[MadSkillzMan]

ok guys, i do alotta work in 3dsmax, combustion, after effects, which require openGL. i am a dual monitor person, and id like to use tripple soon as im doing independant film special FX. im kind of a 1 man team here, and my lousy SiS xabre is just god awful for anything. i dont know why such a peice of crap exists, moreso why did i even get it?

anyways im not a gamer...quake 3 is all i need...i was hoping for a matrox , but those are REALLY pricey, so are there any cheaper soloutions?

also, those 3rd party nock off cards? like the power color-ATI or stuff like that, those are alrght from what i heard from my friends compared to the real deal, what do u guys think?

also, a freind of mine has the ati 9800, and its HORRIBLE in 3Dsmax, doesnt matter if its openGL or direct3D, it just plain out SUCKS.

[Nandro]

NV cards kick ass at 3d rendering and the quadro. If you look into it a bit I think riva tuner can convert the fx5900 into the quadro fx3000. I could be wrong, but in any case I think 3dmax is the only prog that uses d3d and most others use OGL so that its more compatible with other OS's.

[MadSkillzMan]

3dsmax can use openGl..my options are openGL, D3D (DX9.0/8.1) or Software which im currently using but, luckily backburner allows for network rendering, which im building a 2k cluster for it, so video card rendering isnt exactly what im after. but for on screen i need it to handle nicely. this thing renders darn fast though, sometimes i can get near realtime if im using a DV video in the backround...go figure

thanks nanbro.

[cetoole]

You can also softmod Radeon cards into the FireGL equivilants, the 9600 mods to the FireGL T2, while the 9800 is the X2.

[MadSkillzMan]

whats the benefit of this?

[Cerberus2k7]

GeForce FX5900

I do 3D rendering also

[Aphex_Tom_9]

Alot of the actual rendering is through the CPU, so creating a cluster for network rendering would do you better than just a different video card.
I use 3dsmax fairly regularly, just for fun though.
I did find that going from a ti4600 to a 9800xt improved the pre-render work time in the GUI, but i noticed faster rendering with an overclocked cpu.

[Cerberus2k7]

Rendering is VERY GPU intensive. And when going through the viewports in Max or Maya, it will really strain your GPU. Normal viewport nav. is GPU, and the actual rendering is GPU and CPU.

[Aphex_Tom_9]

Originally Posted by Cerberus2k7

Rendering is VERY GPU intensive. And when going through the viewports in Max or Maya, it will really strain your GPU. Normal viewport nav. is GPU, and the actual rendering is GPU and CPU.

right, a better vid card will certianly help in the viewport work, i noticed that, but wont do that much in render times.

[Dc5e]

I would just get a 9600 or 9800 and softmod it to their FireGL equivalents. The drivers make quite a difference when you softmod it. I remember reading an article comparing the performance between a normal 9600 and a softmodded 9600 in 3d rendering programs, and the softmodded one pulls ahead quite a bit.

[Cerberus2k7]

a 5900 has been known to beat out the fireGL cards in 3Ds Max.

[{PMS}fishy]

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2307

Thats if you are looking for a real 3D card.

[MadSkillzMan]

what is so great about this fireGL you guys keep mentionng?

[Nandro]

thats like ati's equivilent of the quadro see:
http://www.ati.com/products/fireglt2-128/index.html
for the FireGL-T2
But the NV cards have consistantly beat the ATI cards in the workstation department unless that has changed recently due to their superior OGL drivers.
Here is the conclusion on some last gen cards from TomsHW:
http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.c...00-x2t-14.html

I think Riva can strap the 5900xt to a quadro with just software and would save you a ton of dough.

[MadSkillzMan]

how do these compare to a matrox? big turn off here is the fact none support more than 2 monitors (i know im crazy but yea, it makes life 10x easier with 3)

ill probably score a cheap 5900 from ebay or something..onea the 3rd party ones...then softmod it as u guys are telling me.

[larva]

Originally Posted by Nandro

thats like ati's equivilent of the quadro see:
http://www.ati.com/products/fireglt2-128/index.html
for the FireGL-T2
But the NV cards have consistantly beat the ATI cards in the workstation department unless that has changed recently due to their superior OGL drivers.
Here is the conclusion on some last gen cards from TomsHW:
http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.c...00-x2t-14.html

I think Riva can strap the 5900xt to a quadro with just software and would save you a ton of dough.

Yes, equivalent in name only. People that like ATI swear up and down that their driver compatibility is as good as Nvidia, but it is apps like 3DSMax (or most other apps slightly out of the mainstream) that show this simply is not true.

[MadSkillzMan]

alright, nvidia it is.

i just spent ALL NITE bypassing the particle issue....turns out 3dsmax and particles just SUCK...so then it took me all night to learn realflow, how to export into max7 which i was told DOES NOT work but if u read closely all max 6 plugins work with 7...so now its 2am, i got the tools i need to finish thie little project...once i render in realflow, put in max, my renders go above realtime again (cuz RF handles the particles and sorts them out)

thanks guys...as soon as i can ill get a 5900...i planon watercooling this rig first off..the DIY WBs n such. thanks

[Cerberus2k7]

particles have been good to me so far. You running Brazil with that puppy?

[MadSkillzMan]

alright, what the heck is brazil? ive heard it A TON of times now. im not very expereinced with max, i just started getting into it and im not doing bad.

[Cerberus2k7]

Brazil is a third party rendering plugin. Its really bad ass. You should try it.