Which Graphics Card ?

[Infrared digital]

We are about to upgrade to VRay 2.0 and that obviously means an upgrade of graphics card.

I have been reading quite alot and its quite overwhelming so, thought I would ask what is the best graphics card at the moment for RT ?

I have looked at the benchmark tests and the GTX 680 is potentially the next card to really consider. There is also the Kepler cards but do they work with RT - I don't think they are out yet so maybe none knows ?

Our budget is approx £400.

What are the other things we need to check out for example - compatibility with the motherboard ?

Thanks

N

[vlado]

The 680 is a Kepler card, however it is a low-end card and apparently there are still some performance issues with it.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Infrared digital]

Do you think the performance issues will be sorted out with future driver updates ?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

I think u should wait, nvidia is like women now. U never know what can happen to it...

[Infrared digital]

So which card would you recommend at the moment ?

[RobPhoboS]

I think u should wait, nvidia is like women now. U never know what can happen to it...

haha - great analogy

[sandykoufax]

The 680 is a Kepler card, however it is a low-end card and apparently there are still some performance issues with it.

Best regards,
Vlado

What? 680 is low-end card? Really do you think so? :-O

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

680 is a high end gamming - low end computing. It GPU render as fast as 580 so I would say... wait.

[vlado]

Do you think the performance issues will be sorted out with future driver updates ?

I really don't know...

What? 680 is low-end card? Really do you think so? :-O

I meant for rendering; it may be great for gaming/viewports but I haven't been looking for this

Best regards,
Vlado

[Infrared digital]

So what if I suggested a EVGA 3GB GeForce GTX 580 ?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Id say get EVGA 4gb GTX 680 since its a little bit faster than 580 and has 1gb more ram...

[Infrared digital]

There seem to be different manufacturers of the GTX ranges for example; Nvidia, Asus, Gainward etc... Are any better or worse or is it largely standard technology ?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

They all use the nvidia tech of GPU and so on. But each of them change the card clocks speed and so on to be a bit better. Also they all OC slightly different and have different quality components. As far as I remember EVGA give u warranty on OC so go for EVGA =D

[Alan Iglesias]

I'm currently using two 3GB EVGA 580s and I've got them overclocked to about a 15% rendering speed improvement. With the advent of the Kepler, these are coming down in price and make for a pretty good deal if you must buy now.

1024 Fermi cores provides a fairly good level of GPU rendering speed for many situations.

To answer another comment, yes, the 680 will be the entry level Kepler and those are nVidia's words. Whether or not the platform will ever rival the Fermi's core-for-core GPU rendering speed remains to be seen. It certainly seems to have been designed as a gaming-centric card.

Apparently nVidia figured out a way to improve gaming performance without needing cores that compute in a manner as efficient as the Fermi platform. Not so good for us, who have been relying on relatively inexpensive gaming cards for our GPU rendering needs.

We are a bit worried that nVidia has identified highly-efficient cores for GPU rendering as a "professional" endeavor, and may relegate it to the overpriced side of their offerings.

Here's to hoping that doesn't happen,

-Alan