Rendering vs Gaming cards

Hello everyone,

I am planning on building a new computer by the end of this week. Right now im looking at 8800 GT(S,X) cards. I am an Architect trainee, and I need a high performance card for 3D Architectural renderings.

Are high performance gaming cards good for rendering (3D max, Maya, Viz, Mentalray) ?
I heard there is a difference between render and gaming cards. Can anyone validate this claim ?

thanks, skyarch

If you mean software rendering(which is what I think you are talking about, since you included mentalray in there). Then the card has absolutely nothing to do with that, it's all done on the cpu.

However, like Angry_Ducky said, for real-time rendering within 3d editors(viewport rendering)workstation cards are superior, but much more expensive.

Most boards should work fine, if you are rendering you want as much cpu power as you can get. Quad core or even skull trail(8 cores by way of 2 sockets).

What makes a work station card slower also is the fact that there is(or should not be) no driver optimization. After all you do not want a flickering texture in what you render. Its a slight inconvenience in a game, but its unacceptable in a rendering job.

As said, in most cases the software renderer is best anyway since it will look the same no matter what card you use(thats how you can set up a rendering farm).

Didnt i read somewhere you can softmod drivers to make a Quadro?