Nvidia GTS450 vs 9800GT

[Jaanus]

Hello,

 

I have to put together a new low cost desktop computer for MCAM Mill X2 Level 3, mainly for 2D and some 3D milling. I did some research in internet and put a Nvidia 9800GT video card to list (one available at local electronics store list), but salesman said today that GTS450 (Club 3D) is newer and should perform better. Well, i cant find any information how GTS450 works with MasterCam (9800 GT should work, from people experiences). I am more interested in stability than performance.

 

Any ideas, which one to pick ?

 

Is 550W Chieftec PSU sufficient ? (Processor will be Intel E700 Core 2 + 2 hard disk drives)

 

Jaanus

[The_Evil_Machinist]

I am more interested in stability than performance.

 

Nvidia cards usually are very stable due to their awesome driver team. But don't waste your money on the 450. The 460 has a better price/performance ratio.

[MotorCityMinion]

Using a 9800GT with MC and it's decent. By no means great, just decent. That being said, if the GTS450 has better specs around the same price, that may be the ticket. Another option would be the ebay route: FX3500 for around $70. and FX4500 for around $150. I had a FX3400 for years and it was very stable. The GT9800 blows it away speed wise. 550W for 9800GT is fine.

[Scott Lundin Shopware Inc.]

I used to use a gaming card (GeForce 9800GTX) for mastercam and it worked well. That same card was not compatable with Solidworks and was unusable in that application. If you are building a computer for a cad-cam application then I would reccommend a video card designed for cad-cam. Stay with the Nvidia Quadro FX series, or the newest models released just last month that are just called Quadro. 2009-2010 models would be Quadro FX580($100 ebay used), or FX1800($250 ebay used). The new 2010-2011 models are Quadro 600 ($169 new), or Quadro 2000 ($460 new).

[Jaanus]

Thanks for suggestions. We do not have nor intend to buy SolidWorks, we have AutoCad LT, so I think there will not be compatibility problems.

I already considered buying FX580, but its price at local store is twice as much as GTS450 (or GT9800) and my boss wants to keep the price within the range. The other limitation is the fact I live quite far from the "centre of the world" (Estonia) and the choice of computer components is quite limited at local stores. I have never used Ebay too.

 

Greetings,

Jaanus

[Trevor Bailey]

this is one of the things that always drives me nuts. is all of this worth the headache? you will have a sub-par system. if you use SolidBox, you will have a proven system, already set up and ready to go as soon as it hits your floor, with great support.

 

i am a firm believer in "you pay for what you get".....literally.

[MotorCityMinion]

Dozens of other systems available other than Solidbox that work just fine. Just buy a Quadro card and be done with it.

[Trevor Bailey]

maybe.....just slapping a quadro card in a box is not always the best thing. is the powersupply suffcient, does it work with the MB, are there enough fan(s) to work with heat issues, is the housing itself built to handle the heat a highend card, etc. will put off.

 

just saying, too many variables to digest when a person(company) can one stop shop.

[Mcam Nut]

One of the quadro video cards went in a Dell precision, and we had a few 9800 gt's at the shop, so I replaced the quadro with a 9800 gt, and I actually find it works better with the gaming card.

[Jaanus]

Well, I do believe in "you pay for what you get", but as this computer is intended for 2D programming mainly, I think the perfomance is not so important, for given amount of money I prefer stability. Nobody likes to deal with problems "hey, come see what happened, my computer stopped responding...").

It's also waste of money buying a high perfomance video card which capabilities you will not use (after five years it's all outdated anyway).

[Mcam Nut]

after five years it's all outdated anyway

 

I am yet to see a Quadro last for 5 years. We have 6 dell Precision workstations, purchased less than 5 years ago. Every video card had to be replaced due to over heating (fan came apart) I dont know if Dell fixed this problem or not. We also have 3 or 4 precision laptops that have had video card problems, not sure if that was from the fan or not, but it was heat related