Newbie choosing graphic card

[Anonymous]

Hello everybody,

I did read forum posts and google for solution but end up in even bigger dilema than before regarding choice of PC for CAD.

I'm trying to help frined to buy best PC for his work. Primary it is Archicad and we decided to go for i7-920 intel cpu , x58 mainboard (or q9550+p45 mainboard), 2x2gb ddr3@1333mhz and 300 gb raptor@10k rpm.

Unfortunetely here in Serbia we can't find any quadro or firegl card.

We however can buy almost all gaming cards. So we are stuck with choice of folowing cards.

1. nvidia fx 370 (64 bit, 256 ram) - price aroung 100 Eur
2. Athi hd 4870 (256 bit, 512 ram) - price aroung 270 Eur
3. Athi hd 4870x2 (512 bit, 2gb ram) - price aroung 550 Eur

Please help me help hip to get best he can. We would like to save almost 300 Eur if benefit is not so enourmous.

If however you can point us to some quadro or firegl card in that price range(around 200+ Eur) we can find the way to get it from Germany or somewhere else.

Thanks everybody in advance!

[Laszlo Nagy]

I think you will be very happy with:

2. Athi hd 4870 (256 bit, 512 ram) - price aroung 270 Eur

It is one of the fastest graphics cards around today, it has a lot of RAM which will be enough even 2-3 years from now and I don't think that you will need the extra power of the ATI HD 4870x2. Even the 270 euro card will be able to handle all your AC models.
These cards are so powerful that usually only the most resource-hungry games can give them a hard time.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply. He did order parts today, and among them hd 4870 1gb ddr5 graphics card.

Can you please tell me if you can compare this card with some pro card from ati or nvidia.

I guess that it is far beyond for example quadro fx370 but under performance range of lets say firepro v7700.

This would be nice to know.

All the best from Serbia.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Here is some comparison:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-1680x1050,79...