Wich video card to buy ????????

[Erik de Graaf]

Hi all,

We are looking to get a good graphics card for our pc's, problem is that we don't know what the best card is these days.

Nvidia is really looking good but maybe 3dlabs is better ?

Can someone share there experience on this ?

We really need to know the best value for money card.

Erik

[jujubee]

IMHO, wait patiently a month till after xmas if youre in the US. Prices are going to drop. Can't say off the top of my head which new cards are better- but if you do get a new card youre going to want a motherboard with 8x agp support. Check tomshardware for reviews (you probably already have done this) but definitely ask some people here for their unbiased opinions:

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031023/index.html

and check out the benchmarking at the above link. There's also other great articles on tomshardware.

Overall, the latest radeons seem to come out on top (even though I'm a die-hard nvidia loyalist)- the older 9800 being a very good bet as you're going to waste several hundred on a new card without ANY noticeable performance increases. The 9800 in comparison to most nvidias have a bundle of enjoyable extra features (such as a tv tuner) over most nvidias.

I tend to buy my cards at www.pricewatch.com, www.newegg.com, and bestbuy.

If you're really looking for KA 3d performace, wait a couple weeks for the new xgi's to come out. But that aint going to be cheap...

[losbellos]

overall is good to check websites for benchmarks/reviews, but I belive the best is that you go and check by yourself. If you have a friend or a good shop where you can see when its working is always better. Most of this site are narrow-minded. So you better go and see by yourself.

[Brim]

If you're planning on using MAX, get quadro cards with Maxtreme drivers. The drivers only work in Max versions up to 5.1, but nvidia will likely release an updated Maxtreme driver that works with Max6 within a few months - that has been the usual case when a new version of Max gets released. If you want DirectX 9 compatibility go with the FX series of Quadro. The Radeons are gaming cards and are not so great for 3D (serious 3D, millions of polygon scenes). Check out this thread at CGTalk.com's hardware forum and then also run a search because this question gets asked alomst everyday over there.

[3dform]

I just read an article in the german (very good) magazin c't which covers an article about professional grafic cards.
In the conclusion of the article (it's 6 pages long with tables etc.) they say that for the basic 3D-artist the ATI FireGL cards offer the best price/ performance. While the new Nvidia Quadro cards are faster they are also much more expensive (more then 2 times). Think they lower the price next year.

I personally use an ATI X1 since a half year, which costs now about 500-650,- €. It does a extrem good job for that price. Better then any Nvidia for the same. There are driver both for Max 5 and 6.
Anyhow if Money don't matter the new Quadro high card is 30% faster but costs 3000$.

regards,

robert

[Smoother]

and about processors? what is the best processor for 3d/CAD/Graphix applications?
P4 with Hyperthreading or AMD XP?

* sorry my english *

[Da_elf]

im using dual AMD MP chips. they work nice when i get my HT chips ill be able to compair.