Walter Markiewicz Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 When I said everyone here reads every post, they do. What I meant by "everyone" was the people of importance that help out on a daily basis and have been a member on this board for years, including myself. Tell you what. Go down PC Wizard and install it. Look at the OpenGL extensions installed on your machine running a gaming card. Now do the same thing on a computer running a workstation card, and see how many more OpenGL extensions are installed. If you're so smart and I'm so dumb then why did you come here and ask a question to begin with? I see you're a "Google guru".... next time why don't you use your search crutch instead of asking people who can give you experienced answers. Oh and Autodesk doesn't use DirectX, it uses Direct3D which is a graphical extension of DirectX, which is a development of Microsoft. OpenGL is Direct3D's competitor and it's extensions has been heavily used in CAD related software until recently. Just.... you know.... "FYI" and all.... :wink: The arrogance of people sometime..... I'm no guru at all, but I have put my own research into this for years now. Oh and have fun with that gaming card running Revit MEP.... we had an issue with that last year and the only fix was *gasp* to upgrade to workstation level cards. Sometimes it's not all about performance, and support will always rein. Good luck mi amigo. I've just been perusing your forum and had to comment on this...because I can't believe your lack of professionalism on your forum. It seems Mark has been trying to get an answer to this question and because your forum is not straightforward with how new posts are routed and who will read what section he posted in a few places trying to solicit a response. Instead of helping him you chided him about his reposts. Still after being polite and thanking you for clearing up his additional posts and restating his question you gave him a 2 sentence non-informative answer. It was not until you felt your pride was in jeopardy that you actually took the time to give him a thought out response even though it still reeked of your attitude and contained insults towards him. YOU are supposed to be running this forum to help, not to pad your ego. Not impressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjohnsonii Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 http://www.mcadforums.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11067 Excellent resource thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABuckingham Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 I don't know why I am getting such terrible responses. Multiple threads over various forums, and imprecise formulation of the original question. I've never heard anyone argue for a CAD card over a gaming card who wasn't a salesman in the last decade. The only justifications are spec sheets, no practical difference exists. Graphics cards are an easy choice, pick the one with the most RAM, and most mature drivers, and lowest cost. You'll never go wrong with that recipe until the next slot jump (eg. AGP -> PCI-E). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f700es Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Well I am not a salesman and I can only account for my own experience. YMMV (your mileage may vary) as they say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzframpton Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Yes, this is something I found after purchasing the Radeon 5750. Well I can confirm that the Radeon 5750 does work with Autocad MEP 2010 I run a gaming card at home with 8GB of RAM, and a workstation card at work with 4GB of RAM. My 3D files in AutoCAD MEP at home run smoothly at home, probably due to the extra RAM. But a huge file will buckle my computer at home, where as my computer at work keeps things ticking a bit smoother when rotating around a 3D file. As for 2D, there is no difference really. It's a bit faster at home but nothing the average person can see. Revit is a different story. My computer at work handles Revit MEP far greater than my home computer, even with the lack of RAM. I will say this, the best card we have running at my office is the Quadro FX1800 and it is by far the best graphics card I have handled personally. It is amazingly fast for the specs in AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP. That is compared to identical computers specs, minus the video card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzframpton Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 I've just been perusing your forum and had to comment on this...because I can't believe your lack of professionalism on your forum. It seems Mark has been trying to get an answer to this question and because your forum is not straightforward with how new posts are routed and who will read what section he posted in a few places trying to solicit a response. Instead of helping him you chided him about his reposts. Still after being polite and thanking you for clearing up his additional posts and restating his question you gave him a 2 sentence non-informative answer. It was not until you felt your pride was in jeopardy that you actually took the time to give him a thought out response even though it still reeked of your attitude and contained insults towards him. YOU are supposed to be running this forum to help, not to pad your ego. Not impressed. This isn't my forum, and many people get the wrong impression about me and a few others on here because it's hard to sense sarcasm in textual postings. I had a smile on my face the entire time I wrote that post, and still helped him out once he changed his attitude. I'm all about helping people on this board, I love giving back to the same community that helped me over the past 5-6 years here. But we all get a little annoyed when the occasional new poster comes in with high demands of help with inconsiderate reply's when someone doesn't answer their exact need. I found that I missed the 2D portion of his question in his original post (I assumed 3D since he posted about AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP) which is why my answer was not spot on, but others have answered him correctly since I figured that out so I felt there was no need to help in that particular area. Everything was smoothed out on this and then you had to use your first post to call me out on something you have no clue what was about.... I apologize to the original poster for any response that was out of line. Hope this all helped you out and I will continue to give my $0.02 if you ever have any other Q's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjohnsonii Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 Multiple threads over various forums, and imprecise formulation of the original question. I've never heard anyone argue for a CAD card over a gaming card who wasn't a salesman in the last decade. The only justifications are spec sheets, no practical difference exists. Graphics cards are an easy choice, pick the one with the most RAM, and most mature drivers, and lowest cost. You'll never go wrong with that recipe until the next slot jump (eg. AGP -> PCI-E). This is, by far, the worst answer I've received. Thank you trying to help though, Abuckingham. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 If the tone of this thread does not improve it will be closed. Let's please stop with all the negativity. If you don't have anything constructive or informative to post, please don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjohnsonii Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 If the tone of this thread does not improve it will be closed. Let's please stop with all the negativity. If you don't have anything constructive or informative to post, please don't. I totally agree, Thanks for the help Cad64! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter Markiewicz Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 to call me out on something you have no clue what was about... Nice grammar. It was very obvious no one including you gave him a thoughtful answer until he prodded. Just saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 It's very obvious you did not read my last post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CADTutor Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 I have used both gaming cards and workstation class cards with AutoCAD and my conclusions are as follows: If you mainly work in 2D, go for a gaming card and save yourself some money because you will barely notice the difference in AutoCAD and you'll get better performance with Windows (Aero). If you do a fair amount of 3D work, go for a workstation class card because this is specifically what they are designed for. Downsides are cost and poorer performance in Windows (Aero) although to be honest, I can't notice the difference in Aero performance but the Windows Experience Index tells me so. It's worth pointing out that using a gaming card for complex 3D work in AutoCAD (or any similar application - I suspect) is not a good experience. You'll find the view style flipping back to wireline while using ViewCube or Orbit in real-time because the card can't render the 3D geometry quickly enough and the motion will become jerky rather than smooth. There are other advantages, like smooth line rendering (even in 2D with AutoCAD 2011 and above) because the graphics drivers are specifically written for AutoCAD et. al. In summary, there is no easy answer to this question, it very much depends on the type of work you do. I currently use a Quadro FX1800 and am pleased with the performance in 3D - the extra money is worth the improved user experience but I wouldn't recommend this solution to anyone using only (or mainly) 2D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjohnsonii Posted June 10, 2010 Author Share Posted June 10, 2010 I have used both gaming cards and workstation class cards with AutoCAD and my conclusions are as follows: If you mainly work in 2D, go for a gaming card and save yourself some money because you will barely notice the difference in AutoCAD and you'll get better performance with Windows (Aero). If you do a fair amount of 3D work, go for a workstation class card because this is specifically what they are designed for. Downsides are cost and poorer performance in Windows (Aero) although to be honest, I can't notice the difference in Aero performance but the Windows Experience Index tells me so. It's worth pointing out that using a gaming card for complex 3D work in AutoCAD (or any similar application - I suspect) is not a good experience. You'll find the view style flipping back to wireline while using ViewCube or Orbit in real-time because the card can't render the 3D geometry quickly enough and the motion will become jerky rather than smooth. There are other advantages, like smooth line rendering (even in 2D with AutoCAD 2011 and above) because the graphics drivers are specifically written for AutoCAD et. al. In summary, there is no easy answer to this question, it very much depends on the type of work you do. I currently use a Quadro FX1800 and am pleased with the performance in 3D - the extra money is worth the improved user experience but I wouldn't recommend this solution to anyone using only (or mainly) 2D. An excellent answer and I appreciate your time sharing this knowledge and experience with me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinp Posted June 28, 2010 Share Posted June 28, 2010 You could in practice, get a gaming card and use rivatuner + a little softmod to turn it into a workstation card. I have a HD3850 at work now, but by using rivatuner and softmodding it, I was able to turn it into a FireGL V7770. The performance isnt 100% of the workstation card, but its a large improvement over the 3850. Heres a collection of links I have for researching it: http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-227800-p-1.html http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=275174&page=4 http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=280767&highlight=firegl http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=227800 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjohnsonii Posted June 28, 2010 Author Share Posted June 28, 2010 You could in practice, get a gaming card and use rivatuner + a little softmod to turn it into a workstation card. I have a HD3850 at work now, but by using rivatuner and softmodding it, I was able to turn it into a FireGL V7770. The performance isnt 100% of the workstation card, but its a large improvement over the 3850. Heres a collection of links I have for researching it: http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-227800-p-1.html http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=275174&page=4 http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=280767&highlight=firegl http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=227800 I will check all this out. Thanks so much!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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