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jacobhb
05-22-2005, 07:27 AM
I have a dual 2.4 GHZ xeon. The computer is a bit old now (almost 3 years old) and I don't think the MB has AGP 8x capabilities.

I currently have a quadro 900 XGL and was thinking of upgrading to 6800 ultra/gt. I was wondering what kind of performance gains I would see.

Does it matter that the MB doesn't support AGP 8x? (is there a way to check if my MB does support it?)

I run Maya every day for at least 5 hours. Its been annoying getting lower frame rates on animations, I am looking to improve that.

I don't game, but I was looking at the 6800 because it seems like it’s the most bang for the buck. I really don't see how the Quadro are worth the price? Maybe I am wrong, someone enlighten me.
AdamantiumKnot
05-23-2005, 05:48 AM
I think you can check what it supports in BIOS. However, I upgraded to a 6800 GT from a Ti4600 and there wasn't too large of a leap in performance because the motherboard is acting as a bottleneck.
jbo
05-23-2005, 06:24 AM
low frame rates when playing animation could also be due to the CPU.
jcbray
05-23-2005, 11:27 AM
You should be able to find out in BIOS, but you can also find out by googling your motherboard name. If you don't know it, google everest Home edition. free software that will tell you the name of the mobo, and all other hardware in your comp :)
jacobhb
05-23-2005, 10:58 PM
Thanks jcbray. I found out what I needed:

Product Description
A highly scalable technical workstation, the Dell Precision 450 features a dual-processor capable Intel Xeon(tm) architecture, 64bit PCIx I/O, AGP8X Pro110 and dual-channel DDR266 memory.

Looks like my MB is AGP 8x which is wonderful news :).

Now the question is... with a dual 2.4 xeon, how much of it is processor and how much of it is the GPU?

Also, what would particles be under? I would think that would be alot to do with the CPU but correct me if I am wrong.
jcbray
05-24-2005, 11:54 AM
Rendering is cpu - the video card will give you increased framerates in the viewports, but if you want to increase render speeds, either a faster cpu, or more RAM if you're current amount is getting maxed out.
jacobhb
05-24-2005, 09:41 PM
I really don't care about rendering honestly... since we have a render farm with over 400 threads... but I guess I am basically asking the function of a graphics card. I know that, in games at least, it will get you better frame rates regardless of the Processor speeds, but I was wondering if in Maya, how much of it is CPU based and how much of it is GPU based?

My understanding as of now is that the more polys in the scene, having a better graphics card will give the computer a real boost... that is untill it bogs down the CPU. Is this correct?

Now does it boost just polys? Particles and everything?

And then the next dilemma :), Geforce vs quadro. I don't game at all, but saving allot of money and getting the same performance (or close) would be nice.



Jacob
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05-24-2005, 09:41 PM
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