video card recomend?

[harley512]

Been having a bit of trouble with the nividia g-force 8600 (512 ram)with other aplications.

What do you guys recomend, or what are you using?

[jeff]

That card should be fine for MC.

What problems are you having? If you can, maybe swap it out for the 8800, those cards are 10x what the 8600 is

[gcode]

I'm using a Quadro FX-1800

The FX-580 is a pretty good card too

[harley512]

^^^

The problems I am having are like print screen is finiky, and PDF's open ith the image of whats on the screen. I like the idea of the 8800.

[Guest]

I run (2) GeForce 8800GTS's at home

 

The 8600 is a "cheap" card, real cheap

 

a GeForce can work, in many cases you need a decent one at least.

 

Now, if you want to avoid many issues, even with the Geforce cards, buy the Nvidia Quadro FX.

 

an FX580 can be had for under %200

[Dave.L]

quote:

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I'm using a Quadro FX-1800

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Great card for the price. About $450

[alanu23]

If you have dual slots and a little <%200 get on tigerdirect and look at the firegl V7700. that is a mean card, I have a V7200 that screams in comparison to my quadrofx 4500.

[alanu23]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...5553&CatId=3598

[Guest]

working for a reseller, stay as far away from the Ati cards as you can

[alanu23]

Whats wrong with ATI?

[harley512]

^^^

I learned along time agao about ATI.

It was a radion...not good w/MC. Not compatible.

[alanu23]

Oh, ati has come a long way with fire gl. No problems with my v7200. From what I have seen on here there are alot of people using gaming nvidia cards that would be in heaven with the card mentioned above.

[harley512]

Thanks everyone. I printed out our thread for my IT guy to purchase one for me. Probably end up with a GeForce 8800GTS. Money is tight here :/

[Verndog]

quote:

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If you have dual slots and a little <%200 get on tigerdirect and look at the firegl V7700. that is a mean card, I have a V7200 that screams in comparison to my quadrofx 4500.

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Why do you say dual slots? Looks to me as though it is a single PCI Express slot.

 

As far as ATI, long ago they were great then they sucked, and today...maybe good again?? Never say never.

 

Are you running this card with Mcam on win 7 by chance? Any issues with curser, redraws, verify, ect...the usual non compatible issues? Also, can you see if graphics acceleration is greyed out in advanced properties in win 7 with the drivers you have...pretty please.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

That's a two or three year old card, isn't it? BTW, NewEgg has it for the same price with free shipping.

[jeff]

quote:

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That's a two or three year old card, isn't it?

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Yes the 8800 came out about 2-3 yrs ago,but it's still a great video card.

I still have that in my computer at home and it runs like a beast.

[Goldorak]

i run a 8800GT without any problems for 2 years

 

very good card for the price

[gcode]

I picked up a Quadro FX-1800 last month from Amazon for $395..runs great in Win 7 x64..

my old FX3450 wasn't liking Win7 too much..

no real issues.. just poor performance.

I wanted to buy a Quadro FX-3800, but $850

was too rich for me ..

[alanu23]

Im running xp pro so I wouldn't know about capatability issues on win7. As far as the V7200 the only problem that I had was the driver from ati was no good. That was an easy fix as dell had a better driver. After that.. smooth sailing. Honestly it is a screamin card. I wrote about it in another thread. Hands down in speed and performance the ATI 7200 has my quadro fx 4500 beat. Now on the other side of the spectrum graphics quality... Nvidia quadro looks amazing. but in comparison to a gaming card.. quadro fx or firegl would be a major upgrade. Its all about what you care about. Me I prefer performance, and being able to see my files, so I don't skimp on graphics. also I have another computer a that had the nvidia 8600gts, I switched that out with a quadrofx 3450/4000 sdi, when I did that I stepped into a different realm of clarity and would never run a gaming card for CAD ever again.

[alanu23]

oh yeah when I said dual slots I meant that it is not a low profile card, and alot of computers can't accept the double slot cards.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

The only real difference I've ever been able to find between the gaming cards and the CAD cards is that the CAD cards allow Realview graphics in Solidworks. How are you getting better clarity? I've got an Nvidia 260 GTS that's treating me pretty well and I got it for $150 about a year ago.

[alanu23]

It is hard to explain, but this is what I remember my IT buddy telling me when we switched the 8600gts for the quadro fx 3450/4000... I asked "so what is the difference between a gaming card and a workstation card?" His reply; "it is how the card interprets the data. Gaming cards see objects as triangles, where as Cad cards see objects as shapes and lines." I don't know if he was just trying to dumb it down for me or what. Doing some googling however all I can find that is different is drivers, plus cad cards are underclocked a little for stability... That said, I don't really know what the actual difference is between the two, but what I do know is that it was way better running the quadro. I think it can be summed up in an analogy; you wouldn't race a toyota rock crawler in the indy500. Also I think it is what you are used to as well. If you only know what mastercam looks like through a gaming card and not through a high end graphics card, you don't know what you are missing. And you don't miss it because you haven't upgraded. kind of like before I got my hd 24" monitor I had a 19" analog lcd. I did just fine on the 19" but as soon as I plugged in the 24" I was hooked, amazed, and will never go back. There is a reason cad cards cost alot, because they are built for cad, not games, likewise gaming cards are built for games not cad, however in my google research I found that there are softgl drivers that make nvidia gaming cards technically quadro cards?... Anyone know anything about this?

[alanu23]

http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/the-real...d-desktop-gpus/

[Dave.L]

Before getting my new system w/ the FX-1800, I was using a very lame-on board graphics.

 

Solidworks sucked, MC seemed OK.

 

When I got the new PC IMO, MC looks no better but Solidworks WOW! Major improvement in rotating the model around.

 

IMO, the graphics in MC are sub-standard.

[MotorCityMinion]

I havn't scanned this entire thread, but be sure to check out the Power supply requirements before you purchase any decent card. Most factory PSU's in retail PC's are too weak. If your putting this in a Workstation, the OEM PSU may be enough.