Graphics Card for Maya?

[Nights_L]

Hey guys..
A friend of mine asks me to build a pc for her, (she's still using a PentiumII 400MHz with an ATI AIW Pro..) which will mainly be using Maya, and other graphics design programs..
I went to Maya's web site, here is the system requirement for Maya:

Windows: Intel® Pentium® III or higher, AMD Athlon™ processor
Macintosh: Power Mac® G4 and G5
512 MB RAM
CD-ROM Drive
Hardware-Accelerated OpenGL® graphics card
3-button mouse with mouse driver software
450 MB of hard disk space

This looks like an easy job, but I would like to hear your opinion, not only about graphics card, but any suggestion for the system would be appreciated as well!
Thanks for any inputs!

 

[Crashman]

nVidia does better in OGL than ATI, I included SPEC Viewperf Maya scores in my last video card review.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[cleeve]

Maya? Suggestions?

1. The fastest Athlon64 CPU she can afford
2. The fastest memory she can afford
3. A nice DFI mobo
4. An Nvidia card. If she never plays games - a quadro if she can afford it... the QuadroFX 540 is a cheap and awesome CAD card for the price.
If she plays games, get a Geforce 6800GT instead.

________________
<b>Geforce <font color=red>6800 Ultra</b></font color=red>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>~3300+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 412 FSB @ 2266 Mhz)</i>
<b>3dMark05: <font color=red>5,275</b>

 

[Nights_L]

what about the GeForceFX series? like 5700 or 5900? since QuadroFX are based on them, would they provide enough performance?
Cuz she's actually quite budget limited..

 

[mofofosho]

dont go with anything from the old gen, you will find the 6600gt worth its weight in silicon.

 

[cleeve]

The non-quadro GeforceFX cards suck. If you need to go cheap, you're better off with a GeforceFX 6200, or better yet a vanilla 6600.

________________
<b>Geforce <font color=red>6800 Ultra</b></font color=red>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>~3300+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 412 FSB @ 2266 Mhz)</i>
<b>3dMark05: <font color=red>5,275</b>