Graphic card for a workstation again

[Leoung O'Young]

Trying to decide on a graphic card for a workstation.
I was doing some research, there is suppose to be a good discussion in the XSIbase forum but the site comes up with a virus warning.
Any thought on the list of cards?. Normally I would stay with the Nvidia but I have read good things about the AMD/ATI  Radeon  HD7970
We are using Nvdia GTX 260 right now and it works fine but would like to upgrade for the next workstation.


$400 to $600 CAN
Nvidia Geforce GTX 670
AMD/ATI  Radeon  HD7970


$200 to $250 CAN
NVIDIA Quadro 600 by PNY 1.0GB DDR3 PCI-E16 DVI Display Port Fermi Workstation Video Card
Nvidia GTX 550TI, 560, 570, 580

Thanks,
Leoung

[Ben Houston]

I always go here for GPU and CPU benchmarks. It is great because they
also have the price/performance ratio:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

-ben

--
Best regards,
Ben Houston
Voice: 613-762-4113 Skype: ben.exocortex Twitter: @exocortexcom
http://Exocortex.com - Passionate CG Software Professionals.

[Len Krenzler]

A lot of people that were testing on XSIbase were getting drastically better performance from the ATI cards (about 2x-3x) and the point selection problem seemed to be gone.  The latest Nvidia GTX cards (after the 2xx series) seem to be intentionally hobbled.  The conclusion on the XSIbase forum seemed heavily in favor of the ATI.

-- 
_________________________________________________

Len Krenzler - Creative Control Media Productions

Phone: 780.463.3126

www.creativecontrol.ca - l...@creativecontrol.ca

[Leoung O'Young]

Thanks Ben, drivers are not an issue?

[Leoung O'Young]

Hi Len, thanks for your input.

[Mirko Jankovic]

No issues here. I was one of radeon 7970 testers and can confirm all the best about it. 

I replaced gtx 580 where I had with an script (rotating cube 831x800x800 subdivs in full screen shaded) approx 17fps and after like 30 esec of rotation goin gup to 80fps, 

and right after I replaced it with radeon 7970 fps jumped to 170fps, no lag at all. Huge improovement over nvidia, plus support for 4 monitors does come handy as well (running all 4 of them without problems)

I can only highly recommend ati over any nvidia card now.

gtx cards seems crippled completely gfor SI, and quadros are waaay more expensive and still I got better results then some quadro cards when we run some tests here on list couple months ago. 

good luck :)

[Leoung O'Young]

Hi Mirko,

What brand name Radeon 7970 do you have?

Thanks,
Leoung

[Sven Constable]

Hi Mirko,

 

do you have any redraw problems / display glitches in the animation editor when running multi monitors? (openGL  on a second monitor was a problem I had with earlier ATI cards…)

And may I ask which version of soft do you use?

 

Sven

[Mirko Jankovic]

http://www.guru3d.com/news/gigabyte-radeon-hd-7970-oc-windforce-review/ 

Sorry for link to review but forgot full model number to look for it on gigabyte page. 

That is card.

No glitches at all, I usually have main screen middle monitor  ofc, animation editor on right and bunch of other smaller windows on left monitor, like scene explorer etc. 

Haven't seen a single issue so far. 

SI 2012 SAP, but tested a bit on 2013 as well and same thing. 

Only thing I was disappointed about this model is that they didn't include any mini DV -> DVI adapters and you need to have active adapters to be able to use eyefinity for 3 and more monitors. 

But got mine on ebay so no problem there really. 

[Mirko Jankovic]

Also if you are interested here are some OpenCL results between gtx680 and ati 7970:

Originally Posted by Raycat I ran the Luxmark 2.0 Open CL benchmark. These are the results on my AsUs GTX 680 2 GB (NOT OC'ed): Room: 275 Sala: 605 Luxball HDR: 3925 Luxball: 689 Luxball Sky: 2358

Luxmark 2.0 Open CL benchmark on Radeon HD7970:

Room: 585
Sala: 1016
Luxball HDR: 9076
Luxball: 1143
Luxball Sky: 4221

copy paste from this forum on cgtalk:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=23&t=1048529&page=2&pp=15

[piotrek marczak]

Ati 7870 with lastest beta driver+ 30”hp + 27”dell, no problems so far

 

I replaced gtx285 with this radeon

the ‘cube test’ runs at 150+ fps, wireframe on heavy models seems to run much faster than nvidia

 

My Zbrush head test (8 million tris) runs at 290+fps vs 25 fps on 285.

 

but with scenes with 500+ objects I see no difference between this radeon and 285.

 

if you have any specific glitchbug to test let me know, Ill check if its present.

[piotrek marczak]

and ati7870...
lux gpu only

Room: 767
Sala: 1333
Luxball HDR: 10917
Luxball: 1505
Luxball Sky: 4829

From: Mirko Jankovic
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 10:27 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: Graphic card for a workstation again

[David Gallagher]

I have a FirePro V7900, and I have the selection lag. I can't seem to find a good driver that will work with Maya 2009 AND Softimage.

Using    8.911.3.3

Anyone using both successfully with it?
Thanks,
Dave

[Chris Chia]

I would personally choose Nvidia over ATI... ;)

Chris

www.creativecontrol.ca<http://www.creativecontrol.ca> - l...@creativecontrol.ca<mailto:l...@creativecontrol.ca>

[Mirko Jankovic]

Any reason for that kind of personal preference, when all tests shows that nvidia is staying in the dust behind ati?

btw talking about gaming cards here, not overpriced quadros :) If someone else was buying and not interested in budget then fine but when waging performance / price wise....

as mentioned before in some tests back right on this list hd7970 got better results than quadro 5000 which is couple times more expensive :)

nvidia gtx cards can;t even compete heheeh

[Ben Houston]

Chris Chia and I think a few others in the Singapore Softimage team
are ex-NVIDIA guys. ;-)
-ben

[Chris Chia]

Nah Ben, that's not the reason! ;)
I think Nvidia research has spent a lot of effort in understanding what the production studios really need... Take a look at this interesting article:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/wetadigital_avatar.html

Chris

[Mirko Jankovic]

Maybe it is so but it still doesn't change the fact that after replacing gtx580 with radeon7970 I got HUGE improvement in frame rates in viewport and no problems at all as well :)

It seems that all new gtx cards after 280 are crippled in an effort to push overpriced quadros. 

But ofc we need to make differences between big studios on one side (usually  huge budgets :)) and small to mid studios and freelancers.

[Matt Lind]

We are a games development studio making MMORPG games.  Most of the computers we buy come stocked with ATI Radeons, but no matter how much we try to make them work, they just don’t.  Crashes, glitches, overheating, etc…   We always have to swap them out for Nvidia GeForce cards to get stability.

 

Framerate isn’t everything, stability often matters more.

 

Matt

 

 

 

 

 

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Mirko Jankovic
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 10:30 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: Graphic card for a workstation again

 

Maybe it is so but it still doesn't change the fact that after replacing gtx580 with radeon7970 I got HUGE improvement in frame rates in viewport and no problems at all as well :)

[Meng-Yang Lu]

Can you say which cards you guys are using, Matt?  In the process of building a system to do some GPU stuff alongside some 3D tests at home.  

Thanks,

-Lu

[Leoung O'Young]

This� graphic is certified for XSI and it is only
$199. CAN

NVIDIA Quadro 600 by PNY 1.0GB DDR3 PCI-E16 DVI Display Port Fermi Workstation Video Card [VCQ600-PB]

But� I was thinking of getting the Nvidia GTX 550Ti for a similar price but can someone confirm
the Nvidia ha been crippled since the 200 series. We are using an old GTX 260 and it works fine for what we are doing.

L.




On 8/20/2012 2:36 PM, Meng-Yang Lu wrote:

Can you say which cards you guys are using, Matt? �In the process of building a system to do some GPU stuff alongside some 3D tests at home. �

Thanks,

-Lu

On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 11:22 AM, Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com> wrote:

We are a games development studio making MMORPG games.� Most of the computers we buy come stocked with ATI Radeons, but no matter how much we try to make them work, they just don�t.� Crashes, glitches, overheating, etc��� We always have to swap them out for Nvidia GeForce cards to get stability.

�

Framerate isn�t everything, stability often matters more.

�

Matt

�

�

�

�

�

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Mirko Jankovic
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 10:30 PM

To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: Graphic card for a workstation again

�

Maybe it is so but it still doesn't change the fact that after replacing gtx580 with radeon7970 I got HUGE�improvement�in frame rates in viewport and no problems at all as well :)

It seems that all new gtx cards after 280 are�crippled�in an effort to push overpriced quadros.�

But ofc we need to make�differences�between big studios on one side (usually��huge budgets :)) and small to mid studios and freelancers.

[Matt Lind]

Anybody using Softimage in our building only use Nvidia GeForce.  We have many models and found some better than others.  The 200 series is very stable, the 400 series should be avoided at all costs, the 500 series is a mixed bag (560 good, 580 tempermental).  We just got a few computers with the 670 and breaking them in as we speak.  I’m the only person in the company using a Quadro as I have to determine if bugs experienced in production are due to hardware or software before filing a bug report.

 

On the few occasions we experience problems, it’s usually an OpenGL crash to blue screen or overheating – both are driver issues.  We also discovered mixing and matching consumer and professional components in the same box is a bad idea.  Either buy a consumer level computer with a consumer level graphics card, or buy a professional workstation with a professional graphics card.  When you mix and match you run into driver related issues as the consumer lines like GeForce don’t go through the same level of QA and certification as the Quadro line – GeForces seem to be tested on a much narrower band of hardware configurations.  Although Nvidia releases driver updates more frequently for the GeForce product line, you’ll be waiting much longer for patches to fix things in Softimage than with the Quadro line.  About 6 months in my unscientific observations.

 

As much as people complain here about Quadros being crappy, crash prone, and over priced, I will say I have significantly fewer problems than my colleagues here at the studio.

[Meng-Yang Lu]

So glad I asked.  Hahaha.  I knew your thorough personality yields the best answers.  Thanks much!

-Lu

[Marc-Andre Carbonneau]

We have the 560Ti and it works fine with Softimage.

[Leoung O'Young]

Hi Marc,

Thanks, I think that is what I will go with, off hand would you know what brand it is, Asus, Msi, PNY, EVGA, Galaxy etc?

Leoung

[Marc-Andre Carbonneau]

Hmmm is there a way without opening the box? Can’t seem to see it appear anywhere in the NVidia properties

[Len Krenzler]

So...does that mean some of that tech (something similar to PantaRay for
example) will find it's way into SI soon, therefore the reason to buy
Nvidia? :-)

--
_________________________________________________

Len Krenzler - Creative Control Media Productions

Phone: 780.463.3126

www.creativecontrol.ca - l...@creativecontrol.ca

[Sven Constable]

Yes, stability matters. I don’t care that much about performance also. Even I would like to see ATI as an alternative in professional graphics especially with softimage! I'm not an Nvidia fanboy at all. I bought an ATI-FireGL  card two years ago because it was officially certified for Softimage.  Just to realize it was not.

Even softimage developers admitted (afterwards) this card did not work well with it. These flaws with ATI and proffesional graphics goes  a long way. ATI cards were problematic with softimage for about what, 10 years?  And I personally would go so far to call it a no go for any professional DCC application.

 

my 2 cents…

[Matt Lind]

For working at home I use a Quadro as they’re more stable and glitch free for GPU stuff.  You can get a good Quadro for cheap on Ebay.

 

If you insist on GeForce, I’d go with a 560, 295, or 260.

[Byron Nash]

This is an aside, but if you plan on using Adobe stuff at all NVIDIA is the way to go. CS6 relies heavily on the Cuda technology. I know many of you on here probably don't use After Effects and Premiere but many small shops run these apps on a workstation with 3D stuff.

[Sajjad Amjad]

Just a note that Adobe has been moving away from CUDA on to OpenCL.I recall reading some news items a while ago which announced this shift (http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/amd-and-adobe-creative-suite-6-2012apr23.aspx)

According to the GPU FAQ for CS6, the new Mercury Graphics Engine doesn't use CUDA at all. (http://forums.adobe.com/thread/979969?start=0&tstart=0)
This of course is for Photoshop only. However, some quick research shows that pretty much all that can be done in CUDA can also be done in OpenCL (http://blogs.adobe.com/premiereprotraining/2012/05/opencl-and-premiere-pro-cs6.html).