Game Design / Gaming Card

[HEADSHOTPUNK]

I'm building out a new pc and it's two primary functions will be game design and gaming. I have every component picked out except for the video card. I was hoping that the GTX 680 would be my answer but now I'm not so sure. It looks great for gaming, but that seems to be about it. Or am I wrong and just don't know how to read a benchmark? Anyways, am I looking for something that doesn't exist, or is there a card out there that will perform good while gaming and while using applications such as CS5, 3DS Max, Maya, etc???

 

[DM186]

The GTX 680 is 10% faster then the HD 7970. The said price for the 680 is $499.99 dollars. If I was to pick and I had that kinda of money that is what I would get with out question.

When the 680 comes out there is going to be a lot of price dropping on both sides. So I would wait to see then revisit this question and state your budget.

I am forsure that you will get the answers your are looking for. I wish you good luck on this. Myself I can't wait to see how the prices are going to be.

 

[HEADSHOTPUNK]

I'm actually fine with the price, I'm more worried about the capabilities of the card or if there is another card that may better meet my needs.

 

[devils_advocate]

Usually i always advice on getting one powerful card over multiple cards. But i think in your case you might be better off using Dual cards... If i have to guess may be two 7870...

 

[HEADSHOTPUNK]

Thanks for the input. I've always thought along the same lines, that I would rather have 1 great card than 2 good cards. I might have to consider that though if I can't find 1 card to fit my needs.

 

[k1114]

Dual cards are pretty useless for 3d work as most software viewports don't support sli/cf as it's not really necessary. I use a 560ti and 200k+ polys is not an issue, I've gone to 4mil just messing around tesselating but it's the textures that will stress it. Just one issue is maya defaults to opengl which gtx cards are handicapped so you would buy a quadro. But 2 clicks changes it to directx and you're flying. Max defaults to directx so no issues there.

As for cs5, they're all very different programs but most important for 3d artists would be photoshop which can easily run on the integrated intel hd 3000. I assume you would be using mental ray or the default renderer in max/maya which are purely cpu based (for render to texture and such). Unless you have some game editor to throw it in in which case if a 680 can't handle it, you're doing it wrong.

A workstation card would be better for modeling but since you are gaming then go with a gaming card. It will still handle this stuff no problem. I do not work from home which is why I got a 560ti to game on and only do occasional personal projects on it.

 

[HEADSHOTPUNK]

Dual cards are pretty useless for 3d work as most software viewports don't support sli/cf as it's not really necessary. I use a 560ti and 200k+ polys is not an issue, I've gone to 4mil just messing around tesselating but it's the textures that will stress it. Just one issue is maya defaults to opengl which gtx cards are handicapped so you would buy a quadro. But 2 clicks changes it to directx and you're flying. Max defaults to directx so no issues there.

As for cs5, they're all very different programs but most important for 3d artists would be photoshop which can easily run on the integrated intel hd 3000. I assume you would be using mental ray or the default renderer in max/maya which are purely cpu based (for render to texture and such). Unless you have some game editor to throw it in in which case if a 680 can't handle it, you're doing it wrong.

A workstation card would be better for modeling but since you are gaming then go with a gaming card. It will still handle this stuff no problem. I do not work from home which is why I got a 560ti to game on and only do occasional personal projects on it.

Thank's for your reply. That's what I was kind of hoping to hear, although reading through the OpenCL benchmarks from here, it seems like they are pretty useless. I don't know a whole lot about this though so I may be worrying over nothing. If you guys think it will perform fine for entry level modeling and CS5, then I'll take your word for it.

Any other thoughts though before I bite the bullet would be very helpful!

 

[k1114]

Maya/max don't use opencl. This is certainly much more powerful than entry level.