Non-scientific Survey: What kind of video cards are we using?

#1

Hello, I haven’t made the leap to Maya 2015 yet in part because it’s default screen renderer is viewport 2.0, which given that my video card isn’t on Autodesk’s supported video card list, makes me hesitate.

I looked up the cheapest video card on the supported video card list and it was 900+ dollars! Which was more than I spent on my computer a few years back.

I’m using a Geforce GTX 260 which does 95% of what I want out of a video card and I just don’t know if I can bring myself to drop the necessary coin to get a card that’s on the list.

This made me curious, what kind of video cards are the denizens of CGSociety using and do you find your video card to be adequate for your various graphic applications?

#2

Viewport 2.0 isn’t required. You can switch to Legacy Default and Legacy High Quality if you have any issues.

As far as I can remember, they have always recommended high-end cards like the Quadro, but anything modern should work just fine.

I use an AMD R9 290X 4GB 512-bit and haven’t had any issues.

#3

Currently thinking about Nvidia GTX 780 or Nvidia GTX 580 (1 or 2 in SLI, or maybe 2 without SLI) for the “render box”.

The Lenovo Y-500 I work on uses 2 x Nvidia GT 650M’s on SLI. That one seems OK, but probably wouldn’t do so well for final renders.

Basically I think most 3D apps and GPU renderers would prefer, in Nvidia parlance, the cards that are in the X70 - X90 range (ie: series 4, 5, 6, or 7… with 70, 80, or 90 “suffixes”) because those normally have the most resources like memory and CUDA cores which some of these apps need.

While the tech goes up and up in series 4, 5, 6, and 7… I’m not sure some of these new technologies (such as Adaptive V-Sync in the 6 series) really mean anything for GPU renderers and GUI work in 3D Apps. Though I could be wrong about that.

Added info: Using Blender 2.68a

#4

I have a ASUS HD7850-DC2-2GD5-V2 Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 card, with CrossFireX support - together with DIGI+VRM for stable overclocking.

Max Res - 2560 x 1600
3D API - DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.2
Power Consump - up to 150w

I selfbuilt an entry level pro/commercial gaming rig future proofed, WIN 64bit architecture - tacked together back in 2012 for AUS$1390. Does the job great thus far, haven’t needed to upgrade CPU/GPU or PSU.

The primary 3D apps I use are: Blender 2.70a, PS CS6, CrazyBump, UU3DPro, Unity 4.3

If you are looking to upgrade your NIVDIA card, checkout the GeForce GTX 780 at $519 for the price worth a look…

or

…the AMD FirePro V5900 at $719, both will support the next gen Autodesk app at optimum performance - also a thing to keep in mind over the last 18mths to 2.5yrs has seen a gradual crossover of commercial hi-end product released by the major vendors for the mainstream consumer market as price point+demand align, so basically most people are getting “more bang for less bucks” dropped these days.

#5

Just because a card isn’t on the supported list doesn’t mean it won’t work with Viewport 2.0, it’s just that they haven’t tested it so don’t guarantee that it will work.

I have an older machine here that I use for the web mainly but I usually install Maya on it too for emergency situations. Maya 2015 with viewport 2.0 worked ok on it with a pretty old 9800GTX. I switched it to a 580 GTX recently and again that worked fine. The 580 was a hand-me-down from my work machine which has a Quadro K4000 in it now. I don’t notice a massive improvement over the 580 in that but it does seem that some of the nicer features of VP2.0 like live AO and high AA seem to have less effect on scene response with the Quadro than they did with the 580. Definitely though you can manage with older cards in my experience, you just might find that things get pretty slow the more bells and whistles you switch on.

Cheers,
Brian

#6

Aww, and that’s the rut, I know it’s not rational but I just can’t bring myself to drop anything significantly above 100 dollars for something that isn’t on “the list”.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I have never known anyone who actually owns a current generation quadro. Does anyone on this forum have one of those? Do you feel you have your money’s worth? What makes them so special?

Edit: Just saw the above post about the KP4000, not gonna lie, being able to have speedy LIVE ambient occlusion could justify a 4 figure price tag for me.

#7

The official list of supported cards is nothing more than a list of gfx cards that nvidia have sent to autodesk to check that the product works. Nvidia only send them the expensive cards.

When you buy a car, they give you a list of approved and tested oils and filters to use
When you buy a gadget they say they recommend Duracell or Energizer batteries
When you buy a washing machine, they recommend Ariel washing powder

Ignore the list, it’s meaningless.

#8

I’m using a Nvidia GTX560 Ti 448. It’s much better value than a 570 for almost identical performance, is quiet, and can be overclocked easily. It’s the best I could afford at the time and I would like a better card for slightly smoother viewport performance, but it does pretty well. Those extra cores help with CUDA-based rendering too.

The weird thing is, the viewport performance is strongly affected by CPU frequency, despite pairing it with a 3930K which is quite fast enough for most tasks. I would’ve thought the GPU would only be struggling when paired with a much lower-spec processor. The biggest improvements i’ve had in viewport performance have come from switching to newer software. I’m sure i’m not the only one who has experienced the varying performance of different versions of 3DS max over the years.

#9

Oh yeah, there was a huge jump in performance from Maya 2012 for 2014. At least for me, for example, the sculpt geometry brush performed way better and more consistently.

#10

I’m having little to no issues (that I’m aware of, arch/viz work and some light dynamics here) in Viewport 2 with Maya 2015, using some older cards. Results may vary, 5-10 million polys in my scenes generally.

  • GTX 460
  • GTX 550Ti
  • GTX 660

The 660 is definitely the best of the bunch, and they’re $150 or so (maybe less, now). It would be a worthwhile upgrade over the 260; I used a GTS 250 for years myself, it was a decent era although the cards are different.

#11

I looked it up and it tends to be a little more than 150 but thank you for the head’s up. Didn’t know that an upgrade was that affordable.