Selecting proper graphics card

[riteshharishborikar]

Hello,
Our of the customer want to buy recommanded graphics cards.They chosen Nvidia Quadro FX.On visiting Solidworks website I realized FX 540 was good for 2007, FX 570 is for 2008 and earlier.

Can anybody tell consedering future release upto say 2011 version which card should be recommanded? I think Quadro FX 1700 is OK, but its too expensive also.Please comment!

 

[MadMango]

It would be hard to say, as new hardware comes out about every 6 months, not to mention updates and newer versions of software.

What graphical requirements will all new software create?
What operating system is being used currently, and what operating system will be available in 3yrs?
What new capabilities will SolidWorks have in 3yrs?
What type and size of models will be designed in the next 3yrs?

Since it appears that you are on a budget, of the 3 cards you listed, I would select the FX570. Typically you want THE best graphics card your system can support so the graphics card is not the bottleneck. If there were no limitations, the nVidia Quadro FX 4600 or 5600 would be nice.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[mjcole]

They are all Expensive but by the Time 2011 roles around they'll have reasonable prices, but considering Real View enabled cards for 2007 did not all pass the test for 2008.

I hope that there will be increased performance capabillities with less power required if they increase Computation Efficiency capabilities.

Also if you sold Graphics cards as a business wouldn't you want to sell as many as possible. Just think of all the cell phones being sold and developed now. It's a side affect of Big Business and Microsoft is guilty of this quick development short product life business model.

Michael

 

[AnnaWood]

Get the FX570 as that is the newest card from Nvidia, the FX540 is already a year or so old in terms of technology.

Cheers,




Anna Wood
SW2008 SP2.0ev, Windows Vista
IBM ThinkPad T61p, T7800, FX570M, 4 gigs of RAM

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[StefanHamminga]

Hmm, the desktop Quadro FX570 only has about 60% of the allready meager memory bandwith of the mobile version... Eg, this is not a fast card. If your budget is pretty tight I would go for the ATI FireGL V3600 instead, it should be quite a bit faster.

Indeed if budget were a little higher you can get either the FX 1700 or the V5600, both very capable cards.

Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer
Searching Eng-Tips forums