Geforce Video Cards

[westiemad]

i think the 7800 is faster than 2 6800 run in sli mode. It depends on what you'll be doing more of i guess, i've never owned a quadro, but you can soft mode a geforce (but not sure how stable they are). My 4800 still chuggs along ok (maybe thats a statement of how crap my artwork is :S ),

[sdub611]

Thanks. I am worried about not being able to do everything correctly in the 7800...


This is from Alias/Nvidia...

From Alias:
"Nvidia GeForce256, GeForce2, GeForce3, GeForce4 series
There are many cards based on GeForce256, GeForce2, GeForce3 and GeForce4 chipsets. Nvidia and Alias do not recommend these cards for use with Maya as you may experience various refresh, display and stability problems and inadequate performance.
We suggest you choose from Nvidia's workstation cards instead, such as the Quadro families which are much better suited to high-end 3D packages such as Maya."

"Using video cards without Hardware Overlay planes (or Hardware Overlay planes turned off) can result in poor performance for certain operations within Maya including (but not restricted to) use of tools based on Artisan or Paint Textures technology. There will also be visual differences compared with Hardware overlays that may result in difficulty seeing or manipulating aspects of the scene or Maya interface."

Follow - up regarding overlay planes:

"Since most consumer applications and games don’t create many pop-up windows, the GeForce family of GPUs supports only one clip region, whereas the NVIDIA Quadro family support up to eight clip regions. This would offer superior performance in applications that open many windows. The NVIDIA Quadro family of GPUs supports clip-plane acceleration in hardware - a significant performance improvement when it is used in professional applications.

Another feature offered by the NVIDIA Quadro family of GPUs is memory management optimization, which efficiently allocates and shares memory resources between concurrent graphics windows and applications. In many situations, this feature directly affects application performance, and so offers demonstrable benefits over the consumer-oriented GeForce GPU family. NVIDIA Quadro memory management optimizations ensure that all available graphics memory is used efficiently, preventing potential performance degradations or loss of functionality because of exhausting graphics memory. This is important for professional applications in both the CAD and DCC markets that use several graphics windows simultaneously, as well as define and use many textures.

Overlay planes let items be drawn on top of the main graphics window without damaging the contents of the windows beneath. Windows drawn in the overlay plane can contain text, graphics, and so on-the same as any normal window. Support for overlay planes is exclusive to the NVIDIA Quadro family of workstation GPUs and allows them to meet the needs of professional applications. Overlays are not supported on the GeForce family of GPUs.

Many workstation applications, particularly in the CAD market, offer the option of using antialiased points and lines (sometimes called "wireframe"). With this option turned on, component edges can be viewed as precisely as possible without encountering the aliasing artifacts that are associated with lines displayed on a rasterized display. Quadro offers antialiased lines in hardware while GeForce does not.

Quadro offers support for OpenGL Logic Operations in hardware. An example of this is a Digital Content Creation application where the XOR logic operation is used to draw sophisticated cursors, such as those in the paint operation of Alias’ Maya application. The XOR logic operation draws the cursor on top of the 3D scene for applications that do not support overplay planes. If the XOR logic operation is enabled, the performance drop of the NVIDIA Quadro is minimal when compared to that of GeForce.

NVIDIA Quadro GPUs provide several additional features and benefits for professional application optimization and certification by Alias, Adobe, Autodesk, Avid, Bentley, Dassault, Discreet, Multigen-Paradigm, Newtek, Nothing Real, Parametric Technology Corp. (PTC), SDRC, Softimage, SolidEdge, SolidWorks, and Unigraphics and others."

Can anyone verify any of this?

[cng]

I have a BFG Geforce 6600 GT AGP right now. I dont know what kind of instability problems they are referring to but I see no problem. Also, many people use normal Geforce cards anyway as performance is still very good. Maybe you can go check Anandtech for some reviews or comparison between the two families.

[Komarcic]

I have a BFG Geforce 6600 GT AGP right now. I dont know what kind of instability problems they are referring to but I see no problem.

oh man there you go again. READ

"Nvidia GeForce256, GeForce2, GeForce3, GeForce4 series
There are many cards based on GeForce256, GeForce2, GeForce3 and GeForce4 chipsets. Nvidia and Alias do not recommend these cards for use with Maya as you may experience various refresh, display and stability problems and inadequate performance.


what does geforce 6600gt have to do with 256, 2, 3, and geforce 4 chipsets?! :rolleyes:

[sdub611]

I appreciate the posts but I'd love a definitive answer from someone who games with a quadro and someone wfo does dcc with a geforce 6800 or 7800 series

[sparaig]

Anyone know if there's any way to get Maya 6.0.1 on MacOS X to recognize the higher-end functionality of the 6800 or do I need to upgrade to 6.5 to get Maya to realize that the card DOES support various options? Or does THAT even work right?

[cng]

oh man there you go again. READ



what does geforce 6600gt have to do with 256, 2, 3, and geforce 4 chipsets?! :rolleyes:

I did read but my point of posting was not to contradict that message about problems with the older GeForce series but to say that the newer GeForce cards perform fine and there is nothing to worry about. I have my card originally for gaming and multimedia purposes but right now I dont game and the only multimedia I do is watch DVDs. From my experience with the card and gaming, the performance is decent for high quality games but is still short from amazing.

[]-UnderTOW-[]

I've never had any serious problems with my old GF3 and my now GF6800GT in Maya. I have however had major problems with my old Radeon 9600XT at home and my 9600Pro at work. I now avoid ATi at all costs, esppecially ATi and Maya.

A quadro only really shows it's muscle on extremely poly intensive scenes, and lots of high res textures. I think it's not really work the extra cost, unless you can afford it. Quadro's dont run games as well as a Geforce, but some people at work have them and can run BF2 very well (although one person didn't have his set up propperly and he couldn't run it at all or compile any PS3 shaders. He's fixed it now, though and it runs great.)

Oh yeah, it's reported that the time indicator line in the Graph editor is acctually a nice and visible red on a quadro and grey on a geforce, for some reason i can't remember.

[sdub611]

Thanks again, for the updates so with the support planes mentioned here

Overlay planes let items be drawn on top of the main graphics window without damaging the contents of the windows beneath. Windows drawn in the overlay plane can contain text, graphics, and so on-the same as any normal window. Support for overlay planes is exclusive to the NVIDIA Quadro family of workstation GPUs and allows them to meet the needs of professional applications. Overlays are not supported on the GeForce family of GPUs.

Is this a big issue? Quadro vs. Geforce

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