GTX 580 / ATI 6990 / ATI FirePro V7800 - any good for Maya 2011?

[mduque]

Hi everyone,

I want to upgrade my gfx card and retire my old 4 years old ATI Firegl v.5600 (512 MB). I don't want to go to Quadro level. A good Quadro card is very expensive and for what I was told, GTX 580 is a good alternative, HOWEVER, I found out, there are 2 problems with GTX 580 driver, in which, in Maya 2011, it doesn't show the high res rendering and viewport 2.0

This leads me to search for an alternative:

Or I get ATI FirePro™ V7800 ??

Or should I wait for a better fixed driver from Nvidia GTX 580?

Or wait for the ATI Radeon 6990 ?

I don't play games, it's mainly to be used for 3D work, but honestly I don't want to spend $1000 for a Quadro.

Any other recommendations / suggestions are welcome.

Thank you.

 

[EXCellR8]

the V7800 is the only card in the bunch that should be used solely for 3D rendering applications. the GTX 580 and Radeon 6990 are gaming cards and will not provide the performance of the FP workstation card. i'm not sure who told you that the 580 was a good alternative, but gaming cards are designed for fast clock speeds and dedicated onboard RAM (i.e. running games). they will work in rendering 3D, but not nearly as smoothly or in detail as a WS video card.

since you aren't going to play games, a FirePro series card would be the better purchase...

 

[mduque]

the V7800 is the only card in the bunch that should be used solely for 3D rendering applications. the GTX 580 and Radeon 6990 are gaming cards and will not provide the performance of the FP workstation card. i'm not sure who told you that the 580 was a good alternative, but gaming cards are designed for fast clock speeds and dedicated onboard RAM (i.e. running games). they will work in rendering 3D, but not nearly as smoothly or in detail as a WS video card.

since you aren't going to play games, a FirePro series card would be the better purchase...

Thank you for your quick reply. V7800 is what I was most inclined to go with as I've been using my 4 years old ati 5600 with 3D, however............... I encounter some serious crashes and display problems while I was using Luxology modo 3D program and the drivers never helped me sort out the problems I had with that 3D application. My experience with ATI and modo 3D was a terrible experience, one of the main reasons why I sold my modo 3D license.

However, been working in Maya 2011 for the last 2 months and never got a problem or crash, it's working all good. Since is a 4 years old card, though it is about time to retire the old v.5600 and get a new card for my core i7 860, 16 GB rams, Gigabyte P55A-UD4 motherboard.

I should say that I heard and read lots of users commenting on how bad ATI drivers were/are.

Just a quick question, what's the difference between FireGL and FirePro line?
Are they the same products different names or.........?

Again, thank you.

 

[mduque]

There is one problem with the v7800, the card has only 1 DVI plug and I have 2 monitors.

 

[captaincranky]

The 7800 card has 2 display port connections, and yes, only 1 DVI. Most current pro level monitors are gravitating toward Display Port interface. So, the problem is not with the card per se, it's with your monitors. (At least in a manner of speaking).

The "FireGL" model cards seem to have a lower version of Open GL installed. Ironic, I know.

This is the card I formulated this response from; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195098