Alienware - Area 51 - Graphics Cards ?

rdcast · 25 Jul 2010, 16:55

I've tried to study what graphics cards are best for both SketchUp and gaming. Is it true that high-end gaming cards are more suitable for SketchUp, than workstation cards are for gaming?

I'm looking at Alienware - Area 51 to do both, gaming and SketchUp projects.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desktops/alienware-area-51/pd.aspx?refid=alienware-area-51&s=dhs&cs=19&~ck=mn

For graphics card, I'd like to upgrade it to either a Dual 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon HD 5870 CrossfireX, or Dual 1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 - SLI

Any advice or recommendations?? Please keep in mind that I intend to move up to SketchUp Pro with Podium..

Thank you

Pixero · 26 Jul 2010, 07:24

I would go with a Nvidia card since my experience is that ATI cards have more driver issues.
Plus Nvidia has CUDA which can be used for "realtime" rendering like the one soon coming with Thea render.

rdcast · 26 Jul 2010, 09:42

@pixero said:

I would go with a Nvidia card since my experience is that ATI cards have more driver issues.
Plus Nvidia has CUDA which can be used for "realtime" rendering like the one soon coming with Thea render.

Thanks for expressing your experience!
Would you think a low-end workstation configuration might have more of a problem with gaming, than a high-end gaming computer would have with 3D drawing/rendering(both costing $2500)? In other words, spending $2500 on either a gaming or workstation, optimized at that price, then testing both on games and 3D drawing/rendering, then averaging those performances together for each separately, might you assume the gaming platform to reach a higher accumulative score??? That is, given equal expense, one being a high-end gaming computer, while the other a low-end workstation, at $2500.

notareal · 26 Jul 2010, 21:49

@pixero said:

I would go with a Nvidia card since my experience is that ATI cards have more driver issues.
Plus Nvidia has CUDA which can be used for "realtime" rendering like the one soon coming with Thea render.

Looks like that Thea will use OpenCL, so it will not be limited to nVidia.

dsarchs · 26 Jul 2010, 23:10

nvidia scales much better than ATI, so if you're thinking about multiple cards, definitely dual 480's in SLI. Having said that, they run very hot, noisy and draw a huge amount of power, so make sure you have a hefty (probably 1200 watt) PSU and a water cooling system.

rdcast · 27 Jul 2010, 00:57

@dsarchs said:

nvidia scales much better than ATI, so if you're thinking about multiple cards, definitely dual 480's in SLI. Having said that, they run very hot, noisy and draw a huge amount of power, so make sure you have a hefty (probably 1200 watt) PSU and a water cooling system.

Area 51 does come with a liquid cooler for the cpu, and a 1,000 watt power supply, upgradable to 1,100.

Your recommendations are very much appreciated.

Pixero · 28 Jul 2010, 06:55

Here is a Graphics card test from cgarchitect:
http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/Reviews/Review076_1.asp