Graphics Card Dilemna

[jujubee]

Okay. I have a problem. The last 3 Nvidia drivers work terrible with wireframe.

However, the latest nVidia driver works great with Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Do I have to switch every time or is this their way of forcing me to upgrade?

[Donald2B]

Most of the "game" cards really suffer performance wise with wireframe. It is probably due to the fact that they do not have hardware accelerated wireframe like the quadro line does. This is a HUGE issue for me now that we are looking at new workstations. Quadro = good performance all the time; GTX285 = Great performance until in wireframe/edge face mode. Since most of our scenes tend to be pretty huge and full of proxies, this is usually a big problem for us. I have found a work around for the vray proxy problem, but the quadros in the office are almost 2yrs older than the GTX285 and they perform as good or better in most situations, unless you are dealing with shaded and NO edged faces. Then the raw power of the GTX285 shows through.

So, I am the only one right now suffering with the poor performance in wireframe, and it is making me want to give up this card for a quadro, even though I would lose a ton of performance in other applications.

[beestee]

I think the GeForce cards can give pretty good performance in wireframe as well, but like Charles is saying, it is heavily dependant on the driver...and of course Nvidia is going to try to bank on the Quadro branding by minimizing the specialized performance to the Quadro line and it's related drivers if at all possible. Once in a while, thouogh, a GeForce driver seems to inadvertantly work well for Max.

If you haven't yet, you might pay a visit to the Guru3D forums. I usually check out the general response to the drivers there when I am updating and it sometimes takes 2 or 3 attempts to find one that I am satisfied with. It looks like the response to most of the latest releases since the WHQL that was recently pulled have been not so great.

You could just start playing your games on a 'cheaper than a fermi' Xbox 360

[Donald2B]

The funny thing is that I really haven't noticed that much performance difference over the past couple of drivers. They have all performed about the same for me. But when I go and work on a machine that has one of the quadros in it, I keep thinking...dang this is MUCH more responsive! I just hate I have to pay a HUGE premium for that performance.

[BBB3]

Has anyone tried 197.13. Same deal as all other drivers since 191.07?
It's a pain being stuck with this old driver and not being able to use my Octane licence because it needs Cuda3.
I too resent being forced back into Quadros having left for a GTX285 that's doing well in most apps.

[Donald2B]

I am getting along pretty good with 197.13 drivers....but I don't seem to be having the same issues as others though. Using both a GTX280 & GTX285. Both running windows 7 64bit and Max2009/2010/2011.

Your mileage may very.

[BLADE]

I would opt for the GTX285. I use 2 of them in my system but not as SLI (which gives you nothing in 3ds Max) but for a 3 screen configuration.

Since I am trying to be good organized with layers, i can optimize my viewport speed with on/off switching layers alot.

Maneuvering around the screen with Smooth and Highlight and textures on is more predictable. Estimating animation timings seems also more easy with Smooth + Highlight on.

Another great benefit is the huge screen space you can get. with 2x21" and a 30" monitor in the middle of them. I have a desktop with 4960x1600 pixel and this is a true productivity booster.

Regards
BLADE