gpu for 3DS max & others

Hey guys my friend needs a laptop and me nor him know what gpu to buy that can handle these programs: Autocad 2010, Archicad, 3DS max, Sketchup Pro, Photoshop, (these two are not necessary but would be nice too: ) cinema 4D, Sony vegas

When I looked up for 3DS max it says this: Direct3D® 10 technology, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL®-capable graphics card† (256 MB or higher video card memory, 1 GB or higher recommended)

So, since 1 gb is recommended I'd say he should get an ati hd565 but...I have no clue wether it has Direct3D® 10 technology.

Can you guys help me out? His max budget is 1000€ btw.

 

CPU power will be more important than GPU power for most of those programs, but any "modern" GPU should be fine. 3DS max will be the most taxing on the GPU I think.

 

Thats good to know, I thought he needed a professional gpu (like nvidia quadro fx) because the requirements for 3DS max said he needed this: Direct3D® 10 technology, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL®-capable graphics card†

I even thought he maybe needed one of nvidia's newest gpu's which are able to run games in 3D to run that program aswell, but I guess those are two different things.

+rep for u ^^

 

I'm pretty sure Direct3D is a subset of DirectX, so that shouldn't be an issue. And all modern NVIDIA and ATI GPUs support OpenGL as well.

 

Well I did a lot of Maya 3D and I would say the cpu is most important than the gpu. Also, any high end and mid range video cards should be able to run any of those programs.

 

small review on desktop VS workstation cards in things like Maya .... from experience you can notice the same things with A-CAD and especially some of its advanced plugins

Perspective: Radeon HD 5870 vs FirePro V8750 Icrontic Tech

 

It's definitely a subset. It's actually equivalent for the most part. As for OpenGL support, ATI just started supporting it pretty well fairly recently. Nvidia has traditionally had the best OpenGL support.

It depends a lot on how advanced the user will be. A normal desktop card will work fine for even fairly complex modeling and rendering, but if he starts getting into industry-level 3D, he'd be better served by one of the "pro" cards like the FirePro or Quadro.

 

If you don't want to waste a lot of money on an overpriced workstation graphics card and would also like to achieve the best gaming experience then you can always invest in a high end gaming GPU such as the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 and soft-mod it to a ATi Firepro 8800 (workstation card). Usually the difference between a workstation and gaming graphics is driver related anyhow.

You can find more information on it here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...m/500390-g73-5870-softmod-firepro-8800-a.html

 

He doesn't needs an high end. An HD5650 is good enough for 3DSMax. 3DsMax only need Direct X, don't even touch the 3Dsmax OpenGL driver, it is there untouched by Autodesk for years, absolute crap.
For Cinema4D check results of Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL benchmark.
In short you can get good viewport speeds in those two with an HD5650.
I don't touch Autocad and Archicad long ago so i don't know. Visit their forums.
Sketchup,Photoshop,Vegas no probs even with less cards it would work okay.

 

I think a high end gpu is out of the question with his budget.
The only thing lef to know is, what kind of cpu should he chose? Will an i5 do (and if yes which one, the ones starting with 4 or 5 in their name?) or should he opt for an i7 quad core?

 

That depends how much rendering he will do. Btw in my work i prefer to have a desktop just to do the rendering while i work in my laptop.

A dual core like i5 will do the job if he doesn't do too many rendering. - i don't know enough to say 4 or 5 check the CPU benchmarks here: Notebookcheck: Mobile Processors - Benchmarklist

 

Your friend doesn't need a professional gpu catered for 3d (it's the same hardware anyway with a difference in drivers).
I can tell you right now that any mid-range mobile gpu will suffice for 3d related work.
Integrated gpu's will also work nicely.
I was able to work without issues on Intel GMA 915 in 3dsMax by viewing and working with 1.78 Million polygon mesh.

Contemporary integrated gpu's will do FAR better (even Intel ones) and he/she could get a cheaper deal as a result while 'compensating' in a powerful CPU such as i7 (which is FAR more important for this kind of stuff).

Anyhow ... if your friend can get the 5650 mobility radeon, then by all means he/she should ... BUT, you first have to focus much more on the CPU power here.
The gpu is only there to preview the veiwports ... the actual rendering and computations are done by the CPU.

I work in 3dsMax myself, and my 9600m GT is 2 generations behind the 5650, and performs perfectly fine in Max with high poly meshes when it comes to viewports ... but the render times are a problem because my cpu is only 2.0Ghz per core (C2D).
I'm considering getting a more powerful c2D cpu for the upgrade, although in a few days I will possibly get a chance to test if a Q9000 (core2quad) will work in my laptop (so I could possibly upgrade to that if it works).

Make sure the cpu is powerful (a QuadCore would be ideal if the budget allows for it - and it should).
If your friend isn't a big fan of gaming, then a low end mid-range dedicated gpu will be fine.

 

Do not get an integrated gpu, they are slow and have issues, 1.78M poly mesh is nothing today. HD5650 is a mid level card.

 

I'm an animator that uses Maya & 3DS Max and I would totally NOT recommend you getting anything ATI if you plan to work in any 3D package for projects. Mainly due to their driver support for these programs. Don't get me wrong, They are excellent cards for gaming and other things but in Maya they run slow and give graphics anomolies very often. (Viewports get lost and don't properly show things, make playblasts slowly, etc.) They are similar in Max as well although I don't use the program that often to fully comment.

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention...don't waste the $$$$ on a workstation card, just stick with a normal gaming card. Workstation cards are worthless IMO unless you are doing pretty intense high poly stuff and if that's the case you probably aren't using a laptop to do that kinda work.

 

best full proof option is to get a D900F with core i7 desktop processor ... but seriously , i suggest i7-720qm/740qm at least... but its a good idea to have a proper card.. if he has a budget of $1600 , he can get an Asus G73 or MSI GX660 which would do well at CAD or whatever and gaming.

 

i have only used photoshop, after affects, premiere pro cs5 and cyberlink power director - so my observations may or may not have any direct bearing to your needs.
if your friend will be using this for work, get the best possible cpu. if your cad and animation programs are anything like ppro and ae, then you will want to do some ram previews (rendering your work in realtime) and for that you will need cpu power and ram. for ppro and ae cs5 HD video editing i would suggest a minimum of 820qm a recommend a 920xm, or a desktop cpu (sager d900f) and 8gig ram. sure you could work for with less, but you will probably be waiting more than editing.
i know vegas pro uses far less resources than the cs5 vid editing programs so you will probably be ok with 4gig and a 720qm for vegas. you will also be more than ok with that setup for photoshop and all other photo editing programs.
with regards to gpu's others are correct in stating that these programs are more cpu intensive. a good gpu will definitely help but will only render certain portions of an edit ie video effects and transitions, hdr and panorama for photoshop. also get an nvidia card since support for them is much better across the board. if your using this for work get at least an nvidia 260m 1gb or higher.

 

ATI cards have no problem in 3dsMax and Cinema4D.

 

but iirc ATI gpus are no longer supported in adobe cs5 and onwards since their partnership with nvidia.

 

They are supported, you might be talking about Premiere and only about GPU acceleration. Premiere can work with ATI like many Nvidia cards that are cut off from Mercury engine, those Nvidias have CUDA but Adobe/Nvidia code cuts them off...

 

not really. there is a well known hack that allows any cuda supported nvidia card that meets the minimum requirements to work with the mercury engine.

Adobe Premiere CS5 Video Cards with CUDA Acceleration Mercury Playback Hack Mod Tip Unlock

without gpu acceleration, everything in premiere pro is handled by the cpu.

however i think you are right in saying that ati gpus are supported in photoshop and possibly ae via opengl. however i would not be surprised if they dropped support for ati/amd gpu's in their next software refresh or even sooner, considering their partnership with nvidia.