Any reason to buy a high end graphics card? (other than for gaming)

[evankim390]

I realize that the cornerstone of any gaming computer is its video card, but I was wondering whether the non gamer has any reason to buy a high end video card (or even like an 8800GT).

Anything any of you could think of would be highly appreciated.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Find links for

CUDA

W7

DX11

3 good reasons to have a great card, as gpgpu is taking of
Also see

OpenCL

 

[Jaysin]

Find links for

CUDA

W7

DX11

3 good reasons to have a great card, as gpgpu is taking of
Also see

OpenCL

While I generally agree with jaydeejohn these things above obviously have limited appeal to the mainstream audience as well. Plus almost all of those are related to gaming in one way or another.

Honestly you really don't need a high end card if you don't game. Vista and Win 7 will support their best graphics on entry level cards as well.

You could go with a HD4350 just to "get by" if you really wanted on a non gaming machine.

 

[jaguarskx]

Nope. Nada. Non. No. None. Nyet.

Unless you are doing 3D rendering, if so you don't use a mere video card for that. You get a workstation class video card for that. The good ones cost in the thousands of dollars.

EDIT:

That is if you are doing professional 3D rendering.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

DX11 brings CS. It can do alot. W7 will bring in balanced usage of each, and OpenCl will be used for the underlying code for many apps. Oh yea, this all makes games better too.

This is a major push, nVidia is prettu much staking their future on it, thus the huge G200 with middling gaming performance increases vs CUDA capabilities. Intel is putting their igps on die, as is AMD. This isnt just for games, nor is LRB, probably the most expensive listed here.

I agree, its barely in its infancy at this point, but wait til these things come out, thingsll change. Right now, you can get away with saying this, and being currently mostly true, but in a year from now, things will look different

To the OP, I guess I took your question as to mean, any other uses, and or Planned uses. Well, I just laid out the plans heheh

 

[evankim390]

Thanks for the responses everybody. I was under the strong impression that there's 0 need for a video card unless you're a gamer, even if you're building a performance work rig just for kicks.

I'm excited to see all of these new advancements really hit the mainstream - maybe a year from now I'll actually see a reason to upgrade to a GTX 275 from my humble 9600 GT.

 

[evankim390]

I made my computer a year ago as a gaming computer. The 9600 GT wasn't bad at the time - definitely not top of the line, but I was trying not to burn a hole through my pocket.

Edit: Grammar fail