Nvidia vs. ATI

EarthMover · 4 May 2010, 02:16

Okay, so I'm going to be buying a new workstation computer. I've got most everything decided on, but I'm a little torn on the video card.

I'm looking at the Nvidia GTX260 and the Radeon HD 5850 and possibly going Crossfire or SLI with the video cards.

I'm doing the i7 930 chip
Mobo will be the Asus P6T Deluxe v2 x58
12 GB DDR3 1600
Liquid cooled
850W power supply

I'm left with the video card. I'm considering the Nvidia because of the Cuda, although the 5850 crossfired generates some pretty impressive FPS. Any thoughts? I don't do a lot of gaming, will be strictly for faster rendering times out of 3ds Max & Vray. I know it may not be the forum for it, but I've noticed quite a few hardware nerds around here, so figured I'd ask.

EscapeArtist · 4 May 2010, 02:51

Honestly the liquid cooling and all that is over the top unless you are planning on gaming/overclocking. I have dual 9800GTX+ in SLi with a Core Duo and 850W PSU with a Zalman CPU cooler and 3 large case fans. I never have a heat issue, but I also never OC my parts; and while liquid cooling looks pretty neat, it's just one more fancy thing to break - as I would say if it were a car: "Chrome don't get you home..." I do push my system hard using it for gaming and rendering, and have never had an issue with heat or instabitlity.

As far as the GPU goes, I'm partial to NVidia. I've lost count of the number of times I've been talking to friends who complain about the latest issue of ATI drivers having problems and needing to roll back to the previous edition, or having instability or compatibility issues with certain software. Don't get me wrong, plenty of folks have no issue with ATI at all, but I've never heard as many complaints about NVidia as ATI.

JMO, I'd go with NVidia.

HFM · 4 May 2010, 09:27

While I like Nvidia as it has never let me down [where ATI has...] You cannot compare these two cards. The GTX260 is a good card, but the HD5850 beats it at every level. It is even more silent than the GTX260 [And with the liquid cooling already in your system, I guess thats a good selling point ]

Found a good forum.

(forums.guru3d.com)

Regarding to GPU rendering, I think you need to get yourself informed as to what cards are capable of using this technology. Don't know if it's a Nvidia or ATI only thing.

remus · 4 May 2010, 10:08

Personally i wouldnt worry about the fact that only nvidia supports CUDA. All the major GPU renderers that im aware of use openCL, which is cross platform, rather than the nvidia specific CUDA.

Aidus · 4 May 2010, 15:37

I think Nvidia is just a little better when working in sketchup but this is just what i feel when working in sketchup at home and work.

steel.monkee · 4 May 2010, 15:52

My laptop has an ATI card and i have not been using hardware acceleration inside SkethUp for more than two years now. With Nvidia before i never had the same problem.

My two cents.

Chris Fullmer · 4 May 2010, 17:12

I'm with nVidia all the way. I've had problems with ATI just not being as compatible. I switched over to nVidia and have never had problems since.

Plus, I have a friend who is one of the smartest people in the GPU world right now and he works for nVidia, so I have a lot of faith in their future development too

Chris

rickgraham · 4 May 2010, 17:23

Just don't spring a leak with that liquid-cooled system, or you'll have an expensive paperweight.

Rick

EarthMover · 4 May 2010, 22:03

The liquid cooling is a free add on from ibuypower.com, which is who I'm considering having build my rig.

I've been reading about the new Nvidia Fermi cards, the GTX 470/480 and the ATI HD 5870. If I were into gaming I think the ATI cards would be hands down the way to go as they just blow the doors off of the new Nvidia architecture. I guess the driver issues in ATI's past is definitely something to be weary of. I haven't heard any issues with the current cards though. Still confused.

Rich O Brien · 5 May 2010, 00:11

I run a nVidia on my desktop with no issues with SU/Max/Autocad. Although the machine is 3yrs old it's handles large models.

Unfortunately I made a big error on a recent laptop purchase. HP Pavillion with ATI card. SU is very buggy especially when the poly counts grows. Strange display gremlins when using select tool also. Not happy with it one bit.

My advice is stay clear of ATI

EarthMover · 5 May 2010, 01:16

Thanks Rich. I'm also running Nvidia cards currently. 9800GT in my desktop and 9800M GTS Cuda in my laptop. In both cases I use them simply because that's what came with the computer when I bought it prebuilt. The idea of having a PC built to spec opens up a world of choices, which gets one to reading. When you read all over the place that the new ATI HD cards are running circles around Nvidia, it just makes one start to wonder about choices. I guess you're right though, if it ain't broke.... After all CPU cores and memory are what will really count for rendering speeds, at least until Vray GPU hits the streets.

Anssi · 8 May 2010, 17:37

@unknownuser said:

Unfortunately I made a big error on a recent laptop purchase. HP Pavillion with ATI card. SU is very buggy especially when the poly counts grows. Strange display gremlins when using select tool also. Not happy with it one bit.

My advice is stay clear of ATI

Turning off "Fast Feedback" in the Window>Preferences>OpenGL pane might help with the tool gremlins - at least they did with my very old ATI card.

I played it safe with my new computer and bought a Nvidia QuadroFX 1800 card. No problems this far. I don't play games.

Anssi

marne · 9 May 2010, 17:43

I run my ATI HD4850 since over one year now with no issues and heavy SU usage. It performs great with any size of model as far as SU takes it. At work we got Nvidia quadro FX1500 installed on 10 PCs, which cause major problems randomly, especially with SU. But according to all the problems I read about, I would go with Nvidia especially with SU use. I believe that I just may had luck with the decision for an ATI HD4850. Beside it's great performance it was a decision for silence, which was right.

minguinhirigue · 9 May 2010, 18:07

For your works, I thinks that you must also have a look to the nvidia quadrofx 1800 or 3800.

I know that the second one is really expensive, but as you are talking about optimal performance with autodesk softs and renderer (3DS) or good compatibilities with Sketchup, and nearly nothing about games... Professional card are the best. Of course, there is also some FirePRO from ATI, but I think that Nvidia has,for the moment the better place and compatibilities with professional software : bench

thomthom · 11 May 2010, 19:28

I'd go for nVidia. I recently had a pretty decent ATI HD somethingsomething - and I experienced graphical glitches in OpenGL apps. Especially in SU. And that was with updated drivers.

Going back to nVidia and everything is just dandy.

alien_killer · 23 Sept 2010, 11:12

by the way how does one activate hardware acceleration....or is it automatic.?

thomthom · 23 Sept 2010, 11:16

Window > Preferences > OpenGL

Gaieus · 23 Sept 2010, 11:17

@thomthom said:

Window > Preferences > OpenGL

Sigh... Easy this way - shortly!

When installing, SU will try to guess if your video card is capable of handling OpenGL properly and will activate or not activate HW acceleration accordingly.

You can always override this setting - and some other ones as well - under (Window menu on Windows, SketchUp menu on Mac) > Preferences > OpenGL settings.

thomthom · 23 Sept 2010, 11:19

I don't see any OpenGL settings on my Macs....

Gaieus · 23 Sept 2010, 11:22

Ah yes, that may be different (but at least preferences are there...)