Graphics Card for 3D Max 2008

[kijangliar]

Hello Friends,

What will be the best graphics card to buy for 3d-max 2008?? Thanxx million for the responses

[archvizwiz]

you should visit autodesks website to see which card is compatible with your software

[spittle]

But even some of the recommended ones are crap so be careful. 3DS Max is much easier on the graphics card than AutoCAD so you should be ok if you get a half decent one.

[ReMark]

For 2008 running under Vista you want a graphics card that supports Direct3D and not OpenGL. There is a white paper on the subject at the AutoDesk website.

See my post re: AutoCAD - OpenGL vs. Direct3D in this forum. I posted it yesterday. A link to the white paper is included.

[Cad64]

I have a halfway decent card in my halfway decent work computer which handles most general work pretty well, but whenever I have to work on a large project, I find it bogs down and the display gets jerky. I recently had the opportunity to test one of these drawings on a high end machine with a top of the line graphics card and everything was smooth as silk.

So, the keys to success with Max are:
1. Fast processor, duo or quad core
2. As much RAM as your machine can use
3. Top of the line graphics card

I also recently got to test my system against Vista 64 bit and found that render times were twice as fast with Vista. Even a single core Vista 64 system with 2GB RAM smoked my 32 bit duo core with 3GB of RAM.

I know what my next OS will be.

[spittle]

What spec was the high end machine? and also your halfway machine?

[Cad64]

You can see the results of the test here at 3D-Palace and test your machine against everyone elses.

[Cad64]

Oops, I just realized you were asking about the first part of my post, not the last part.
The halfway machine is my work computer:
Dual core AMD opteron 180 2.41 GHz
3GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 1300
Win XP sp2 32 bit

The high end machine was a loaner from our IT guys for testing:
It was a quad core, don't remember what processor though
3GB RAM
The video card was one of the top cards from Nvidia, don't remember which one though
Win XP sp2 32 bit
(I guess that doesn't help much)

The link I posted was a test of my home computer:
Intel Core2Duo E6850 3.00GHz
3GB RAM
GeForce 8600 GT
Win XP Pro SP2

[yosel]

hi am looking to buy a laptop with a budget of $$2000,
am planing on using for interior desigh like autoCAD and 3d max,

what about the Toshiba Intel Core i7-720QM 1.6Hz OR Intel Core i5-520M 2.40GHz / 4GB RAM / 500GB Hard Drive NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M with 1GB GDDR5 Discrete graphics memory,

WOULD IT WORK OK FOR THE 3D MAX, OR I NEED A MUCH BETTER GRAPHIC CARD???
AND IF I DO WHICH ONE?

[CAD Library]

Thanks for all the helpful informations that I've read in this thread...