Graphic Cards Manufactors

[gamedeveloper]

I tend to look for manufacturers that do more than simply ship a reference design. I also like a good warranty that says they stand behind their product. Lately that seems be eVGA and the lifetime warranty. They also have a "step up" program that lets you upgrade your graphics card to a newer eVGA card - but that's of limited usefulness as it is only in effect for 90 days after purchase... ;-(

I don't do enough tweaking anymore to really delve deep into the build of all the various cards, so I just look for the GPU comparisons and then look at the graphics cards shootouts to figure out the best price/performance mix for my needs.

I was originally hoping to find an ATI solution, since my mobo had onboard ATI and I could to do a cheap 'surroundview' with 3 displays. However, most reviews (as of 1/13/2008) seem to be pointing to the 8800GT 512MB as the card for my needs. Here's a review:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/29/geforce_8800_gt/page13.html

And of 8800GT 512MB card manufacturers, the eVGA seems to be a great choice due to peformance and lifetime warranty. While that doesn't neccesarily imply build quality, tweakability or reliability, it does make one feel safer:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318

Finally, you may want to think about noise level. I've been struggling with this problem for the past few months. Every time I turn my monitors to portrait orientation my video card fans hit overdrive; going from "fairly inaudible" to "definitely noticeable." So for my next GPU purchase I'm focusing on a passive cooled card -- which will most likely mean I'll need to forget all the overclocking...

[Pretorian]

Seems to be a very good card and a very good option if you think in price vs benefit. I think it´s a very intesresting option. By the way, what is the SLI in nVidia´s cards and what is it good for?

I took a look on eVGA website and seems to be an interesting company. But I was wondering, what would be your opinion about PNY and Gainward? Looking in Newegg´s "store" I found lot´s of options from BFG and XFX. Most of XFX are expensiver comparing to eVGA. What´s your opinion about them?

I was thinking in something more directed for 3D and video compositing (Maya, Combustion, etc..) but would not like to spend in a Quadro card. Thinking in this scenario, what things should I look for? Would you say DirectX 10 for me would be important then having 512 Mb and 256 bit in a card?

If you take a look in Quadro´s you will see that the cheaper 256 bit cards is expensiver then a top GeForce, something like 384 bit. I heard that the memory speed is something that is very influent in the card speed. Would you agree?

[gamedeveloper]

I only used a workstation card years ago when I was working at a company that had them... I've never needed to purchase one for my own use.

However, if you do high-end 3D work and need guaranteed performance and customer support, you should probably get a "professionally supported" workstation card or turnkey workstation (DELL, HP, BOXX, etc). Nothing is worse than getting caught behind a tight deadline with a dysfunctional system or user interface and no clue what's wrong...

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As far as gaming graphics cards go -- like i wrote previously, I don't do enough tweaking to care about the minute differences between the build quality of the various cards. I tend to look for a few glowing reviews from sites I trust and then I hit Newegg for a group consensus.

If you want detailed comparisons, you should also try hitting sharkyextreme.com, tomshardware.com, hardwarecentral.com, hardocp.com, etc. They post a ton of reviews and comparisons IN DETAIL.

[davijin]

SLI is basically two cards combining their power to the screen. it spilts the screen in half and one graphics card powers one half the other powers the other half. Thing is that this technology only is really emplimented in gaming and will have no effect in anything else.

Quadro cards arent really that different from Geforce cards they just have software in them that allows them to operate a faster in some cases and they usually have greater compatability in 3d apps and less glitches but for most geforce cards function fine. ive had a quadro card in older dell workstation then once I started building my own I went to a geforce card without really any issues running software like maya, max, revit, zbrush etc.

as far as brand I go with who has a better warranty speed wise they are all going to run about the same speed because they all are basing the cards off of the nvidia reference card. I tend to lean towards XFX, BFG and EVGA. They all have lifetime warranties and will sometimes factory overclock their cards. I have owned a XFX cards and Have a EVGA card ordered right now. I know alot of people that have BFG cards and love them.

[lots]

SLI is basically two cards combining their power to the screen. it spilts the screen in half and one graphics card powers one half the other powers the other half. Thing is that this technology only is really emplimented in gaming and will have no effect in anything else.
Just to expand :)

SLI has a couple different modes when it comes to utilizing the various cards in the configuration. One mode is AFR or Alternate Frame Rendering. Basically it means card 1 renders the first frame card 2 renders the next frame, and then alternating from there. The other mode is SFR or Split Frame Rendering, which is the method davijin describes. Its also not as efficient as AFR.

In most cases a pair of lower class SLI'd cards tend to have equal or close to equal performance of a single higher end card, thus in most cases a single card is a much better choice as it can be better utilized by more software, and will require less power and cooling to boot.

In fact, the only real reason I can see using SLI is if you buy the very top end Nvidia graphics cards RIGHT when the come out. Sure it costs a boatload, but you get the absolute best performance possible (sure really only in games), and it will be the top for at least a little while :P

Personally I buy high-mid range gamer cards (such as the 7800GT int its day), as I dont see any direct benefit to getting anything more expensive..

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