Display card

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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

[Dwight]

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.

[Anonymous]

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...

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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;)

[Anonymous]

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.

[Dwight]

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?