Best Video Card for GIS

[SteveMont]

I am the GIS Technician for a small town. I'm building a new system, and was wondering if the nVidia 9500 GT (1Gb) would be a suitable card. If not, what would you suggest for GIS/CAD use?
Thanks!

 

[Godhatesusall]

1gb is just ovekill for the 9500.Stick with the 512mb counterpart or if you are willing to spend $30 more,the 4770 would be perfect:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102835

 

[Raviolissimo]

http://www.sonoma-county.org/PRMD/activemap/index.htm

that's an example of the output of the Sonoma County GIS crew.

in their case they were stitching together aerial photographs & coordinating it with county parcel numbers to come up with a big integrated visual database that was also linked into topological maps.

i think the 9500 would be adequate for that unless you are doing stuff like loading DEM's from the USGS. those can result in HUGE polygon meshes that you need graphics horsepower to do any work with.

i work with similar size meshes & do all right with an ATI 3870. in my case i needed compatibility with Max & Maya, and that was for a system i bought in October 2008.

my rule of thumb is, a graphics card should be out for a year before you consider it for a professional use, because it takes time to sort out driver bugs & your time is worth $$$.

at this point, the ATI 4850 & 4870 have been out for about a year, plenty of time to make the drivers stable.

On the Nvidia side,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130440

9800 GT with 1 GB RAM, $150.

for GIS/CAD use I would suggest a card with any one of those GPU's (4850, 4870, 9800) from EVGA or Asus, if it has mostly good reviews on Newegg.

that is, 256 bit, with at least 512 MB RAM.

 

[kelfen]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121317

best price/performance your gonna get