I am a student of architecture. I have a PC which I built in 2012. But since I am not much into gaming, I never bought a dedicated graphics card. The onboard graphics was enough for me. But now I am gonna need one for the programs we are gonna start using this year (like cad, sketchup, Ps, revit etc). So, I did some research on the internet. Some say Quadro/FirePro are necessary, others say GeForce/Radeon are good enough to pull off the softwares required in architecture. The more I researched, the more confused I got. So, I need suggestions from you guys about what to buy.
Also, I am listing some of the cards I found while doing research, which are within my budget (200$)
FirePro v4800
Quadro k600
GeForce GT 740
GeForce GTX 750 ti
Radeon R9 270
Radeon R7 260X
And also it would be really helpful if you guys mention what graphics card do you guys personally use and whats your verdict on those.
Thank you!
[My specs: i5-2420 Asus P8H67-M pro 8gb corsair ram 500gb Seagate HD (will be upgrading to a SSD soon) LG 1080p monitor.]
jungo
May 28, 15 2:16 am
This has been answered before, but there is so much more you should be buying before a new graphics card. You program use will be by bottlenecked by your old i5, 8gb of ram and boot speeds hindered by a lack of SSD.
Upgrade these first, unless you're intending to start real time rendering.
el_draco
May 28, 15 10:04 am
@jungo Thanks for replying. And Yeah, I checked the previous threads. But either most of them are quite old or suggested cards out of my budget. Thats why I reposted.
And, speaking of hardware, I am going to upgrade ssd and ram soon. But are you sure that I need a new processor? because, I've researched quite a bit on that too and most of the forums say that its unnecessary to upgrade from a i5-2420 right now.
Non Sequitur
May 28, 15 10:19 am
I've been rocking a Quadro 4K for a few years without any complaints. It may not be the most recent, but these babies were $1000 each 2 years ago. Looks like you can pick these up for $300 or less now.
kickrocks
May 28, 15 2:11 pm
A Quadro K2200 is not too bad for the price although 2-3x what is listed above. AMD severely discounts their cards for professionals so there are also high-end options for half off retail on eBay and such.
What is your budget always? $150?
archanonymous
May 28, 15 9:33 pm
@jungo.... most rendering software uses the CPU not the GPU. GPU is necessary for displaying models and 3D geometry but not the actual rendering.
@ OP, I have a couple setups. My home computer has an i7 w/ an NVIDIA GeForce 750 Ti. It is good. My work laptop has a Quadro K4000M. It is good. My old work computer had AMD R9. It was good.
It will be hard to go too wrong for an upgrade... keep the price low because your system is precariously close to obsolete anyways. You will need a new processor and motherboard in a year or two anyways.
Larchinect
May 29, 15 1:25 am
We use Lumion in our landscape office. I just built a machine with a Zotac GTX 970 4gb and it blazes through animations.
el_draco
May 29, 15 2:45 am
@non_sequitur thanks for the suggestion. unfortunately, its almost 500$ here.
@kickrocks yeah about 200$
@larchinect obvious. 970 is one of the fastest and best cards out there right now.
@archanonymous Thanks. I think I'll go for a gtx 750 ti... I cant go for the r9 because of my 450w psu... moreover, I'll have the option of hardmoding the 750 ti into a k2200
kickrocks
May 29, 15 2:53 am
Well, if you change your mind and don't want to hardwod, the K620 is a good mid-level card. Almost 3x faster than the K600 you listed (its indirect replacement is the K420). Wouldn't actually suggest you go real K2200 just yet until you know if you need the Quadro cards.
jungo
May 29, 15 5:18 am
@archanonymous - exactly my point. Unless they're using Lumion etc. better to upgrade from 8gb of ram or get an i7 for its hyper-threading capabilities.
kickrocks
May 29, 15 6:43 am
He doesn't need hyper-threading for the programs he listed. Hell, he's not even going to stress all four of his cores most of the time. A processor bump might yield some gains largely unnoticed but in benchmarks but that should be revisited after eliminating that crappy integrated graphics default from the checklist.
Boot speed is irrelevant--who is rebooting all day? You mean program launch speed. The SSD will prolong the lifespan by a year or two depending on workload; 8GB should be fine, it's a waste to go out and buy another 4 or 8GB on old slowass DDR3.
The point is to not spend $500 on a GPU when the rest of the system is only worth half that. A decent card can load viewports and models faster, which is far more noticeable than unused RAM and cores sitting idle.
el_draco
May 29, 15 11:25 am
@kickrocks I wont be buying a k2200, its too expensive for me. I was saying that if I buy a gtx 750 ti, I'll have the option of hacking it into a k2200... though its risky.
But I didn't know about k620 before. It looks like a decent card. And so, I am getting confused again. gtx 750 ti is a way more powerful card than the k620 but again the k620 is a card with drivers dedicated to these software works. What do you say?
Also, @archanonymous confirmed that his gtx 750 ti does a good job.
kickrocks
May 29, 15 12:15 pm
Quadro always look inferior and technically are on paper. But you're paying mostly for the drivers. If you want stability and specific performance over absolute numbers, I'd be inclined to get the K620. If you want something all-purpose, get the 750 Ti.
Hello everyone,
I am a student of architecture. I have a PC which I built in 2012. But since I am not much into gaming, I never bought a dedicated graphics card. The onboard graphics was enough for me. But now I am gonna need one for the programs we are gonna start using this year (like cad, sketchup, Ps, revit etc). So, I did some research on the internet. Some say Quadro/FirePro are necessary, others say GeForce/Radeon are good enough to pull off the softwares required in architecture. The more I researched, the more confused I got. So, I need suggestions from you guys about what to buy.
Also, I am listing some of the cards I found while doing research, which are within my budget (200$)
FirePro v4800
Quadro k600
GeForce GT 740
GeForce GTX 750 ti
Radeon R9 270
Radeon R7 260X
And also it would be really helpful if you guys mention what graphics card do you guys personally use and whats your verdict on those.
Thank you!
[My specs:
i5-2420
Asus P8H67-M pro
8gb corsair ram
500gb Seagate HD (will be upgrading to a SSD soon)
LG 1080p monitor.]
This has been answered before, but there is so much more you should be buying before a new graphics card. You program use will be by bottlenecked by your old i5, 8gb of ram and boot speeds hindered by a lack of SSD.
Upgrade these first, unless you're intending to start real time rendering.
@jungo Thanks for replying. And Yeah, I checked the previous threads. But either most of them are quite old or suggested cards out of my budget. Thats why I reposted.
And, speaking of hardware, I am going to upgrade ssd and ram soon. But are you sure that I need a new processor? because, I've researched quite a bit on that too and most of the forums say that its unnecessary to upgrade from a i5-2420 right now.
I've been rocking a Quadro 4K for a few years without any complaints. It may not be the most recent, but these babies were $1000 each 2 years ago. Looks like you can pick these up for $300 or less now.
A Quadro K2200 is not too bad for the price although 2-3x what is listed above. AMD severely discounts their cards for professionals so there are also high-end options for half off retail on eBay and such.
What is your budget always? $150?
@jungo.... most rendering software uses the CPU not the GPU. GPU is necessary for displaying models and 3D geometry but not the actual rendering.
@ OP, I have a couple setups. My home computer has an i7 w/ an NVIDIA GeForce 750 Ti. It is good. My work laptop has a Quadro K4000M. It is good. My old work computer had AMD R9. It was good.
It will be hard to go too wrong for an upgrade... keep the price low because your system is precariously close to obsolete anyways. You will need a new processor and motherboard in a year or two anyways.
We use Lumion in our landscape office. I just built a machine with a Zotac GTX 970 4gb and it blazes through animations.
@non_sequitur thanks for the suggestion. unfortunately, its almost 500$ here.
@kickrocks yeah about 200$
@larchinect obvious. 970 is one of the fastest and best cards out there right now.
@archanonymous Thanks. I think I'll go for a gtx 750 ti... I cant go for the r9 because of my 450w psu... moreover, I'll have the option of hardmoding the 750 ti into a k2200
Well, if you change your mind and don't want to hardwod, the K620 is a good mid-level card. Almost 3x faster than the K600 you listed (its indirect replacement is the K420). Wouldn't actually suggest you go real K2200 just yet until you know if you need the Quadro cards.
@archanonymous - exactly my point. Unless they're using Lumion etc. better to upgrade from 8gb of ram or get an i7 for its hyper-threading capabilities.
He doesn't need hyper-threading for the programs he listed. Hell, he's not even going to stress all four of his cores most of the time. A processor bump might yield some gains largely unnoticed but in benchmarks but that should be revisited after eliminating that crappy integrated graphics default from the checklist.
Boot speed is irrelevant--who is rebooting all day? You mean program launch speed. The SSD will prolong the lifespan by a year or two depending on workload; 8GB should be fine, it's a waste to go out and buy another 4 or 8GB on old slowass DDR3.
The point is to not spend $500 on a GPU when the rest of the system is only worth half that. A decent card can load viewports and models faster, which is far more noticeable than unused RAM and cores sitting idle.
@kickrocks I wont be buying a k2200, its too expensive for me. I was saying that if I buy a gtx 750 ti, I'll have the option of hacking it into a k2200... though its risky.
But I didn't know about k620 before. It looks like a decent card. And so, I am getting confused again. gtx 750 ti is a way more powerful card than the k620 but again the k620 is a card with drivers dedicated to these software works. What do you say?
Also, @archanonymous confirmed that his gtx 750 ti does a good job.
Quadro always look inferior and technically are on paper. But you're paying mostly for the drivers. If you want stability and specific performance over absolute numbers, I'd be inclined to get the K620. If you want something all-purpose, get the 750 Ti.