Help pick the right graphics card for SU
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Hi there ppl, you guys can help me pick the right graphics card for SketchUp work. Be so kind as to post why you made the choice you did. The reason why only these two cards are available as choices is because I bought both and am trying to figure out which is best, if you didn't notice - I prefer ATi cards to nVidia (personal thing). The poll will only run for a few days, so hurry!
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Erm, OK. Lets help you guys out a little. The HD2600 Pro has a 128bit memory interface while the X1950GT has a 256bit memory interface. The HD2600 Pro is more future proof being about a year newer product (in technology terms) than the X1950GT. The HD 2600 Pro has slower RAM than the X1950GT. The X1950GT uses more power (and thus dissapates more heat) than the HD2600 Pro.
As you can see, tough choice. I have the HD2600 Pro in my machine at the moment, I still need to install the X1950GT to see how it runs.
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In the not too distant past, in the old forum era, lots of people reported problems with Ati cards and SU. I can't remember my personal experience, but I do know that I threw out my Ati and bought an NVidia.
[Maggy]
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The problem with the ATI cards was that they really didn't have the full functionality of open GL that 3D modelling applications require. I believe that that many (most) of the newere generation ATI cards are fine re Open GL. However, I don't know which ones may present a problem.
Isn't there a newer generation one that also has 256bit Memory ?
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Sorry to hear that you had to downgrade Maggy.
The reason I don't buy nVidia cards is because it has been shown in the past that the ATi cards have superior picture quality.
Sorgesu, you're almost right w.r.t. a wider memory interface on the newer generation ATi HD2xxx cards, however that would be the top-end (at time of writing) model the HD2900 which has a 512bit memory interface. I don't know about your statement about ATi cards and OpenGL functionality hey, my ATi card from 1998 had full OpenGL support at that time already.
Between the two cards shown above, the ATi X1950GT is the superior in performance (as it turns out). I fitted it in my PC and tried SU (as I did with the other card). SU was a lot more responsive when rotating a complex model.
Thanks for your feedback people, sorry to see there were no votes at all. Closing the topic now.
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Actually, ATI always insisted that they had full open GL support but it wasnt't true. Many of us had artefacts, including me, when dealing with even hi end ATI cards, in 2001 2002 when I started using SketchUp. ATI support swore they had full open GL support and Jim Holman from SketchUp support remained firm that they did not. I purchased and Nvidia card at the time and all artefact problems cleared. It was explained to me by Jim that ATI only used a subset of open GL at the time, that was necessary for gaming but not everything that was required for 3D modelling applications. So if your ATI card worked for you in 1998 perhaps you just had a fortunate configuration at the time. But I can assure you that it did not work in mine and in many many others.
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