CARD COMPATIBILITY

[Anonymous]

-noob here-

i couldn't find this particular graphics card in the Database, & i was looking to purchase this particular one.

XFX GeForce 8600 GT

is this one compatible? i think we use an 8500 in the office, & i was looking to get a similar one at home. i would think that since it's a higher model, it would obviously be compatible.

i wouldn't want to waste money on something to improve ArchiCAD on my computer, only to find out it wasn't compatible with the program.

by the way, when they say 'compatible', when a graphics card doesn't work with AC, is there anyway to make it compatible? i dont know how it works, but dont you download an additional driver or something?

thanks,
Gerry

[Anonymous]

It's a great video card and will work just fine- you don't need to do anything except put it in the computer and install the operating system drivers (from Nvidia, not any 3rd party application software, such as for this software).

The 8600 is a nice card- but the 7900 will be faster if you can find it.
Unless AC 12 goes to DirectX10 only, no need for the 8xxx series video cards- they simply don't do enough to justify their cost, not when a good used or older 7900+ (7995 GTX or so) desktop card can be obtained at 1/2 the cost, delivering 95% the same results roughly (you'd have to have both cards side by side to even perceive the differences between a 7600 and an 8600, if any)!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Oh...

p.s. Just a bit of more info, FYI

The "8500" you mentioned, MIGHT be made by a different company than the 8600. The two big video card manufacturing companies (they take chips they mane and that are made by other industrial firms and put them on a PCB with fans, and box it up with their logos, etc) are ATI and Nvidia.

ATI made a "Radeon 8500" as part of their "Radeon" brand series, about 3 years ago- really nice video card at the time (still is). Nvidia recently released their "latest" series which is the eight-thousand level- simply a few additional functions above the seven thousand series.

This is just fun facts though, in application all these video cards will work in ArchiCAD. However, if you're looking at using a video card that is a few years old, you'll run into some reduced quality when you use the 3D window WITHIN ArchiCAD- simply things have developed and moved on and the old giant video cards are not as big and capable with the new software requirements as they once were.

In short, if it is an ATI, it will install the same (DL or plug in the drivers CD and install it with the video card, nothing special needed) but if it is an ATI 8500 and you're talking about this newer Nvidia 8600, the Nvidia 8600 will completely TOAST that old Radeon by ATI- as it can handle everything that you do in this software no problem!!!!

[Laszlo Nagy]

JP-Design wrote:
Oh...

p.s. Just a bit of more info, FYI

The "8500" you mentioned, MIGHT be made by a different company than the 8600. The two big video card manufacturing companies (they take chips they mane and that are made by other industrial firms and put them on a PCB with fans, and box it up with their logos, etc) are ATI and Nvidia.

ATI made a "Radeon 8500" as part of their "Radeon" brand series, about 3 years ago- really nice video card at the time (still is). Nvidia recently released their "latest" series which is the eight-thousand level- simply a few additional functions above the seven thousand series.

This is just fun facts though, in application all these video cards will work in ArchiCAD. However, if you're looking at using a video card that is a few years old, you'll run into some reduced quality when you use the 3D window WITHIN ArchiCAD- simply things have developed and moved on and the old giant video cards are not as big and capable with the new software requirements as they once were.

In short, if it is an ATI, it will install the same (DL or plug in the drivers CD and install it with the video card, nothing special needed) but if it is an ATI 8500 and you're talking about this newer Nvidia 8600, the Nvidia 8600 will completely TOAST that old Radeon by ATI- as it can handle everything that you do in this software no problem!!!!

Just one note: I think the ATI Radeon 8500 is at least 5-6 years old. My current notebook has X700 in it. Before that was the ATI 9xxx series and before that was the ATI 8xxx series so it must be at least 5 years old. Currently ATi is at the x3000 series, which is 5 generation newer than the 8xxx series.
By the way, NVidia is currently at the 9xxx series.

[Anonymous]

Technically Nvidia is already working on the renaming of their entire line, as they are simply working on testing and manufacturing the "10" series, while they milk the profits of the timed release of the "9" series.

But really, from a consumers perspective, it's mostly irrelevant for now. Especially when we're talking about the difference possibly from an ATI 8500 to a Nvidia 8800 series.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Check out this chart. It is about the 3D performance of cards. I think this is a feature ArchiCAD uses when you are navigating in 3D, rotating the model etc.
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desktop-vga-charts/3dmark06-v1-0-2-sm2-0-score,543.html

As you can see, the NVidia 8800 has scores of 4000-5000.
The oldest ATI card on the chart is that ATI x800 with a score of 1200.
The ATI 8500 is 2 generations older than that card so it is a pretty bad card compared to today's cards.

However, the chart contains an NVidia 8500 card, so maybe the 8500 mentioned is an NVidia, in which case the difference is really not that great (well, double).