is a workstation card right for me?

[Argh]

i have a question on graphics rendering and workstation cards. i design kitchens using a 3d CAD related program. the output of the design looks very similar to architectural prints and or CAD blue prints. but, then i am able to render the blue prints into photo realistic models with shadows and lighting and such. i am also able to walk into the 3d perspective by floating the camera, like moving through a fps game like doom3 and such.

i have never used a workstation graphics card before so i don't know if they will bendefit me using this CAD program. what i do notice about using "normal" game cards is that no matter how powerfull they are, there is no speed increase when it comes to rendering images and virtual walk throughs. i do notice that cpu power is heavily utilized when working with the CAD program.

my question is; if i opted to put in a workstation graphics card would this increase performance in the CAD program when it comes to renderings and walk throughs? right now, i can move the camera in walk throughs at about half a frame per second. and i can render an image with high quality settings and shadows in about 10 minutes is 1440x900 resolution.

here is an example of a rendering;
http://2020catalog.com/db_R11.jpg

[Q]

I'm not the guy that can help you....but wow. I'm very impressed with your work. I know its a lot of texture painting and such...but still. Very nice.

Would you mind listing what these programs are?

[Knot3D]

Hi there :)

The answer is likely to be found in answering these questions :

- What is the exact CAD software you are using ? Visit the website of the CAD program and look up it's system requirements.

It might require a fully OpenGL 2.0 compliant card.

- Image rendering is NOT dependant on the videocard. Faster rendering requires a faster cpu and more/faster system RAM, not a faster videocard. So, also check up the cpu & ram specs of your pc and see to it, they meet or exceed the software requirements. For rendering, saving up for a dual cpu pc is better than just going for a faster videocard.

- What videocard do you have now and witch drivers ?

- Is your income dependant on your 3D work ? This might ( with emphasis on 'might' ) justify an expensive 3D pro card.

I'm using Cinema4D R9 and Maya 5 for work and hobby. I used to have a Nvidia QuadroFX1000 3D workstation card which was great. A friend of mine wanted to buy it for a very good price so i had to find a replacement card when i sold my card.

At 1500 Euro's the QuadroFX3000 was waaaay overpriced imo. Knowing Nvidia's solid OpenGL support I got myself a Geforce6800GT. Works great in both Cinema4D and Maya. It can even be modded to a Quadro card.

So, I only suggest a Quadro card if your software ABSOLUTELY requires it. They're great, but also overpriced. The money you save by getting a 6800GT
instead of a Quadro, is better spent on a faster cpu or more RAM.

[Argh]

i am a kitchen designer and the software i use is called 2020 design (2020design.com) and is mainly used in the kitchen design showrooms to design, quote, and even render the designs. i use this software to it's full potential by rendering my designs in photo realistic perspectives instead of just providing my clients generic black and white line drawings or simply an architectural print. so yes, renderings are a big source of income for me and i am trying to speed up this slow process.

the softwares requirements are;
Recommended Configuration
• Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (or faster)
• 512 Megabytes of RAM (or more)
• 60 Gigabytes hard drive (or more)
• 40X CD-ROM drive (or faster)
• 32-bit Video card - 32MB of RAM (3D OpenGL accelerator and DirectX compatible)
• Windows 2000 Professional Edition or Windows XP Professional Edition
• Dedicated USB or parallel port (for 20-20 security device)

the only video cards i have used with this software were all geforce based cards. no matter the power of the cards, the software trully relied on cpu power alone. i was hoping that a workstations graphics card would do the trick, even though workstation cards are no where mentioned by the software company.

i have an smp system that i built (amd mp2000 smp rig) and the software did not benefit from this. i knew the software does not support smp so i was not expecting any surprises here. but, i never had the luxery of toying with a workstatoin graphics card and i never could get an answer to my question. so i started looking a little harder and came about this website.

edit; i also want to add that the software will allow me to render an image up to any resolution i want. i can for example, render an image in 10,000 x 10,000 or 4,800 x 2,400 wich is great for large format prints. but a rendering will take at least a half hour at thise resolution settings and that is killing me.

[Argh]

no one can help? :(

i called tech support of the software company and they have no clue what a workstations graphics card is :rolleyes:

edit; i also want to add that this software is only CAD based, meaning that it does not allow me to create 3D objects. it has a library of 3D models and allows me to position them in place, then texture them with pre-made textures or insert custom ones through JPEG images, etc. once i postion the 3D models and texture them, i can enter a 3D perspective mode and assign anti-alliasing and shadows with lighting properties to create a high quality rendering. i belive some type of CAD software is used to create 3D models which can be imported into the software's library for use.

[superklye]

Yes, you want one.

[Dr_s99]

well...
i would recommand getting a workstation card...
( i wish i could afford one... :P since i need one myself...lol )

[Argh]

i called the software manufacture and they said that a workstation card will not improve performance! :thumbdwn:

they said that the software simply checks to make sure the resources are there at the video card and only uses only what it needs. i asked the tech if it is basically cpu dependant and he said yes.

somehow i don't belive them :rolleyes:

[Dr_s99]

well... it could be... :P

[Lord Heinrich]

Generally when you are talking about rendering, the CPU is what is most affecting the times. Basically, a Dual CPU will render 2x as fast as single CPU. Also you need lots of RAM.

If you get a WS GPU, your render times should be slightly faster. There should be some feature to turn on hardware rendering. However, GPU seems to be more for real time stuff like manipulating the camera angles, zoom, etc...

Also, don;t always beleive system requirements.

Take something like poser. It recommends:
500MHz Pentium class or compatible (700Mhz or greater recommended)
128MB system RAM (256MB recommended)

Techinically, I could run it fine with my "Beast" PC, but actually even with 2.8Ghz & 1Gb Ram (4x recommended) you will still be tempted to grab a mace and smash your PC to dust because of how slow it runs.

Either way, you are going to pay some serious cash to improve your render times. I have never tried it, but you can try network rendering. I would not know how to go about it, but that should cut render times in half. Also, cost wise, it will be the same as getting something like a Quadro FX 3400/4400. You can build a dual Xeon 3.60ghz for about $3000 or a Dual Opteron (248) for about $2000. Or you can go with a close to top end PC for about $1400. If you want a graphics card upgrade something like FX 1300/1400 or FX 2000 (approx $800) will be more than enough. These are both mid-grade, but they are fine even for software like Maya, 3ds Max, etc... which is the most intense stuff you can get.

I am not familiar with your software, but you may be able to improve render times. I can render an identical scene in Bryce 5 waaaaay faster on my 750mhz pc than on my Dual AMD if I make some changes that do not even affect the final appearance. Usually shadowing is what accounts for horrible rendering times. If you can turn off shadows and use negative lighting to create shadows, you can render maybe 60x faster than normal. This may or may not be helpful. If you have the same lighting/shadowing options as in Bryce then it amy work.

[elvis28]

what is the security device for? i have the program but i can't run it because i don't have the device

[Toss3]

what is the security device for? i have the program but i can't run it because i don't have the device

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