Workstation build..... Need help with graphics card choice?

[Anonymous]

Hi i'm planning on building up a workstation for work and uni.

I use the following programs quite intensively,

Cinema 4d, ArchiCAD, Revit, Photo Shop CS3, Indesign CS3

I want to build a system that will run all these programs smoothly when dealing with large files, large models and renders.

what i have chosen so far for hardware is

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
MOBO:Asus P5E3-WS-PRO
RAM: 4gb of corsair hopefully

Graphics Card??????? ive been looking at workstation graphics cards all of which the ones i want are about the price im planning on spending on the whole setup..

Ive read that workstation cards will run these programs better because of their dedicated open gl interface.

although the cheaper workstation cards such as the quadro fx 1700 dont seem to be as good as the nvidia 8800gts which im also looking at. Or are they??

just wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to which would be a better option and to which would handle these programs the best.

Cheers

[Dwight]

Archicad has its quirks as far as Graphics cards go, all right.

See this forum's Video Card Reports to locate problem cards, but it is far from universal.

Archicad doesn't exploit graphics cards as you might expect since most of its tasks are CPU based, so forum data is only useful in knowing cards that don't work.

The demanding application on your list is going to be Cinema 4D since it actually does real rendering - i think it can exploit a higher end card.

Four Gb of RAM is just at the beginning of what you'll need in the next two years.

[Anonymous]

Thanks 4 that..

yeah i have had quite a bit of trouble with graphics card issues to do with archicad so ill check that out. So might you recomend a workstation card or just a high end gaming card for my setup and purpose. lol yes indeed youll never have enough ram.. cheers

[Dwight]

What? Me recommend?

I'm suggesting that you ask your question on the Cinema 4D forum where they actually know something.

[Anonymous]

ok no worries.

[owen]

With those apps its all about the processor and RAM.

None of those programs make any use of the graphics card for processing tasks. So you may as well go with a run-of-the-mill card you would find in any decent non-gaming desktop and spend the money on CPU & RAM

[Anonymous]

yes it does seem that way.. ive just been reading about that.. thanks for that.. although i am still really confused why these workstation graphic cards exist and why they are so expensive? Shouldnt it make some sort of a differnece in speed and visual? the perfomnace specs seem to be lower than those of a normal card yet they are twice the price? thanks 4 the advice anyway.

[Dwight]

Those cards are for specific tasks called by specific software. You don't generally purchase a workstation card like it was a nitro kit for the Lada.

An example from the early nineties was the TARGA card. It could address routines called by rendering applications to create proprietary animation files that could, i think, only be played back with that card.

Buy software. Buy special function card. Get specific results.

Altho i notice that Apple now offers a "workstation" card that can do Stereo Picture-in-Picture. Now that is processing! I wonder what apps can use it?

[owen]

Dwight wrote:
You don't generally purchase a workstation card like it was a nitro kit for the Lada

audiotech wrote:
yes it does seem that way.. ive just been reading about that.. thanks for that.. although i am still really confused why these workstation graphic cards exist and why they are so expensive? Shouldnt it make some sort of a differnece in speed and visual? the perfomnace specs seem to be lower than those of a normal card yet they are twice the price? thanks 4 the advice anyway.

Don't really know much about the specifics but they are optimized for certain tasks and if the application can use them they really do make a BIG difference - video editing (like Final Cut Pro) is one example

[Anonymous]

ok yeah that makes sense... thanks 4 the help.