Need gpu advice.

I'd look at workstation graphics as they are more optimized for work. AMD cards are good for multi monitor setup's because I believe I can have 4 monitors at once on my $150 6850.

oh wow really? ive looked a little into workstation cards but seemed too much money for what you get... but would i be able to run multiple monitors still running alot of apps at the same time?

Workstation graphics have specs that are the same as consumer graphics cards that are 1/3 the price, but have much better support, and much better optimized drivers. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... Here's a good one that'll run 4 monitors. Here's an article about workstation vs desktop graphics. http://icrontic.com/article/the-real-difference-between...

still leaning towards the asus 6950. that way if i ever wanna go crazy with monitors i can. but then again paying the $300 will ensure me a good GPU for a couple years..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submi...

The 6950 with the 2gb of vram will do just fine for your autocad videos and photos plus be able to run on two monitors. The only other cards that AMD has would be the new 7xxx series but that is a waiting time now for the 7850's and the 7870's. I don't know when. Good luck to ya

thanks man. that link you posted will def be considered. the price is a little better than the 6950, and i like that workstation GPUs are considered more reliable/long lasting. what does nvidia have out these days thats good? was going to try and wait till they came out with kelper (i think) so maybe the 6000 series would drop in price.

**read a couple reviews on the firepro card and stated that if little kids wanted to play games on it that it would lag unless graphics or res was turned down. so ill most likely go with the 6950, i do have people get on my computer at times, many being little kids and dont want them to freeze the computer if something goes wrong. thats for the input tho bro, maybe i can get it for a future build!

nVidia's best workstation graphics card that is under $300 : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
nVidia's best desktop graphics card that is under $300 :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
KEEP IN MIND THOUGH that nVidia cards only run a max of 2 monitors per card.

***EDIT***
Ever think about crossfire/sli? Could try that.

^ Wow I didn't know the Nvidia cards is two monitors per card only. I love this site you learn things eveyday on here.

 

yea ive thought about SLI.. i just didnt know which gpu to go with on that either, and i didnt know nvidia only supported 2 monitors, ill stick with AMD... would these in SLI be better than the 6950 single? it would be about the same after rebates.

6850:x2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

6950:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I think one monitor per card would work. problem is, when you get your 3rd monitor, one of your cards will be extra stressed.

^^ in that case ill just get 4 monitors lol

I say Hugo with a single card solution. 6950 is a great idea

You should go*

Performance wise, you'll get more with 6850 xfire http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/302?vs=293

okay guys, well i almost got the 6950, but i stopped and thought.. and took a few looks at workstation cards. and i seem to like what i read on a couple and the pricing isnt a bad as i thought. but i was looking at the details of one and it says it only supported linux/xp/vista, said nothing about windows 7. is this true or am i just missing something? ive read on the reviews that people are running windows 7 will i have to download different drivers or will it come with them? people say they are running up to 4 monitors with no lag which id only want three and people say the life of these things are awesome.

another question: this card says it has 512mb of vram im guessing? and the 6950 i looked at has 2gb. ive heard desktop and workstation cards run way different. but if i buy this workstation card am i going to see about the same or better results when running multi-threaded apps and things like videoediting/photo?

this is the card im looking at ****
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

In workstation apps, this card will do better. And also, windows 7 has a compatability mode that makes it work with the apss made for older versions of windows.

but say someone gets on my computer and tries to run a game/flash player game, would it be able to handle it? or even like a FPS?

Any free game will be fine. What the reviews are talking about is trying to play modern warfare 3 or battlefield 3. Some new intensive game. But flash games, practically any computer from the past 10 years can run them.

hmm ill have to check it out and think.. i really would like to get the workstation one but if i ever wanted to game then id be SOL. -.-

I'd probably get a 6770 and put that in the machine as well and just plug the monitor you want game.

Actually, you should think about few things:
1)How important is stability;
2)How important is Cuda cores(GPU rendering and adobe products use Cudas from nVidia, not AMD's);
3)Which one do your apps use - Open GL or Direct3D (DirectX)


1)If for you important is stability, buy Workstation card, I suggest you to buy from nVidia(as they're known to have good stability).
2)If important is Cuda to be in, (where few means bad and many means better, because CPU can handle better than few Cudas on adobe products, in GPU rendering just fast GPU will act as one big Cuda, similar to big single-core CPU vs small multicore CPU), buy new gaming card from nVidia
3)If your apps are Open-GL buy workstation card. Because it really uses it's full power in Open GL(gaming cards have blocked it, as it's not used in games). And, CAD apps and Maya from Autodesk use Open-GL, not Direct 3d. you can search on youtube "quadro 600(or 400, don't really remember) vs gtx"

Plus, workstation cards have hyper optimized drivers for autodesk applications(e.g. Autodesk Maya performance driver), which gives up to twice perf. improvement in maya for this example over basic quadro/firepro driver(which on its side is already optimized).


Pluses for nVidia cards are: they have little bit better support and better drivers.

Pluses for AMD cards are: they have better overall performance than similar priced nVidia card, Firepro v4900 (same class as Quadro 600 and fx 580) supports 3 monitors.

Minuses for nVidia: they are outdated and are an series older than AMD's current serries(those were made against v*800, and amd has released next series - v*900)

Minuses for AMD: they unfortunately eat more power and have some artifacts (as I have seen non-GPU related videos capturing screen on Firepro card, some parts of screen were not refreshing for few seconds until user rotated viewport camera in 3ds max, e.g. some part of dialog box or previously used modifier. that was driver issue and I guess that was fixed since it, as similar thing was noted in autodesk certified hardware list).

If you want to buy entry-level workstation card from nVidia buy Quadro 600 (not fx 580), it's newer, better and cheaper than fx 580.

If you want to buy entry-level workstation card from AMD buy firepro v4900(costs same as quadro fx 580, is 3 series newer, has much better performance).


So, I suggest you to buy v4900 if you don't want Cuda cores for Adobe softwares and sell it when next series similar class card will be available. or if you want Cudas, buy GeForce card which has more than 96 cores(you'll not see performance improvement with less than hundred cores).


Quite long post, however