Graphics Workstation

Just when I think I have graphics cards down, I then have to throw Quadro
cards into the mix.

Okay...

My current graphics card as a GeForce FX 5600XT (don't laugh at me -- it's
better than my GeForce 2 Ultra)

I'm now getting into 3D design. I can already tell I'm going to need more
computing power. So how do you compare, say, a GeForce FX 5950 Ultra to
some Quadro card? Is the cheapest Quadro going to be better than the most
expensive GeForce card?

Example. The Quadro 700 XGL is $179.99. 64MB of DDR. My current card has
128MB of DDR.

But then we have the Quadro FX 500 with 128mb for $249.
Or the Quadro4 980 XGL for $599.
Or the Quadro FX 1100 with only 128mb of DDR and a $700 pricetag.
Or a Quadro FX 2000 with 128mb of DDR for $1,250.

Right now I'm just in hobbyist mode. But eventually I'd like to turn it
into a fun career, but I don't want it to take ten hours to render ten
seconds of animation. Even with my current hardware, it would take
probably 30-40 minutes to render ten seconds of a "fly-around" of an
egghead cartoon character sitting in an eggholder with a resolution of 1024
x 768.

Anyway, I do know the GeForce cards have a different purpose than the
Quadro cards. I've heard that if you put a Quadro in a system built for
gaming, you might actually see performance decreases. That doesn't make
much sense to me since Quadros are clearly more powerful. But it would be
nice if there was some kind of list that ranked both sides of the nVidia
fence at once so we could easily compare a Quadro FX 500, for example, to a
GeForce FX 5900.

Any tips or pointers on this?

Thanks,
Damaeus

"Damaeus" wrote in message
...
Just when I think I have graphics cards down, I then have to throw Quadro
cards into the mix.

Okay...

My current graphics card as a GeForce FX 5600XT (don't laugh at me -- it's
better than my GeForce 2 Ultra)

I'm now getting into 3D design. I can already tell I'm going to need more
computing power. So how do you compare, say, a GeForce FX 5950 Ultra to
some Quadro card? Is the cheapest Quadro going to be better than the most
expensive GeForce card?

Example. The Quadro 700 XGL is $179.99. 64MB of DDR. My current card
has
128MB of DDR.

But then we have the Quadro FX 500 with 128mb for $249.
Or the Quadro4 980 XGL for $599.
Or the Quadro FX 1100 with only 128mb of DDR and a $700 pricetag.
Or a Quadro FX 2000 with 128mb of DDR for $1,250.

Right now I'm just in hobbyist mode. But eventually I'd like to turn it
into a fun career, but I don't want it to take ten hours to render ten
seconds of animation. Even with my current hardware, it would take
probably 30-40 minutes to render ten seconds of a "fly-around" of an
egghead cartoon character sitting in an eggholder with a resolution of
1024
x 768.


You do know that the 3D rendering process is all CPU intensive, it has
almost nothing to do with your video card. What 3D software apps are most
important to you, and what are the specs on the rest of your system?

In news:alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia, "Biz"
posted on Wed, 18 Aug 2004 19:35:59 GMT:

You do know that the 3D rendering process is all CPU intensive, it has
almost nothing to do with your video card.

Okay. However, the Maya software has an option for hardware rendering.
I'm assuming that perhaps these upscale workstation graphics cards have
some kind of special chip that adds to the CPU power to help in the
rendering process. Or if nothing else, when you get into have a lot of
content in your scene, some special hardware keeps your computer from
bogging down as easily as it would with a top of the line gamer's card. At
least that's my current understanding. I just wanted to be sure of it.

What 3D software apps are most important to you, and what are the
specs on the rest of your system?

Well, I'm using Maya 5 PLE exclusively right now, but I'm about to get Maya
6 PLE. So far those seem to be capable of everything I'd want to do. I
also have and may use Macromedia Freehand MX, which isn't 3D, of course.

Here are my system specs as of now:

Abit NF7 (has that dual channel memory pipeline)
Athlon T-Bird 1333
768 MB of DDR400 (currently running at DDR266 speed due to the CPU)
Western Digital WD800JBRTL 80GB ATA-100 7200RPM HardDrive
Chaintech GeForce FX 5600XT (128MB DDR-RAM)
NEC MultiSync FP2141SB 22" Monitor @ 1600 x 1200 x 85Hz
SoundBlaster Live Platinum 5.1
Visioneer OneTouch 9120USB Scanner
Power Supply: 500 Watts
Belkin Universal UPS Battery Backup: Model F6C100-UNV

Damaeus

Damaeus wrote in
:

You do know that the 3D rendering process is all CPU intensive, it
has almost nothing to do with your video card.

Okay. However, the Maya software has an option for hardware
rendering. I'm assuming that perhaps these upscale workstation
graphics cards have some kind of special chip that adds to the CPU
power to help in the rendering process. Or if nothing else, when you
get into have a lot of content in your scene, some special hardware
keeps your computer from bogging down as easily as it would with a top
of the line gamer's card. At least that's my current understanding.
I just wanted to be sure of it.

What 3D software apps are most important to you, and what are the
specs on the rest of your system?

Well, I'm using Maya 5 PLE exclusively right now, but I'm about to get
Maya 6 PLE. So far those seem to be capable of everything I'd want to
do. I also have and may use Macromedia Freehand MX, which isn't 3D,
of course

Have you spoken to Maya tech support for specific advice ?
Or asked in their Web community thingy?

--
Lordy

Damaeus wrote:

In news:alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia, "Biz"
posted on Wed, 18 Aug 2004 19:35:59 GMT:

You do know that the 3D rendering process is all CPU intensive, it has
almost nothing to do with your video card.

Okay. However, the Maya software has an option for hardware rendering.
I'm assuming that perhaps these upscale workstation graphics cards have
some kind of special chip that adds to the CPU power to help in the
rendering process. Or if nothing else, when you get into have a lot of
content in your scene, some special hardware keeps your computer from
bogging down as easily as it would with a top of the line gamer's card.
At
least that's my current understanding. I just wanted to be sure of it.

Many of the "upscale workstation graphics cards" are identical to the gamer
boards except for higher quality capacitors and different firmware.

One way to use such a board for rendering would be to feed it the
instructions to render the image then grab the frame buffer when it's done.
No special hardware needed to do that.

What 3D software apps are most important to you, and what are the
specs on the rest of your system?

Well, I'm using Maya 5 PLE exclusively right now, but I'm about to get
Maya
6 PLE. So far those seem to be capable of everything I'd want to do. I
also have and may use Macromedia Freehand MX, which isn't 3D, of course.

Here are my system specs as of now:

Abit NF7 (has that dual channel memory pipeline)
Athlon T-Bird 1333
768 MB of DDR400 (currently running at DDR266 speed due to the CPU)
Western Digital WD800JBRTL 80GB ATA-100 7200RPM HardDrive
Chaintech GeForce FX 5600XT (128MB DDR-RAM)
NEC MultiSync FP2141SB 22" Monitor @ 1600 x 1200 x 85Hz
SoundBlaster Live Platinum 5.1
Visioneer OneTouch 9120USB Scanner
Power Supply: 500 Watts
Belkin Universal UPS Battery Backup: Model F6C100-UNV

Damaeus

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

In news:alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia, Lordy posted
on 19 Aug 2004 11:01:39 GMT:

Have you spoken to Maya tech support for specific advice ?
Or asked in their Web community thingy?

No. I don't figure there's any point. I'm using the Persoanl Learning
Edition, which is essentially free if you want to download it, and I don't
figure they offer support to users of their free version. Now once I spend
$7,000 on their flagship product, they'd better offer support.

BTW, I'm on a crappy dialup connection so I'm going to pay $24.99 to have
them send me a CD so I can learn on version 6 instead of the version 5 I
got as part of a beginner's guide to 3D.

Damaeus