Is a workstation graphics card that much better? It may be..

Issues and questions related to TopSolid installation.

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Larry M.
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Is a workstation graphics card that much better? It may be..

Unread post by Larry M. »

I've always read a lot about computer tech and have always used standard retail graphics cards in my systems. I've always wondered though if Workstation graphics cards were really a lot better? I mean I've read on the hardware, and a Workstation card and a Standard card are very close to the same ussually. But I've never found a good article on it until today.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/qua ... ,2258.html

This was the page I liked reading.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/qua ... 58-10.html

It does appear it can make a huge difference. Anyone out there using a workstation card? Anyone out there who has switched and gone "WOW! I wish I would have done this years ago." Tell us which one and whats your experience.

I've personally have just been using a standard 8800gt with 512mb of RAM. I've been happy with it but I think I'm saving up and going workstation style next time.
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Unread post by jeff »

Larry with TopSolid i don't think that you need to buy a workstation card, standard G-Force Nvidia cards are fine. if you run other graphics intensive programs you might want this, but for TopSolid you wont realize enough performance gain to justify the cost.
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Unread post by Top'Noob »

I have used a system with Quadro FX1400 for several years. It was a good card. I have found Mastercam much more fussy about video cards than TopSolid. I haven't read the article yet but my new system is performing very well even on some extremely large files and it uses an Nvidia GTX295 (not a workstation card).

I can't get past the pricing on the workstation cards. Maybe there is a reason for it but when I can buy a top of the line gaming card with 1.7GB of memory for less than 25% of the cost of a high end workstation video card (with far less memory) the choice becomes easy.

For such a small price I would be willing to put up with some visual problems but there really hasn't been a single problem with the GTX295 with TopSolid or Mastercam.
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Larry M.
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Unread post by Larry M. »

I agree with the idea behind using a standard (gaming) video card, I've done that for years. But the article shows a large improvement (10x) with the workstation class cards in CAD products. The one that caught my eye was UG, because it uses the parasolid kernel also. I'd personally rather stick with a highend standard gpu because of the cash also. But in the LARGER models does it make a significant difference? It would be nice to know at least, If it doesn't, GREAT! I hope thats the case.
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olaio
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Unread post by olaio »

Hi Larry,

You need to have this in consideration:
When you create/change some operations (booleans and others), you have two kinds of processing times, the time need to calculate the operations, and the time to redraw the final result.
The second time is directly defined by the graphic card, but the first (math computation) not.
When the tests for the quadro are done, and they say that the times are 10x faster, i think that they are considering only the "graphic" time.
According to this, you need to know what kind of work you do with TopSolid. If you work in Mold industry for electronic parts (with a lot of ribs and fillets and details), maybe yes, the quadro may be an option. But if you work for other kind of industry , with less graphics needs, i think that it is better to save money in the graphic card and buy a good processor.

Maybe i am wrong, and some one can discuss this in here :wink:

cumprimentos,

Olaio
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Larry M.
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Unread post by Larry M. »

I think your exactly right Olaio.
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