Trouble for ATI?

[RoosTa]

The real question about the card you want to buy, should be: Can your graphics card run and consistantly have 40-60fps+ with the next gen graphics in a year's time? I'd rather save and get a high performance card(R4000-R5000) that will last me for 2 years, than a budget card (R1500) that will last(dropping below 30fps) for 6 months (1 year max) .

Also, I've found that the 'second' batch of the the 'next' gen is always better. Voodoo2, GeForce 2, Geforce 4, 9800 etc etc

3D Animation needs a lot of horse power! both CPU and GPU need to be good and you also need a lot of ram.

If you are serious in rendered 3D Animations, rather get a hardware render card than an SLI GPU, since the GPU is NOT used for rendering at all. The GPU is only used in the modelling process (realtime graphics), but you don't need a powerful GPU since you hide most of the other meshes anyways, at least I do it's alot less cluttered and adaptive degradation is there to help for those very high poly scenes. The only time I can see a GPU come in handy for "work", is if you are a 3D game modeller and need to view "ingame" graphics with shaders and all. You should also look into getting a Dual CPU setup (or new Dual Cores). The only thing GPU's are really used for is Games.

My TI4200 runs WOW perfectly.

I have everything maxed out in gfx settings, yet my x800Pro sometimes drops below 30fps[1280x1024] (especially in STV). ""Perfectly" is relative." -munwaal

Since the game doesn't support Anti-Aliasing,...

erm, yes it does. I enable it through the ATi control centre, rather than the Video Options. The resolution dropdown lists all the AA/AF modes, though very confusing.

 

[Angellus]

Well BTTB I have to agree with you that ATI will provide stiff competition with their Crossfire solution. Now everyone here working for their own money or those who think before trying to get their parents to spend a fortune. The 6800 Ultra single or SLI and equivalent ATI solutions are TOP END STUFF. You pay a fortune! For most people R6500 is more than a whole months pay! The smart thing to do is to always be slightly behind or to buy midrange cards. Look at what a 6800GT cost when it came out and look at what it costs now. Look at the price again when the 7800GT and GTX come out. BTW that should be pretty soon.

 

[Angellus]

If you are serious in rendered 3D Animations, rather get a hardware render card than an SLI GPU, since the GPU is NOT used for rendering at all. The GPU is only used in the modelling process (realtime graphics), but you don't need a powerful GPU since you hide most of the other meshes anyways, at least I do it's alot less cluttered and adaptive degradation is there to help for those very high poly scenes. The only time I can see a GPU come in handy for "work", is if you are a 3D game modeller and need to view "ingame" graphics with shaders and all. You should also look into getting a Dual CPU setup (or new Dual Cores). The only thing GPU's are really used for is Games.

First off I have been using 3D Animation programs for over 6 years and let me tell you if you don't have a good GPU running you will start complaining real soon. The hardware render card could be an option but I think it would work out cheaper to simply buy a second PC for rendering alone. I know the GPU does nothing for the final render but I have to be able to have smooth viewport movement otherwise I get frustrated. BTW what animation package you using? I use 3D Studio Max 7.5 Just a question, if what you say is true and the GPU is only there for games why would ATI and Nvidia create their FireGL and Quadro series cards?

 

[RoosTa]

3D games are the ones pushing the GPU's forward not 3DSMax.

At work, I use 3D Studio Max 6.0, use a Nvidia 5700LE GPU, P4 2.8, 2Gig Ram and I find it to be suffient for working with 3d models. If there is one thing that I don't like about the 3DSMax, is it's realtime 3D engine (not too sure if they improved it in 7.5). It's been buggy since Max3 and far from optimised. I've seen games push double the amount of poly's, than what max's view can handle and I also find software mode the most stable, though I do use DirectX9 for speed.

FireGl and Quadro cards are overrated. I used to use a FireGL card (with its own "3DSMax optimised drivers" and its no better than any other games GPU. Besides, there are 'patches' (they probably hardware locked them by now) that can turn any standard GeForce card a Quadro Card.

 

[Angellus]

You still get SOftquadro and it does work but the improvement is not great. The realtime rendering in the viewport is very good with max 7/7.5 You get Normal mapping in the viewport and basically anything else you would with dx9. Works great. With normal mapping I took a 12000 poly model down to about 720. It looked almost identical. Max 7.5 also has fur included for free. BTW if I may ask where do you work? What type of work do you do?

 

[munwaal]

I have everything maxed out in gfx settings, yet my x800Pro sometimes drops below 30fps[1280x1024] (especially in STV). ""Perfectly" is relative." -munwaal

erm, yes it does. I enable it through the ATi control centre, rather than the Video Options. The resolution dropdown lists all the AA/AF modes, though very confusing.

My appologies, I haven't played in a few months, and back then AA didn't work at all, even though you enable it in the control center. When last I played, I was able to play at 1600x1200, 8x AF and maintain frames comfortably above 30, for the most part.

 

[RoosTa]

HAHA, we've hi-jacked this thread completely!

I work for UCS Software Manufacturing and our department does all the multimedia and graphics for all our products in UCS Group. (Brochures, manuals, website, ui design (plus skins) and multimedia) I concentrate mostly on the UI and multimedia, such as interactive learning and 3D animations for expos and road shows. (Our CEO loves 3D Animations)

I've been 'playing' with 3D graphics, since Povray on a 386DX. I've never gone for a course (I still want to), but I've tought myself Max (1.2) using books, tutorials and the web(best). I've also played around alot with the unreal engine 1 and 2.

 

[RoosTa]

My appologies, I haven't played in a few months, and back then AA didn't work at all, even though you enable it in the control center. When last I played, I was able to play at 1600x1200, 8x AF and maintain frames comfortably above 30, for the most part.

Heh, I also prefer higher resolution and High AF, than to adding AA. I find AA makes the picture look fuzzy and it hurts my eyes.

 

[munwaal]

Heh, I also prefer higher resolution and High AF, than to adding AA. I find AA makes the picture look fuzzy and it hurts my eyes.

It's not that I prefer it that way, it's just that the game didn't support any kind of AA back when I played it. Personally, I like 1280x1024 with 2x AA just to take the edge off.