Graphics card advice for Maya and other 3D modelling and rendering. (Please help)

Mishkawy · Oct 25, 2014

Hi guys,

For many days I have been trying to find the best graphics card for my budget, I have read at least a hundred forums and a hundred articles and every one has his own favourite, right now I am so so very confused.
I decided to build a new computer with the following specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K.
Boot Drive: Samsung (or another manufacturer) 240 or 250 GB SSD.
Storage Drive: Seagate Barracuda (Or another manufacturer) 2TB 7200RPM HDD.
Optical Drive: DVD or Blu-ray Writer any manufacturer (does not really matter).
PSU: 640 or 650W.
Case: Not decided yet.
Cpu cooler: Not sure if I would want that, but if so, then Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo most probably.
MotherBoard: GA-Z9TX-UD3H 1150
RAM: 8GB Transcend.
GPU: ?? (Budget 350USD for the card).

I checked for the professional cards, and they are all very expensive, except for the Quadro K600 which everyone says that it is no good and old.

So I believe that now I should be looking for good consumer range GPUs.

Summary:
I know that this question must have been asked before many times, but please forgive me as I am very confused at the moment.
1- The budget I am putting for the GPU is around 350USD.
2- I am going to use Maya, 3Dsmax, After Effects, and Mudbox (for now).
3- I am doing modelling, animating, and rendering.

Your help is very highly appreciated.

Kareem

bob hays · Oct 25, 2014

Nvidia gpu's tend to have more support so i'd recommend the gtx 970. Performs great, and you can even get a 500w psu to save money.

rolli59 · Oct 25, 2014

This is old but may help http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/AutoDesk-Maya-2013-GPU-Acceleration-166/

Mishkawy · Oct 25, 2014

bob hays :

Hi Bob Hays,

Unfortunately, the GTX 9XX series' price is a bit too much for me.

Mishkawy · Oct 25, 2014

rolli59 :

Hi Rolli59,

Thanks for the link, I checked it, and skipping the cards that I can't afford, it seems like the GTX-600Ti would be the best choice based on that list.
I am actually surprised that it does not cost more.

I am still confused

can you tell me if this would be a good choice, and if there is a newer card with the same price range available now?

rolli59 · Oct 25, 2014

Looking at the graphs the AMD HD cards score high and looking at that they all got renamed to R9 270X (7870) R9 280 (7950) and R9 280X (7970) those would be the cards I would look at. On the Nvidia side GTX760 would be the closest to GTX660Ti.

bob hays · Oct 26, 2014

The 970 is close to 350 price range, you can find some for 330ish.

Mishkawy · Oct 26, 2014

bob hays :

Hi Bob,

Actually the 970 is around 525 USD where I live

(Egypt).

bob hays · Oct 26, 2014

Mishkawy :

Sorry, didn't know that. How about a gtx 760?

Mishkawy · Oct 26, 2014

rolli59 :

Hi Rolli, thanks again for replying,

After your reply, I went to check more forums comparing the R9 and the GTX760 and GTX 770, and (I am sorry for hardware illiteracy) got confused again :$

I stumbled upon the following words which are kind of foreign to me, but from my understanding they are very important when it comes to the final render (?) and while working on the viewports in a complex scene:
OpenGL, OpenCL, DirectX, Cuda, and Kepler.
One thread had a member saying the following:
" the GTX 770 performs stronger in the AutoCAD directx benchmark, but the R9 280x performs better in the Maya OpenGL benchmark. I think I'll go out on a limb here and say that they have similar performances but DirectX apps can utilize the GTX's CUDA cores better while the R9 has better OpenGL and OpenCL support."

1- Now should I be using CUDA OR OpenGL or OpenCL!
2- If I am going to use CUDA then I must get an Nvidia like the GTX760 or 770. But I saw somewhere that Nvidia played with these cards, making them perform worse in some way? Kepler?
3- If I am going to use OpenGL or OpenCL based on the thread below, I should get the R9280 for example:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1890745/gtx-770-4gb-280x-3dmax-design-render-casual-gaming.html
4- I cam by this great thread:
http://forums.cgarchitect.com/75283-cad-build-need-final-opinions.html
Which made me prefer the GTX 770 for example for its CUDA abilities, but still, is it one of the tweaked models? also, you mentioned that you would go for an R9, could you please explain why not the GTX 770?

Again, I apologize, but I just want to make sure that I don't just pay money with no real benefits.

Thanks again!

Mishkawy · Oct 26, 2014

bob hays :

Hi Bob,

Yes I can actually get the GTX 760 or even the GTX 770 OC 4GB GDDR5, but as you can see from my previous post, do you think that this would be the best choice based on the concerns I have?

bob hays · Oct 26, 2014

In the end it comes down to the programs you are using and what they are better optimized for.

Mishkawy · Oct 26, 2014

bob hays :

I will be using Maya, After Effects, and Mudbox for now, and maybe in the near future (after 9 months maximum) I may start checking out other programs like 3dsMax.
The thing is that I am not planning to upgrade my hardware again soon.

jitpublisher · Jun 8, 2015

The thing is, you are wanting to build a system that will run 3D modeling programs, and have decided in order to save money you want to install a midrange gaming GPU because the ones required to run these modeling programs are expensive.

A $300 gaming video card is not going to do a great job in these programs. It will work, but not impressively. If you want better performance, you are going to need to up your budget on the video card.

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Graphics card advice for Maya and other 3D modelling and rendering. (Please help)

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