Professional vs Gaming Graphics Cards

[Estacado7706]

- yes that's also my conclusion also.

The v7900 is over 3x more expensive than comparable cards you mention. I guess that's how much more consistency and peace-of-mind costs.

Feronix - got it

I wouldn't call these cards comparable. That's the biggest problem with these cards. Catering to different users and therefore using different optimized drivers.

Take the R9 290 for example. From the specs it is tempting to say, that the Firepro is inferior.
But when you only consider OpenGL a Firepro v7900 does outperform a 290 by far.
Rendering the Benchmark-Maya-Scene "Hands" in 30 seconds, while the 290 will need 151 seconds. In the best results (multiple scenes) the 290 will get to approx. double the rendering time.
So when maya is the biggest part of the work this card will have to do there is no way around the "professional" version.

The pricing however is a real turnoff. The main reason, as mentioned, is the amount of cards produced.

 

[rzthrun]

Rendering the Benchmark-Maya-Scene "Hands" in 30 seconds, while the 290 will nee 151 seconds. Int he best results (multiple scenes) the 290 will get to approx. double the rendering time.
So when maya is the biggest part of the work this card will have to do there is no way around the "professional" version.

That is huge. I spend alot of time waiting around for renders - the lost productivity of 5x longer wait would eat any financial savings in no time.*
If I recall, my reasoning (or justification) for going with the v5900 vs v7900 was that the difference in Maya benchmarks btw the two wasn't very great (and my budget was at its limit)

*batch rendering in maya does not seem to tie up the whole machine the way a "render-view" render in does. Just an anecdotal observation I made recently. Need to look into this (less someone already has)

 

[NeverBackDown]

found this.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-review-benchmark,3659-12.html
Second just gives more details of a lot of cards.

 

[Estacado7706]

That is huge. I spend alot of time waiting around for renders - the lost productivity of 5x longer wait would eat any financial savings in no time.*
If I recall, my reasoning (or justification) for going with the v5900 vs v7900 was that the difference in Maya benchmarks btw the two wasn't very great (and my budget was at its limit)

The difference should be (depending on the scene) in the range of 5-20%, but most of the time in the lesser region. How much you can gain depends on the budget you are willing to spend. (The optimization of some of the Quadros is really huge)
I hope your main question (gaming vs prof. cards) is solved

*batch rendering in maya does not seem to tie up the whole machine the way a "render-view" render in does. Just an anecdotal observation I made recently. Need to look into this (less someone already has)

Do you mean that it does not use all ressources it can (like CPU cores). If so: turn of "Auto render threads" and set your own limit.

Edit:

found this.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493.html

Funny. Different site, same Benchmarks.

 

[rzthrun]

I hope your main question (gaming vs prof. cards) is solved

- yes thoroughly solved :beer: c3d:

Do you mean that it does not use all ressources it can (like CPU cores). If so: turn of "Auto render threads" and set your own limit.

- actually I was having the opposite problem. Although you did immediately see what was going on.
Thank you - I've reduced the number of cores in use for "Render View" renders with Mental Ray. Sick!

 

[Mr Whippy]

I've used both pro/gamer cards over the years in a range of systems from dual CPU AMD to multi-CPU/core Zeon stuff.
I've had just as many issues in 3D/video editing/2D editing apps with the OC'd consumer level stuff, as I have with the 'reliable' professional stuff that cost loads more money.

Actually I'd say the fancy stuff was often more problematic and/or slower... great if/when you do use that specific feature, but I'm guessing as a generalist then those slight optimisations here and there can become irrelevant over months of working and using good planning/workflow strategies.



If you're freelancing for example, and have rendering to do, set up a separate render box so you can work while rendering. Having an i5 vs i7 is irrelevant if the machine is dead while you wait hours for rendering and can't work properly on it.



But I'd err away from AMD/ATI consumer level graphics cards as they often are not as well specified for other API's vs Nvidia.
Ie, the OGL coverage, and GLSL coverage seem limited in many ATI drivers it seems.

CPU I'm not sure it matters so much though. AMD or Intel probably don't make a huge difference. Just check benchmarks for the kinda jobs you'll do I suppose.


Dave

 

[rzthrun]

Hey Thanks for the insights.
I'm researching a new build now.

I've been using the FirePro v5900 and have been very happy with it - except for one thing: it doesn't seem to be compatable with Ubuntu, at least Ubuntu 12, which was the last time I tried. This isn't a major deal, since most everything I've needed to do on Linux can usually be done via laptop, i.e. not graphics heavy.

That said, a reliable graphics card for the authoring rigs is a must. Maya, Max, Blender, Adobe Suite, etc. I fear an unstable card.

For the new build, I wanted the v7900, but at 2x the price of v5900, and inlight of the below quote, and only minor difference in benchmarks, looks like v5900 will be the card of choice. Nvidia Pro cards remain cost prohibitive. (open to alternative if anyone knows any?)

The pricing however is a real turnoff. The main reason, as mentioned, is the amount of cards produced.

 

[AlienALX]

AMD are working on Linux drivers as we speak. In fact they just hired a new team of coders specifically for Linux so it really shouldn't be that long.

Now they just need to make a decent OSX driver and I would be happy

 

[rzthrun]

that is awesome news.

the v7900 driver specs did list it as compatible with Ubuntu.
The v5900 was comp table with kubuntu, which was not ideal, but even then never was able to get multiple monitors going.