upgrade video card

[Thoob]

Hi guys, I currently run an 8800GT video card for my X6. The rest of my computer is i7 920 with 12GB triple channel memory. I was looking to get a Quadro 2000 card. I was asking the guys upstairs who use Inventor 2012 what they have in their system and the lead guy tells me "you don't need what we have". I find this kind of confusing as he does not know anything about Mastercam. He works with AutoCad and Inventor so to me he doesn't really know. The question I have is, what will I notice by changing these cards? Keep in mind I do a lot of surfacing. Not just 2D work. I do notice sometimes lines/geometry disappearing on me and colors not changing after a translate or xform move and also in verify, edges are not smooth when I zoom in. Is this upgrade justifiable? Is there a reason he said I don't need what they have? By the way, their computers have the Quadro 2000. Thanks.

[cadman2112]

Yeah, what's a programmer "possibly" need a professional card for huh?

[#Rekd™]

I have the Quadro 4000 and it works great!

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

I've got the Quadro 2000 and it works great. I also do a lot of surfacing. I don't know if it's any better for Mastercam than an equivalently priced GeForce, but I also do Solidworks and it helps there.

[cadman2112]

Having used both and ATi, they are better

 

Just better overall performance.

 

As far as geometry looking god or bad, crap geometry will still look like crappy geometry, no video card will fix that.

 

Always run at the highest available resolution for the greatest "look" do remember though, it is only a look

[Thoob]

Ok thanks guys.

[Thoob]

I talked to the owner about it. He said go ahead and get one. So a PNY 1GB Quadro 2000 is on the way.

He didn't even hesitate when I told him about it. Which would be a good thing I would think. lol.

[RayD]

nice

 

PNY makes a solid card.

[RaiderX]

its a stable capable card I think you will be happy

[RayD]

I talked to the owner about it. He said go ahead and get one. So a PNY 1GB Quadro 2000 is on the way.

He didn't even hesitate when I told him about it. Which would be a good thing I would think. lol.

 

Now go ask for a raise and see if you get the same response

[Thoob]

lol

Now go ask for a raise and see if you get the same response

 

lol. Just got one 6 months ago. I may have to wait that one out a bit. hehe

[cadman2112]

Live dangerously

[drafting3]

i use a quadro 2000, and it seems to handle complex surfacing very well.

 

we work with a lot of injection molds, and i've even designed a few complete molds using Mastercam.

 

quadro 2000 works great. (though the geek in me wishes i had a 4000)

[Rotary Ninja]

Maybe you should have asked for a 4000?

 

Mastercam probably needs a professional video card more than Inventor and ESPECIALLY Autocad does.

[gcode]

I run an FX3800 at home and just got a new machine with the newer Quadro 4000 and there is a big difference.

The 4000 IS worth the extra money IMO

[Rotary Ninja]

I wish we could do a comparison of dual lower end cards versus single higher end cards. I am curious how dual 2000's would stack up against a single 4000 or 5000 card.

[cadman2112]

Mastercam doesn't take advantage of an SLI setup

 

not sure there would be any tangible gain to running in SLI

[David Colin]

Quadro 4000 is nice. It can handle complex 5axis verify.

[Thoob]

I am going to do a little test with my current 8800GT and then run that same test when I get the 2000. Any files you guys would recommend for me to run this comparison?

[cadman2112]

And just exactly do what do you expect a video card to do for Mastercam processing performance?

 

Outside side of much cleaner graphics, better video response time and more stable verify, I'm not sure how you expect to "quantify" your results based on processing a Mastercam file

[drafting3]

i went with the 2000 because the 4000 was double the cost.

 

my theory was if i found myself needing the 4000, i would just get a second 2000, which would actually give me higher performance than a single 4000.

 

i had a budget of $2,000, and i ended up spending $2,500. i doubt the owner would have been so forgiving if the price was $3,000.

[Thoob]

And just exactly do what do you expect a video card to do for Mastercam processing performance?

 

Outside side of much cleaner graphics, better video response time and more stable verify, I'm not sure how you expect to "quantify" your results based on processing a Mastercam file

 

You tell me... That's why I posted here in the first place. To see if I will notice a difference between the 2 cards. By the way I never said I would just process a mastercam file. I said I'd like to do a test. And asked if anyone had a recommendation of a specific file to use.

[Thoob]

i went with the 2000 because the 4000 was double the cost.

 

my theory was if i found myself needing the 4000, i would just get a second 2000, which would actually give me higher performance than a single 4000.

 

i had a budget of $2,000, and i ended up spending $2,500. i doubt the owner would have been so forgiving if the price was $3,000.

 

I thought I just read somewhere that Mastercam doesn't utilize SLI and that 2 Quadro 2000's would not beat out a 4000. Or not even close for that matter.

[cadman2112]

If you have a nice big fat assembly file or something with 30 or 40,000 surfaces

 

That's where you'll REALLY notice what the card does for you

 

AFAIK, there aren't any "readily" available sample files for things like that...

[Thoob]

Ok. I do actually have full models available of big units that have a lot of surfaces. I will use that.