Hometec Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 Howdy. My name is Andrew, I am posting on behalf of my client. The time has come to upgrade his rig, and everything has been done save for the graphics card - hence this post. Ultimately, we don't want to drop $1k or more on a workstation card if we don't have to. My question is, what cards are most of you using, and what kind of performance are you getting from it? Another thread (related to Nvidia GPU's) mentioned that ChiefArch developers themselves recommend gaming cards to run ChiefArchitect, but I could not find a quote or anything throughout their website. My experience tells me that a gaming card should work just fine, especially when you are using the textured 3D modes - but workstations are better for those who use vector rendering. My client relies mostly on the textured views and, of course, the 2D plan view. Would a gaming card suffice, based on all of your collective experience? Personally, I would just buy the gaming cards and try them, and if my client doesn't like it we can switch to workstation. However, the time and hassle of such a procedure is not in his favor. Thanks in advance. -Andrew on behalf of Hometec Architecture Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaskan_Son Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 Andrew, I think most (but not all) of us use Nvidea gaming cards as they seem to be the most stable with Chief. I have had zero problems with either of the cards in my signature line, and honestly don't notice much of a difference between the 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlackore Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 We just slapped some low-end ($150) 2GB Nvidia GeForce 780Ti cards into our five year-old workstations. There has been a great improvement in the speed of all rendering methods except Painting and Watercolor, both of which are still dog slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbuttery Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 Yes, for years CA has been recommending Nvidia and gaming cards CA also recommends as many cores as you can afford more CPU ram and video ram is also recommended Lew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCC-1701 Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 In all my years of using CA, NVidia gaming cards are the way to go!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 We just slapped some low-end ($150) 2GB Nvidia GeForce 780Ti cards into our five year-old workstations. There has been a great improvement in the speed of all rendering methods except Painting and Watercolor, both of which are still dog slow. I don't think that card is $150, the 780 ti is pretty new Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD56 Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 $150 seems to be more likely for a 750Ti which has the new GPU architecture. If you got a 780Ti for that price please give us the seller. I think they tend to be more in the $600+ range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 his sig says 650ti ...... $150 would be about right Using a 470GTX on one comp myself and my old one is on a 275GTX still. Videocard does not help with Ray Tracing which is CPU intensive. M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaskan_Son Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Same is true for the artistic renderings. All CPU and no video card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KirkClemons Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 This page is kept up-to-date with the current 3D Mark rankings as well so that you can get a feel for which cards are doing well in the 3D realm and approximately what they cost: PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - High End Video Cards 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hometec Posted April 11, 2014 Author Share Posted April 11, 2014 Thank you all for your replies. Personally I favor Nvidia as well, they are known for better driver support and (because of it) better performance overall. However, they do cost more than their price-equivalents from AMD. I understand that some of you are claiming CA's support of Nvidia gaming cards, and not that I don't trust you - but can you link the web page or article where a CA developer has claimed this support? I believe you myself - but my client has a history of using workstation cards, and jumping to gaming cards to satisfy what is perceived as a workstation need will take some convincing Thank you all for your assistance. -Andrew on behalf of Hometec Architecture Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbuttery Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 Andrew: probably best to contact CA's tech support see post #7 in this thread: http://www.chieftalk.com/showthread.php?61466-Workstation-Graphics-Card-vs-Gaming-Graphics-Card&highlight=GAMING+QUADRO Lew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KirkClemons Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 We are actually very neutral on this subject. We recommend a gaming card from either AMD/ATI or NVIDIA. Our system requirements page has some tips on purchasing a new computer that hightlights some of the things we recommend looking for: http://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/sysreq.html Workstation cards such as the Quadro series or the ATI Firepro series are optimized for generating CAD lines or making computations. But they are weak when it comes to OpenGL support, the primary engine behind Chief Architect. While it's true we have CAD tools they are probably the smallest part of the software and most designs will not contain the number of CAD lines that warrants a Quadro/Firepro type card. The rest of the program uses OpenGL including dialogs with previews, and the Library Browser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_Park Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 Quadro and FireGL cards are often based on the same technology as their gaming counterparts with some tweaks to support certain CAD tasks for certain old school CAD programs. Generally speaking they are fine cards to run Chief on. But they don't offer a gain in performance proportional to their additional price. The link that Kirk posted earlier is a set of independent benchmarks that measure the performance of video cards. While the benchmarks aren't measuring Chief performance and they don't represent an exact comparison to the performance one would see in Chief, they are a good indication of the relative performance of those cards with Chief. We work hard to make NVIDIA, ATI and Intel graphics work. There are cases where each of these vendors has released hardware/driver combinations that have issues. If you have issues with any particular hardware let us know. Often the answer is to get a newer driver, but sometimes we need to work around a driver deficiency. The Troubleshooting section in Preferences>Render represents the specific tweaks that most often are helpful in dealing with those issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlackore Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 I don't think that card is $150, the 780 ti is pretty new Your correct, my mistake. They were 750Ti cards, not 780Ti cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 In the past Chief has had more problems with the ATI cards than the Nvidia cards. That my observations based on being here a long time. Just fact. usually an easy fix, none the less a fix. Old cards are always a problem for everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hometec Posted April 11, 2014 Author Share Posted April 11, 2014 Workstation cards such as the Quadro series or the ATI Firepro series are optimized for generating CAD lines or making computations. But they are weak when it comes to OpenGL support, the primary engine behind Chief Architect. While it's true we have CAD tools they are probably the smallest part of the software and most designs will not contain the number of CAD lines that warrants a Quadro/Firepro type card. The rest of the program uses OpenGL including dialogs with previews, and the Library Browser. This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you I don't have a lot of hands-on experience with CA so I would not have known some of these details. Thank you all for your assistance! -Andrew on behalf of Hometec Architecture Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WallBuilders7757 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Please help. I am building a Computer Workstation. Please suggest Hardware if I am directed down the wrong path: Chief Architect Premier. Motherboard- MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX, Intel-i7, LGA-2011v3, DDR4-8x288pin; CPU- Intel Core i7-5820K, LGA-2011v3, 64bit, 6-Core, 12-Thread, Haskell-E; CPU Cooler- H100i-GTX, Radiator(276x125x30)mm; Graphics Card- MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 4GB, CUDA Cores-2048, SLI-4; Memory- Crucial CT4K8G4DFD8213, 2888pin, SDRAM-ddr4-2133, 32GB; Storage- HDD: 1TB, SSD: SATAlll 120GB, M.2: 250GB; PSU- SeaSonic SS-860XPv2, 860-Watts, Platinum, Fully Modular; Case- Corsair 500R Black, ATX, MidTower; Operating System- Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional 64bit-OEM; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Without stepping on a hornets nest you are putting together a system that is in the top say 5% group as it relates to consumer type machines. If cost is not an issue then why not, go for it and enjoy the ride. If cost is an important consideration then a good understanding of your needs is required. I run on systems that have at best 20% of this horsepower without any problems whatsoever and no complaints. However, I do not have a need to run camera views with shading and line smoothing. Always work with vector views even during client presentations, its just easier to see the structure this way. I then have Raytrace's prepared in advance when we wish to see how things look with lighting and textures. Next step up is Xeon processors and multi-graphics card configurations. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcaffee Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Make sure your DDR4 is matched to the MSI approved list in both clock speed and vendor. X99 chipsets are very finicky that way. I would dump the HDD and go 512GB M.2 as the OS drive with 1TB++ SSD storage drives. Good looking specs! jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Jon, is the 512 drive you recommend a hybrid? if not then why would you not want the OS on an SSD for fast boot loading? I would have most likely suggested an SSD for the OS and program files and then a large capacity HDD for mass storage. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcaffee Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 M.2 is an SSD running on the PCIe3 Bus vs. SATA III jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Perfect!! Having read your posts in the past I was pretty sure you would have an SSD for the OS. I'm interested in this but not always up to speed on the terminology. Maybe it's time for an upgrade! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheesyanimation Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 hello, probably best to contact CA's tech support. Thanks, The Cheesy Animation - Commercial 3D Walkthrough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 hello, probably best to contact CA's tech support. Thanks, The Cheesy Animation - Commercial 3D Walkthrough Took a peak at your website. Absolutely gorgeous renderings!!! Just out of curiosity, how long on average does it take to push through a rendering to achieve this level of quality? Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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