I am looking to get my first pro workstation card, and I see ATI has pretty good hardware for the money. I was real interested in CUDA, but I think OpenCL will work great (assuming that is built in to the FirePro series.). Anyway, I have been feeling the lacking ability of the 8800GT in Maya and Blender. I use Blender mostly.

The question, then, is of the four cards (3750, 5700, 7750, and 8700), which would be a more efficient use of my money based on my needs?

Needs: I use Blender, Zbrush, Adobe CS4 (Production Premium), and some Maya to create high-poly scenes. Usually, after importing a rather complez Zbrush model, all of the apps slow to a crawl. I z-sphere build and sculpt, import to Photoshop CS4 to paint, and then drop in to Blender/Maya for composition and rendering. My workflow needs work. I know.

Regardless, I have a varible budget. I am getting a workstation card as a university graduation gift, and the parents are genorous. If I could get away with the $400 5700 that would be great, but the price/performance difference between the 7750 and 8700 is small (great performance is only $300 away.)

I am a somewhat experienced (by no means "expert") hobbyist. The 3750 is a wash, but I would like an experienced artist/techtician's opinion.

Thanks.