topic Re: Display card in Installation & update

Display card

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 16:42:06 GMT

I'm planning to buy a new computer PC. There is difficult to choose either "Geforce 6600GT 128MB" or "Radeon x700PRO 128MB". Could any professional renderer give some comment to me? THXS

I use AC 7 + art-lantis + C4D 8.5 + PC winXP

Re: Display card

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 16:50:06 GMT

from what i've heard nvidia's tend to be more compatible

bear in mind that the graphics card will have NO influence on 'renderings' ('though this could change in the near future), only the screen display

bill

Re: Display card

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 16:57:32 GMT

Is 256MB significance for display card? or 128MB enough?

Re: Display card

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 17:15:50 GMT

i've got 64MB on my powerbook which will happily run an external 21" as well so i'd guess 128 would be fine unless you want a serious dual monitor setup

bill

Re: Display card

Dwight — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 20:17:24 GMT

You can run 2, 21" displays at 1200x1600 with as little as 16Mg of video ram. Like the old days.

It is OpenGL that uses the RAM most acutely - the more Video RAM, the bigger and smoother the OpenGL window will operate - 64 seems to be the threshold for smooth OpenGL.

I notice that after a certain complexity and size, the 256 Mg RAM allows for more complex OpenGL rendering without slowing down.

Re: Display card

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 09:24:43 GMT

I have done some research a month ago, and come up with this baby:
MSI NVIDIA 6800 ULTRA w/ dual head PCIX

What is so special about this board (beside chipset and 256mb) is the PCIX communication interface. It is, as far as I have been able to find out, THE future. Way faster than old AGP.

Of course, then you need a motherboard that is compatible, which would take you to a BOARD MSI 915 PNEO II PLATINUM .

And, as you will need lots of fast Ram, I recommend 2*KINGSTON 1024 DDR 400 CL2.

Ah, do not forget the hard drive, because ArchiCAD9 is REALLY slow opening, so my advice is RAPTOR SATA 74.00 GB, which apparently is as fast as a SCSI (you should see those babys opening windows: Wham!)

This has brought you about 2000€ lighter, and we haven't even talked about interface (pen, monitor, the works).

And in about one year, this all will be a pile of junk...

Re: Display card

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:19:28 GMT

I am using the 6800 Ultra and i have had problems with it. (as well as 1000s others).
I had to download an app called Powerstrip to manually match the 2D and 3D engine clock speed.(Advanced memory timing)
The 3D clock speed was set by factory to 425Mhz and the 2D was set to 410 Mhz. This is a known problem. Because of stock shortages the manufacturer could not replace the card (cos it was the only of its type).
If you google it you will find at least 20 threads about this. (A lot of them are in German)
Before i matched the clockspeeds Archicad would hang and crash every day several times in OpenGl.
At home I am using a 128mb GF4 Ti and to be honest I dont notice much of a difference.
In my opinion until everything starts moving 64bit incl the OS (PC) there is not much point blowing thousands on a PC when a standard PC is giving you 70% of the performance.

Re: Display card

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:39:34 GMT

Thanx for the tip, patrick. Ill look into it more closely, b4 burning a lot of money up.

I guess this is why ppl are so keen on Mac. You dont have to investigate so hard to buy a computer;)

Re: Display card

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 17:00:22 GMT

I am the only PC in a building of architects and guess who is constantly whining and whinging about problems? (with his PC)
Guess who is spending 5 hours on the phone to Microsoft support in Nova Scotia about Service Pack 2 making my PC unusuable.
Guess whose computer is so unstable that if it would be a life support machine it would have killed more people then the Spanish flu.
(makes me think about the term "blue screen of death" in a different way.
Meanwhile everybody around me is humming a nice tune and working productively on their G5s.
Mac every time.

Re: Display card

Dwight — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 17:51:25 GMT

Without wishing to start another war of opinion between Mac and PC, I would add that with OS X and the G5, things hum right along now without so many of the infuriating ArchiCAD glitches mac users had in the past.

Yay.

Of course, PC's are still cheaper, aren't they?

Re: Display card

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 17:57:03 GMT

Dwight wrote:

Of course, PC's are still cheaper, aren't they?

Cheaper without all the bells and whistles.

Re: Display card

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Jan 2005 19:33:34 GMT

i would just like to add that i have been looking for a card as well. for $640 (canadian) i purchased a Leadtek GeForce 6800GT. i have overclocked it now to run at 439/1100. my realtime 3D navigation is much improved over the Radeon 9600XT that i have been using til now.

For another $250 i could purchase a nVidia Quadro FX 700 workstation card. however, from my research in this forum, it seems that most users are discouraging the purchase of workstation cards on the basis of lack of specific driver sets being provided by graphisoft to the card vendors.

as i have one more week to exchange my card, i would like some input fom anyone who has suggestions for a different card. some have suggested that BFG has better drivers for AC9 than Leadtek. This is confusing to me, as i believe drivers come from nVidia, not Leadtek BFG or others. am i mistaken?

also i ran the card compatibility test with the Leadtek 6800GT and it ran just fine. but on my own more complex projects, the performance was not as good. this makes me question if a more rigourous test (similar to the Mark 05 test) should be established to create a true benchmarking utility for AC9.

Any feedback?

Re: Display card

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 02:57:19 GMT

Dwight wrote:
Of course, PC's are still cheaper, aren't they?

A little cheaper to buy. Significantly more expensive to own.

In my own experience, and my observations of my clients.

Re: Display card

Richard Morrison — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:10:51 GMT

Matthew wrote:
Dwight wrote:
Of course, PC's are still cheaper, aren't they?
A little cheaper to buy. Significantly more expensive to own.

In my own experience, and my observations of my clients.

A computer that can't run important software that your business depends on is no bargain. If every program you use is available on the Mac platform, then you may well be right. However, Corporate America is usually pretty capable of figuring out which equipment investments have the best ROI, and it seems to have voted decisively.

Re: Display card

Dwight — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:16:12 GMT

Corporate America: the America where Dilbert works.

Re: Display card

Dwight — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:18:25 GMT

I shouldn't be so cynical.
Richard "go with the flow" Morrison is right:
The numbers win.
That's why Revit will prevail.
And China.