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Good videocard for Autocad?

T

travanx

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 9, 2000
Messages
1,579
I am curious what are good video cards for autocad that are in the $100 range? I want to run the computer in a 1600x1200 res.
 
I am just curious if its possible to get a decent card at that price range. And it it made a difference if I was looking at a normal ATI Radeon card or get a more specific 2D card.
 
you need to answera few more ?

is this for a business or you just learning autocad?
i say if your just learning any card should be fine. but if its for a buisness i would pony up and get a card recommend by autocad
 
This is going depend heavily on whether you do 2D or 3D. I use AutoCAD about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with a GF2 GTS, but it's 2D. For 2D you would be better served with a good CPU rather than a good video card. Matrox does make some great 2D cards though. Especially if you want multi-monitor support.

However, if you plan on doing 3D, you will want a Quadro. Pretty much as simple as that, but you are not going to get one with a $100 price range. I would suggest you get either a Matrox Millennium G450 or G550.
 
I am running a P4 2ghz with a Radeon 9000 right now. I get a chance to upgrade my computer in the office and was curious if there would be something worth upgrading to that isn't too expensive. I dont' do 3d at all on this machine.
 
Originally posted by obs
This is going depend heavily on whether you do 2D or 3D. I use AutoCAD about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with a GF2 GTS, but it's 2D. For 2D you would be better served with a good CPU rather than a good video card. Matrox does make some great 2D cards though. Especially if you want multi-monitor support.

However, if you plan on doing 3D, you will want a Quadro. Pretty much as simple as that, but you are not going to get one with a $100 price range. I would suggest you get either a Matrox Millennium G450 or G550.
Click to expand...


I, too, am a draftman :D . He is right, i am running AutoCAD 2002 on a TNT2 M64 and it does the job pretty well, really ;) . However, if you want to use Mechanical Desktop or the 3D rendering apps and/or if you plan to draft only in 3D, then a real professionnal graphic card will be likely needed.

Para
 
we have some older nvidia cards and they look horrible compared to the radeon 9000's some of the computers have. But I was wondering if there is something similiary priced that has better quality.
 
i used autocad 2002 and inventor 6 on a geforce4 mx440 for a while, it worked flawlessly, i never got stability problems

FYI

to imporve performance in autocad you want to use the opengl driver....you have to manually change it in the deisplay options area...by default its set to software
 
I use 2 Matrox cards in the two systems I use for ACAD.
One G400 with dual monitors, one Parhelia with triple.
I've done lots of CAD on lots of different systems, and nothing touches the Matrox cards for 2D CAD. And, they're usable for light 3D as well.
The G450/550 is a good suggestion, but I'd actually go for a refurbed G400 from Matrox's on-line store. G400 was the best of the G series in most respects, unless you want to to high res (above 1280) on the secondary display.
If you decide to up your budget, Parhelia is great for ACAD, and does have dedicated ACAD drivers.
 
So I am most likely only going to be using my 22" NEC Flat CRT in 1600x1200 res. Never doing any 3D stuff. So what are the difference between g550, g450, and g400? Sounds like I have to switch my radeon 9000 for one of these.
 
G400 is dual CRT, but does have a DVI daughterboard available.
G450 has both dual CRT and 1CRT+1DVI models.
G550 has 1CRT+1DVI and dual DVI models
Parhelia, and P650/P750 are dual DVI, and can run 3 CRTs (P650 requires an upgrade kit to run 3 displays)

Of the G series, G400 was the fastest clocked, best memory, by far best TVOut of all the Gs. G450 and G550 where trimmed down budget versions of G400, but did offer higher res/refresh on the secondary output.

P series (Parhelia, P650/P750 Millennium) are the newer generation. Same basic patern....Parhelia is the fastest, most feature rich model, P650 and P750 are trimed sown, cheaper versions. P650 is the slowest of the Ps, but desirable for many because it's passively cooled, so no fan noise.
Of the P series, only Parhelia supports Matrox's ACAD optimised drivers. G series have no special ACAD drivers, but still work fine (I still use my G400 almost daily for 2D architectural drawings).
 
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