Graphics card recommendations???

# 1 26-11-2003 , 07:05 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Oct 2003

Location: Paris, France

Posts: 418

OK, I'm speccing out my new machine... to be ordered soon.

My spec so far includes a P4/3.2GHz + 2Gb RAM but now I come to the real critical issue.... the graphics card! In the running right now are the following cards:

ATI Fire GL-X1 (128Mb)
ATI Fire BL-X1 (256Mb)
ATI Fire GL-Z1 (128Mb)
NVIDIA Quadro 4 980XGL (128Mb)

As I will be using this PC primarily for Maya, I have selected cards that are 100% qualified for Maya.

Now the question is... which one do I buy? Any ideas?

Last edited by rich; 26-11-2003 at 07:08 PM.

Quote

# 2 27-11-2003 , 03:00 AM

Moderator
Join Date: Sep 2002

Location: Plantation, Florida

Posts: 1,568

2GB RAM is unnecessary, I would max it at 1.5 if anything. Save yourself a little money. If you want more power, then go dual pentiums.

Of course the more video power the better, so if it's within your budget to even be looking at those cards, being an ATI user myself, then I would recommend the ATI FireGL X2-256. Those are some pricey cards though.

Dave Baer
Professor of Digital Arts
Digital Media Arts College
Boca Raton, Florida
dbaer@dmac.edu

Quote

# 3 27-11-2003 , 09:15 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Oct 2003

Location: Paris, France

Posts: 418

My basic rule of thumb with memory is that, as long as the processor can address it, you can never have too much. 32bit processors can address 2GB of signed memory, so that's what I'll buy... the price differential is not so great anyway.

As for the GFX card, I looked around and have found that I can get my hands on a ATI FireGL X2-256 I'll have to stretch my budget a little user added image

. Also, I'll have to get it while in the UK over Christmas as it seems that it's practically impossible to find in France (I just wish I could have brought Best Buy with me when I moved back to Europe!).

I did consider dual CPU and was tempted to go with a dual Xeon. In the end I decided that it wasnt worth it beacuase I have a full time job and if I need a big rendering job done, I can set it off in the morning before I leave for work. Anyhoo... looking at the tests on Highend3D, it seems as though a well spec'd P4 machine can do almost as well as most dualies out there.

That'll do donkey... that'll do...

Quote

# 4 30-11-2003 , 05:18 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2003

Posts: 8

Toms Hardware has an article comparing a bunch of cards including the FireGl X2 and FireGl 128, plus several Nvidia cards -

https://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030916/index.html

Quote

# 5 30-11-2003 , 09:04 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jul 2002

Location: MELville

Posts: 1,100

Originally posted by Huxley
My basic rule of thumb with memory is that, as long as the processor can address it, you can never have too much.

Originally Posted by

So my 64Bit Opterons can have what? :p user added image

actually I think 16Terrabytes of Memory is the max...

-Emo

Quote

# 6 30-11-2003 , 09:49 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Oct 2003

Location: Paris, France

Posts: 418

Originally posted by Emo
So my 64Bit Opterons can have what? :p

actually I think 16Terrabytes of Memory is the max...

-Emo

Originally Posted by

Your number is way too low. I'd say around 8,589,934 Terabytes (unsigned). Thats 8,590 Petabytes
or 8.6 Exabytes.

At todays cost $400 per gig, you'd be looking at: $3.4 trillion Dollars.

Of course, the motherboard would be so large that you'd probably run into performance issues as your CPU would have to wait for a byte to arrive from a component located 10 miles away.

Quote