need graphics card recommendation 1

[toycept]

I'm looking to purchase a new graphics card for my computer (Acer, P4 running windowsXP, 1 gig of ram). I'm considering either the Nvidia FX500 or the Nvidia FX1100. I run Solidworks 2004 and will upgrade to service pack 2.1. The use of the card will benefit the use of Photoworks and "real view graphics" rendering. The files created rarely have more than 50 parts. If anyone has any experience with using both of these cards and can share some insights, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts. Thanks.

 

[Theophilus]

I just got an FX500 for use with AMD chips and it works great. Of course I'm comparing it to my old Oxygen card, but I'm having no trouble at all.

RealView works great with this card (so far)--small assemblies only for now, but my Oxygen card could handle several hundred parts.

Regarding PhotoWorks, I think the speed is more a factor of your CPU and RAM and less of the card you're using.




Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

 

[MrPickles]

From the SW World show, I learned that ATI is NOW certified for SolidWorks, and WILL be doing REALVIEW when SW 2004sp3 comes out (although they were showing the card using sp1). They have a new line of FireGL cards, that look pretty good.

 

[SBaugh]

I use the FX 500 and I think it works pretty good. I have a complicated 50 part assembly (Surfaces, etc... things that makes the files complicated) and my assembly does fine. PW2 works well with this card and my assembly. See one of my photoworks rendering.

http://www.scottjbaugh.com/Desktop images/Bionicle Image1.jpg

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=840133/mode=gotocp/ut=0cdc2b48f30672d4

Also check out

http://www.tomshardware.com

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[toycept]

Scott thanks for sharing the file you did ... that looks very good.... I'm just wondering how much of performance boost there is compairing the FX500 with the FX1100... that is my big question... whether it's worth the extra bucks to go for the 1100.

By the way, I noticed a reply in another thread saying all FX cards support real view. I saw on the SW site where they certify graphics cards.... although the FX1100 is certified and does support real view, it does not support real view in service packs prior to SP2 in 2004.

 

[SBaugh]

That's true the 1100 will not support Realview till SP3 and SP2.1 just came out. So it maybe 6-8 weeks (estimated guess) before SP3 comes out. I wish I could tell you what the performance boost would be, but without actually having one here to test I can't say.

You might check out -

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1386&p=4

or even

http://www.nvidia.com

they should have some stats on that card vs the 500FX

Best Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376