what graphics cards make faster?

[2ms1]

I have never owned a computer with a "pro" graphics card.
My computers have all thus far had good gaming cards, but
no Quadro or FireGL, etc cards.

Could someone tell me what circumstances it takes for the
differences between good gaming cards and basic "pro" CAD
cards to become apparent?

Is it only during animation and/or rotation of giant
assemblies with thousands of features or what?

 

[2ms1]

bump...

 

[AaronMejia]

In my personal opinion, according to my limited experience using both types of cards, here are my comments:


Gaming cards are optimized to give you frames per second (pictures), while "pro" cards are optimized for redrawing vector graphics (lines and poligons). For small assemblies (under 100 parts) there may not be any noticeable difference in cards with 256 ram and above. Gaming cards with 128 may get slower than CAD cardswhen rotating. For larger assemblies you will see a noticeable difference when zooming/panning/rotating. It may be small, but at the end of the day it adds up to a considerable amount of time. If you are handling assemblies with 200 or more parts, or complex geometry, then a CAD card and a space ball may be a good investment. I hope this helps.

 

[Kevin De Smet]

One common idea is that workstation cards are very expensive, but they can be had for about 300$ comfortably and it'll give you a fair performance. I can't say this from personal experience though.

But, do know, a 300$ workstation card is low-end while a 300$ gamer card is mid-range. Despite that, I do believe the workstation card will be a better match, regardless, if you're doing CAD.


Edited by: Kevin De Smet

 

[dr_gallup]

Frequently the gamer cards will not open more than 3 or 4 Pro/E windows, even a low end CAD card should get you at least 10 windows