Graphics Card for Intensive WYG Visualisation?

[BleedingEdgeProductions]

Hi everyone,

 

Merry Christmas/Whatever you Celebrate to you all!

 

I am going to be running a very heavily detailed WYG presentation (complete with a full network of PCs including LX programming / audio playback / video playback).

 

What is the best graphics card to get for a PC with WYG on? Will a "gaming" one do (Nvida GT or ATI Radeon for example) or should I get a "workstation card" (Quadro / FireGL)? I do some 3D modelling and animation, and for those a workstation card is recommended, but what about for WYG?

 

Also, what is the realistic requirement for a RAM for a visually intensive show? Would I get away with 256 or should I go for a 512 or 640?

 

Thanks!

 

Martin

[mutley]

What card type is it? AGP, AGP-PRO, PCI-E....?

What's your bus speed? eg; if AGP is it 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x.... ?

How many card spaces will it have? Some cards are double height, would one of these fit?

Do you need TV or composite video in/out?

DVI or VGA?

What operating system? Some cards aren't supported under XP now.

What's your budget?

 

My suggestion would just be to have a look at Scan's website for something that suits your needs and budget. (As seen on The Gadget Show)

[tom_the_LD]

Hi Martin,

 

We do need some more info about the PC you are wanting to install the card in. OS, socket type, if it's PCI-E is it a 16x socket, how much room is there in the case, what is the power supply and most importantly the budget!

 

I could recommend you quite a few cards but they aren't cheap!

 

 

Tom

[lxdad]

Sadly WYG is not optimised to use any of the workstation cards so buying one is a waste of money. Simply buy the best gaming card you can afford.

 

LXDad

[niclights]

I'm fairly sure WYSIWYG itself doesn't rely much on graphics card, but more on processor. In contrast, ESP Vision does like its video card. In both cases, graphics RAM will help in applications that incorporate video. Whichever, a reasonably fast dual core with something like an NVidia 8800 will do very well. This is what I built last year (6600 was the processor at the time which I overclock to 3ghz). ESP looks amazing.

Don't worry about SLI or Quadro's etc. Very little software supports either.

[BleedingEdgeProductions]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for the replies, and sorry for the tardy response - Boxing Day was a day with family :)

 

The system is XP Pro SP3 running on a Quad Core E6600 with 4GB RAM (XP Pro has the /3GB switch on boot). Double height boards are fine, and I have the choice of PCI-E or AGP 8x (would rather use PCI-E given the choice). The board is an Asus P5K-E.

 

No TV out required - DVI outs are fine (and can be converted to VGA easily enough).

 

Budget is around £500 (which equates to, ahem, about 500 Euros at the moment!).

 

Many thanks!

 

Martin

[tom_the_LD]

How powerful is your PSU? No point in recommending a great GPU if you're PSU can't give the oomph required!

 

EDIT: I can't seem to fine a 'P5K-E', are you sure that's what it is? I can see a 'P5Q-E'.

[Nick LX]

http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&...amp;modelmenu=1 (p35 chipset)

 

With that much money it might be worth updating your CPU as well.

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....s)%20-%20Retail

and

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....or%20-%20Retail

 

With 4 harddrives/dvd drives, you should be looking at running on a minimum of 500watt PSU for that setup.

 

Your current GPU will benefit from a memory boost from the RAM, as 32bit Windows can't fully utilise all 4gb.

 

How big is your case?

[tom_the_LD]

I agree. I would probably spend around 250/300 quid on the GFX card and then upgrade RAM and CPU with the rest. You say you have 4GB RAM but what speed is this RAM?

[BleedingEdgeProductions]

Thanks guys!

 

The Nvidia cards have come down in price since last I looked - that's a pretty good price for the GTX.

 

It's a 600W PSU, so should be fine. The RAM is DDR2-800.

[Nick LX]

nVidia have kept ATi pushed down at the bottom. Their GTX range is well worth it. Be aware of their size, and also the need for 2 PCI-E power inputs.

[tom_the_LD]

That motherboard doesn't have SLI support does it?

 

Otherwise for that price you could get two of the 9800GTX OC 512MB cards and link them in an SLI configeration. But again, that would need a VERY good PSU - what is that actual model of the PSU and how much room is there in the case?

 

I have a Thermaltake Soprano and my 9800GTX only JUST fits in; and even then I had to take a couple of bits out to get it to fit!

[themadhippy]

The card of choice at the moment for gaiming appears to be one of the ATI 4870 (or its twin version) .It might be worth a change of motherboard if its a dual pci/agp jobby as its one less thing thats taken up processor time.I wouldnt bother with a new processor,the 6600 overclocks to 3ghz + and remains stable without too much fiddling.More memory is a waste of time unlesss your going to be use a 64 bit operating system.The other thing that might be worth an upgrade,especially if you've got sata onboard is a dedicated fast hard drive.finally the psu,is it a decent model or an ole cheapo that came with the case.

[BleedingEdgeProductions]

Otherwise for that price you could get two of the 9800GTX OC 512MB cards and link them in an SLI configeration. But again, that would need a VERY good PSU - what is that actual model of the PSU and how much room is there in the case?

 

I'm not entirely sure if the mobo is SLI compatible, but in any case is it not the application that has to be SLI compatible as well?

 

The PSU is an Antec jobbie... Haven't got the exact model to hand at the moment (will have tomorrow). It's in a 4U Antec rackmount PC case.

 

The other thing that might be worth an upgrade,especially if you've got sata onboard is a dedicated fast hard drive.

 

I've already got 5 hard disks in the computer - 2 of them WD raptors (10,000 RPM). They host my samples and sound effects. The other 3 are 1) system disks (multiboot), 2) project disk, and 3) scratch disk.

 

Cheers!

[tom_the_LD]

I'm not familiar with Antec PSU's so can't comment however I do have a Thermaltake 750W PSU which is excellent and is only about 80 quid so if you have spare cash it might be worth looking at.

 

SLI - I don't think the application has to be SLI compatible as I believe SLI just effectively adds the processing power of the cards together, and according to the box of mine can increase performance by up to 2x - 2.8x. There's also a neat little application called Nhancer which I use (only for Nvidia cards I believe) which is much better than the Nvidia control panel and allows you to do much more - you add in WYG as an application and can set some settings which are specifically for WYG including SLI options.

 

If you do plan to OC the 6600 a great deal then you will need to look at cooling which isn't the standard Intel one.