CAD video card, good buy? 2

[dieterle]

The company i'm working for has a fast rig, but the videocard is an NVS piece of garbage. I'm tired of having seizures trying to select edges in solidworks, so I'm going to ask them to buy a new video card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195045

I've found the FireGL V3350, its listed on the solidworks approved videocards site, but I don't know how it is performance wise. Is it worth buying a more expensive card? 100 dollars might be an easy sell to the big boss, so I hesitates to just pick a more expensive card off the bat.

Thoughts?

 

[Theophilus]

I've got a v5600 and I don't like it as much as my old nVidia Quadro. So what you listed might do better than what you've got (and it is a bargain, if so), but the Quadro cards I've used in the past seem to be more versatile/stable than this ATI card I've got now.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Start with asking for a higher priced nVidia card first. If the boss goes for it, great, if not the cheaper ATI will seem like a real bargain.

 

[SBaugh]

ATI cards this year like most years that i have seen are having issues within SW. Nvidia cards have come along way and I don't recommend anything but an Nvidia card. ATI cards from my experience have been having more and more crashes with their cards and drivers.

Personally I would stay far away from them and go to Nvidia.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[dieterle]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133209

there is also this low priced quadro, does anyone know of any resources to compared workstation cards? I have no idea what the performance difference between these 100 dollar cards and 400 dollar cards are.

 

[AnnaWood]

If you haven't looked here yet, a comparison of specs on the Nvidia website.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_11761.html

Cheers,

Anna Wood
SW2008 SP4.0, Windows Vista SP1
IBM ThinkPad T61p, T7800, FX570M, 4 gigs of RAM

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[pdybeck]

From benchmarks I have seen and documented here at Toms Hardware, it seems pointless for a SolidWorks user to purchase anything more than a qaudro 570. It looks like a qaudro 1700 is just throwing money away.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/FireGL-Quadro-Workstation,1995.html

SolidWorks from the 2007 benchmark scores does not seem like it is making the best use of additional graphics horsepower. Other CAD packages seem to, but not SolidWorks. I am sure its complicated.

Pete

 

[pdybeck]

here, the direct link to the 2007 test results...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/FireGL-Quadro-Workstation,1995-12.html

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Very interesting.

 

[BiPolarMoment]

I've been reading for the last few hours trying to find a definitive answer on the workstation vs. "gaming" cards for Solidworks and I've had conflicting results. I'm tempted to spec out a machine with a "gaming" card if solely because the hardware that you get for the money is quite a bit better. But as a second reason, if DirectX is the future than buying a factory-gimped card with fancy drivers simply for OpenGL seems like the opposite of future-proofing.

The three things I've come across that have me leaning this way are here:

http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/4010/P10/#48487

No particular passage; it is relating to other software, but it should be a similar "problem."

secondly here:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/print/firegl-quadrofx.html

Specifically this excerpt: "The situation has changed: the top gaming graphics accelerator we took as n[sic] example this time – GeForce 9800 GTX – was completely defeated by its professional opponents only in one synthetic SPECviewperf testing suite working with an OpenGL driver. In real applications the systems equipped with this card performed very well. Moreover, in some tasks such as SolidWorks 2008 and AutoCAD, it worked even faster than 100-dollare[sic] professional solutions."

I had also read some disdain for the SPECviewperf earlier as a means for benchmarking 3d performance but cannot substantiate the claim.

Lastly from a forum:

"Video cards... yeah. We have some boxes with ATI FireGl 7300 cards, some with Quaddro cards, and some with 8800GTX gaming cards. THE CARDS DON'T SEEM TO MAKE A DISTINGUISHABLE DIFFERENCE IN PERFORMANCE. In fact, running video from the on-board VGA motherboard graphics with no card was almost the same as the high-end workstation cards."

Now I do know from personal experience that my home machine that had a RADEON 9800 Pro did a very poor job with the standard drivers, but I'm wondering if that was an outlier since the machine at work has an older MX4000 that runs SW2k6 adequately (not great--but nothing I fault it for since the computer is ancient).

I'm loathe to spec out a quadro given their prices, and obviously the money could be well spent with RAM and processor speed. Does anyone have the panacea for this question?

 

[MadMango]

Ruler smacks on the knuckles aside for hijacking a thread, it boils down to how much performance you need from your graphics card. If you are working with small assemblies or simple prismatic parts, or have basic single-sheet drawings you may find that a gaming card will serve you well. If you are working with medium (200+ parts) assemblies or larger, or are doing a lot of surfacing, or have multi-page drawings (5 sheets or more) you will be much happier with the CAD cards.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?

 

[dgowans]

Even if it's overkill according to some sources, a Quadro 1700 (after a very brief search) appears to be about $500.

How much do you risk throwing away chasing a problem if you use an unsupported card?

Use a gaming card if you're so inclined, but in my opinion the risk/reward ratio is too high to justify the use of an unsupported card, especially if part of the justification includes "softmodding" the card to behave like a supported one. It comes down to a business case that everyone must make individually. For me personally, I use an approved card and the correct drivers.

I don't often have reason to contact technical support, but if and when I do the last thing I want to have happen is to have what might very well be a legitimate issue get brushed aside because I willfully ignored the recommended hardware configuration. I'm more than happy to let SWX recommend hardware; I'll stick to designing parts.

 

[BiPolarMoment]

I apologize if I hijacked the thread, I perhaps supposed my question was along the same lines as the original post [i.e. is it worth it to spend X for Y].

I am almost certain a gaming card would be capable for what I work with, however:

dgowans--you make a very apt point, though were it my money (and time) on the line I might try the gaming card first--simply because from that side you can pay half the cost of one of the lowest workstation cards for oozing edge (not quite bleeding anymore) gaming hardware. Then the worst case is you take the depreciation hit on re-sale. However, since it would be for work I agree that perhaps it's not worth the risk of having problems that will be ignored.

I appreciate the insight/guidance.

 

[dieterle]

I guess I might as well followup. I got the quadro fx 570 yesterday, and its like a new machine. Everything is much smoother, realview works correctly now, and a lot of my issues with selecting edges have disappeared. Well worth the money, my speed working has increased noticeably just because im not struggling to select some random edges constantly.

I think in terms of raw performance, you wont see much difference between a gaming or workstation card, because they are essentially the same hardware. However, go with the workstation card because its what supported and tested, and when you're using ridiculously expensive software to begin with, the price difference on a workstation card is a drop in the bucket.

If you're a kid at home who plays with solidworks inbetween counterstrike matches, then sure, get the gaming card. Just don't try to argue that everyone else should.

 

[MadMango]

Thanks for the update Dieterle, I think you won't be disappointed.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?