Looking for a good videocard that is good for autocad

I am looking for videocard that is good for Autocad.
My Budget is under under 275$(US)
eg: If I go for an Nvidia card I am gona want to mod it to Quatro and for ATI into a FireGL.
It has to be a PCI-Express card and preferably one that is flashable into Quatro or ATI FireGL incase they ever need to reinstall it won't be a hassel with driver patches and such.

I was looking at all the computer stores around and here is what I found. (I have to be honest I have not been following up latly )

LeadTek NVIDIA (A6600TD) GF6600 128DDR AGP8X TV +DVI (RB)
SAPPHIRE X700PRO PCIX 256DDR TVO + DVI (RB)
ATI Radeon X600PRO 256 mo PCI express 16x TVOUT
ATI Radeon X600XT 256 mo VIVO PCI express 16x
ATI Radeon X700 256 mo PCI express 16
ASUS ASUS PCIE EN6600-TD256 256M 6600 TV-OUT
ATI PCIE RADEON X700PRO 256M BOX
GIGAbyte PCIE RADEON X800 256M TV-OUT BOX
GIGAbyte PCIE GV-NX66256D 256M 6600 DDR TV-OUT
GIGAbyte PCIE GV-NX66T128D 128M 6600GT DDR3
GIGAbyte PCIE GV-NX66256D 256M 6600 DDR TV-OUT
GIGAbyte PCIE GV-NX66T128D 128M 6600GT DDR3
SAPPHIRE PCIE RADEON X600XT 256M VIVO BOX
SAPPHIRE PCIE RADEON X700PRO 256M BOX


Thanks inadvance.
If you can tell me which cards to stayaway from and which you'd recommend (preferably more than one) i'd appretiate it

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-125-171&depa=1

not sure if its modable, but its worlds better than anything you listed, and it comes in at 273

GIGA PCIE RADEON X800 256M TV-OUT BOX is the same card I think.

I know that I'm just saying that'd be the best of the bunch

and the most expensive

Leadtek PX6600GT 128Mb [PCI-E] *HDTV Ready*
Leadtek PX6600GT Extreme 128Mb [PCI-E] *HDTV Ready*
Gigabyte Radeon X800 256Mb PCI-Express
Gigabyte GFX6600GT 128Mb PCI-Express
Abit RX600Pro 256Mb [PCI-Express]
Asus EN6600 PCX-6600 128Mb [TD] PCI-Express
Asus EN6600 PCX-6600 256Mb [TD] PCI-Express
Asus EN6600GT PCX-6600GT 128Mb [TD] PCI-Express
Asus N6600 GFX-6600 128Mb [TD]
Asus N6600 GFX-6600 256Mb [TD]
Asus N6600 GFX-6600GT 128Mb [TD]
ATI Radeon X700Pro 256Mb [PCI-Express] *Retail Box*
ATI Radeon X600Pro 128Mb [PCI-Express]
ATI Radeon X600Pro 256Mb [PCI-Express]
ATI Radeon X600XT 256Mb [PCI-Express] -VIVO-
ATI Radeon X700Pro 128Mb [PCI-Express]
ATI Radeon X700Pro 256Mb [PCI-Express]
Leadtek PX6600 256Mb [PCI-E]
Leadtek PX6600GT 128Mb [PCI-E] *HDTV Ready*
Leadtek PX6600GT Extreme 128Mb [PCI-E] *HDTV Ready*

I have some new candidates is the X800 still top ?
(which is second top)

im not sure if the 6600's can be modded to quatros.

Darkstorm_13 said:

im not sure if the 6600's can be modded to quatros.

Click to expand...

idono ither but id have to recomend a 6600gt anyway
unles u want to save up for a 6800gt

doesn't really matter what card you get for autocad, 6800 ultra SLI or an MX440, since autocad is 2d, well there are some 3d components depending on which version you have but no one does 3d in just straight autocad because it's probably the worst 3d cad implementation out there.

Any card will do. I used to run autocad on a 2MB ATI card.

Well he doesn't just use autocad lots of workstation programs he just kept mentioning autocard

he's son will definatly be playing games thou

So X800 or 6600 or 6800?

i woudld say save up for an x850 lol or an 6800ultra that way you wont have to upgrade for at least a year or two

A1Killer said:

i woudld say save up for an x850 lol or an 6800ultra that way you wont have to upgrade for at least a year or two

Click to expand...

cant go wrong there

Acad is total vector drawing in 2D and easy for most cards that are even 3 years old. It screams on my old Geforce 2ti. Quadro will gain nothing for you in Acad. But it will help in rendering in Solidworks and other 3D programs.

I moved some microscopic resitors around and successfully modded my card from a GF2ti to a GF2ti !!! So that was pretty much a waste of time.

Get a 6600GT and youll be fine. Save money and spend it on a nice LCD or two. Acad looks sooooooo good on LCD with the black background.

So 6600GT is best Bang for Buck and a fast card?

In tech school we ran MasterCAM V9 on a 16MB Matrox Millennium G400. Which wouldn't run any game made in the last couple years, but it was, and still is, a damned good 2D card. Which is what MasterCAM does, design in 2D with a little bit of 3D modeling thrown in for a depth preivew more than anything. And if I am not mistaken AutoCAD does the same thing. I haven't used AutoCAD much so I may be. So really any recent graphics card would run AutoCAD just fine. I would recommend just getting a mid range card, like a 6600GT or a 9800 Pro, and spending the rest on RAM. With CAD/CAM programs you can really never have too much ram. Also a fast harddrive would be a good idea as well.