Workstation Graphics Card

J

joyntkid

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 26, 2007
Messages
208
I have been doing a lot of After Effects and video editing (mostly premiere for now, maybe more later) and I'm gonig to be starting to do 3D in the next few months.

I was wondering what card would best suit my needs and help the process?

I have an E6750 with 2(soon to be 4)GB of RAM and an 8600GT on my workstation.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814106168
^That looks really nice with the realtime stuff, but is a little too expensive.
I'm looking for a sub $600 card, unless it would be a lot more worth it to save up and get a more expensive one.

Any help is appreciated.
 
Save some money and just buy one of the cheaper ATI cards and use the relatively available mod drovers on it to make it a FireGL card!!

HD 2600Pro -> FireGL V3600
HD 2600XT -> FireGL V5600
HD 2900XT -> FireGL V8600

.............or just spend the money and buy the real thing, but the driver mod does work. ATI seems to do better in this area than Nvidia
 
Oh yes, I forgot about the modded drivers. Just pick up an HD 2900XT. Ive listed some sites, but maybe you can find cheaper somewhere else.

Here are the modified drivers. Go to this site and click the "ATI mod" folder and download 2900xt_mod_firegl_v8600_8.391.rar (You'll obviously need winrar to extract the files)
http://www.newdisk.cn/?wesley8


Here is a 1GB version
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SMWYSQ

Here is a 512MB version
http://www.shop.com/VisionTek_Radeo...TV_ou-73262367-91375100-p!.shtml?sourceid=298
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
The softmod definitely works, I got better FPS in 3ds max viewport with softmod 2600XT than with the 8800GTS I have now.
 
So a $350 2900XT would be like a V8600, running better than that $800 V7600 the other guy posted? Or would only the 1GB 2900XT perform as such?

I'm about to sell my 8600GT and E6550 from my HTPC because im going to a 780G mobo.
All of the sudden im going from being all intel/nvidia for a while to amd/ati :)

EDIT: Hmm, newegg has an openbox 1GB 2900xt for $339. So tempted.
 
joyntkid said:
So a $250 2900XT would be like a V8600, running better than that $800 V7600 the other guy posted?

I'm about to sell my 8600GT from my HTPC becuase im going to a 780G mobo.
All of the sudden im going from being all intel/nvidia for a while to amd/ati :)
Click to expand...

Yes, save the money and just use the softmod. Did the 2900XT for a friend of mine and he his very happy he didn't spend 2K for the V8600 itself.
 
joyntkid said:
So a $350 2900XT would be like a V8600, running better than that $800 V7600 the other guy posted? Or would only the 1GB 2900XT perform as such?

I'm about to sell my 8600GT and E6550 from my HTPC because im going to a 780G mobo.
All of the sudden im going from being all intel/nvidia for a while to amd/ati :)

EDIT: Hmm, newegg has an openbox 1GB 2900xt for $339. So tempted.
Click to expand...
There is a softmod for 3850/3870 on XP32 out now as well, so you could maybe get one of those instead of a 2900 series.
 
Ok, I think i'm gonna get it after the next job.

How is performance in After Effects with these cards?
I've been doing most of my AE work so far on my MBP, which for some reason doesn't support OpenGL even though Leopard says it does.

EDIT: How do the 3850/70 cards compare to the 2900XT?
The price difference is huge.

I know you can't do Crossfire with the workstation cards, but if could you use it with the modded 3850/70?
 
the 3850 is only slightly better than the 2900XT. I could be wrong, but then there is the 3870 X2 version...
 
Now I really dont know what to do.

2900XT - $350
3850 - $150-200
3870 - $180
3870X2 - $400
 
joyntkid said:
Now I really dont know what to do.

2900XT - $350
3850 - $150-200
3870 - $180
3870X2 - $400
Click to expand...

Now, I don't know about the 3870 X2 being able to be SoftModded, but the regular 3870 can be. The only problem is with the 3850/70 you will not have the 1 GB as the V8600 would with a 2900XT.
 
3850 1GB on Newegg
I'm actually considering selling my 8800GTS and buying this thing instead, since it would probably be more useful to me. Though, even with the extra memory, the price is a bit excessive for a 3850.
 
Seggybop said:
3850 1GB on Newegg
I'm actually considering selling my 8800GTS and buying this thing instead, since it would probably be more useful to me. Though, even with the extra memory, the price is a bit excessive for a 3850.
Click to expand...

Well, there you go then! I guess I haven't been following the ATI cards as much lately.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top