    May 15, 2001
    I would also build instead of getting something from Alienware... they've got nice modded rigs, but that's about it...

    a friend of mine just gradded from D.A.V.E. school and bought a dual 3gig Alienware system for $6000... which to me is a serious waste of money... you coulda built 4 3gig single processor systems for that amount...

    but yeah, if you're not making money or you're just plain rich, keep it simple and cheap...

    Darksteps...
     
  15. elite_haxor

    elite_haxor Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004
    I have a Geforce FX 5200 PCI!!! It does the job but when it comes to rendering high resolutions it takes hours for a 3 second clip
     
  16. Lots

    Lots Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 7, 2001
    what really annoys me is when people think that the video card helps in the speed of the actual render

    it doesnt. In fact it does nothing in that situation except sit there and look pretty while the rest of the system is chugging away at the rendering computations :p

    a high end video card will do this for you: Speed up your creation times, meaning while you are modelling something complex (millions of polys for example) it will be able to display them all. Also if you have lots of lights in the scene high end video cards help speed up the open gl preview windows. thus if you have very complex models or scenes.. or both the ultra high end video card will come in handy. in all other cases its useless and you should have spent the money on a less expencive card and spent the rest of it on girls like dr jones says ;P

    @darthviper107: His $2000 system had two Xeons in it.. thats quite a nice system for graphics work especially since render times should be roughly cut in half (ok not exactly half speed but its a nice round number :p) due to the dual xeons..

    so in summary: to make render times faster put ur money in ram and cpu (or multiple cpus if possible)

    to make modelling faster on very large models (millions of pollygons) or very large scenes (again millions of polys) get a high end video card
     
  17. bobabert

    bobabert Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Dec 24, 2002
    I think you can make a realistic scene without a million of poly and without a supa extra mega graphic card...
     
  18. Lots

    Lots Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 7, 2001
    indeed..

    i use a geforce 4 ti4600.. but i used to use a 16 meg tnt2 (worked great btw ;P)

    so you dont need all that much power for cg.. tho it would be nice with the more advanced things..
     
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