Cheaper card to replace an 8800gtx? 7300gt?

[CKPinson]

If it isn't urgent then you might as well wait for the next line of cards to come out- I believe I recall reading at either AMD or ATi that their new lines will not only incorporate DirectX10 (not such a big deal) but also be suitable for both workstation functions and gaming. Unfortunately they're in a financial crisis right now so who knows.

I have an ATI 800 Pro in one rig and SLI 7600GS in another no differences between them and no difference between 7600GS and 7600GS SLI. All variations work fine, the only complaint is that you only get so much view depth so when your polys reach a certain size you can only view so much- also when you zoom in on your model it starts to lag- but it works- I heard the 6800s are good but you might want to consider getting a workstation card if you can't wait.

[Caypiranha]

having 4 no 8(!) Displays could be one thing - or they give you the oppurtunity to go for a Quad SLI Sys - means they all work together at the same time. Could be up to u how to use this.

When you are doing 3D animation- get something like 6600/6800 (out of stock) but 7600GS or GT (GT have higher frequencies. could be better while doing Animation in 3D)

if youre a 2d animatior - it is ending up in mostly no differences. All cards are working well in 2D mode these Days.

[lots]

I'd avoid ATI/AMD's video cards, especially in linux. Nothing but trouble if you ask me, and it seems you want to avoid trouble :) Nvidia's linux drivers are MUCH better than anything from ATI...

Instead, I'd aim for a Geforce 7 series. These are proven, and function well in linux and windows. The problem you are running into here, is the Geforce 8's somewhat immature drivers. Take into account that they barely work properly in Windows, linux support is bound to be much slower in development. Don't get me wrong though, eventually they will be good, but it may be some time.

If 3D is your thing I wouldn't just up and dump the power that the Geforce 8 offers. Instead I'd maybe aim for a 7600GT at least. Probably a 7900 if the budget permits. Getting a Geforce 7300 will be significantly less performance. As far as the 8800's performance thus far, this can probably be attributed to poor driver suppot in linux.

[lots]

I have an ATI 800 Pro in one rig and SLI 7600GS in another no differences between them and no difference between 7600GS and 7600GS SLI. All variations work fine, the only complaint is that you only get so much view depth so when your polys reach a certain size you can only view so much- also when you zoom in on your model it starts to lag- but it works- I heard the 6800s are good but you might want to consider getting a workstation card if you can't wait.

I'd avoid any SLI or Crossfire type setup. SLI in no way helps boost performance in CG apps. Though it does cause those synthetic benchmark scores to go up quite a bit :) And in any case, getting SLI with anything BUT the top most card is a bit stupid. Generally speaking a 7900 is just as fast as two 7600s in SLI, and without all the issues related to SLI (which can cause slow downs). It also ends up costing just about the same, maybe less...

Also just to add, alot of people think a slow UI means the graphics card is the bottle neck. While it may be true for some cases, its not true for all. For most CG apps this is not the only factor that plays into UI performance. Deformations, morphs, bones, physics, etc. All of these are heavy CPU based computations. The graphics card is not doing much work here, aside from rendering polys. Check it out your self. Create a high resolution mesh with NO deformations, morphs, physics, bones or any other modifier, just a straight up mesh. Tumble it around your view port. Should be pretty smooth on any decent video card. Now add alot of morphs, bones, etc and you'll see the performance drop, this is because your CPU is doing all the work computing these deforms.

In LW if you try to edit several million polys, you get a big slow down, similarly if you do not freeze your mesh in XSI every now and then, you get a big slow down.

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