Video card question - Sager NP9262 - Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M

Hi everyone. I need some help determining if a certain card will work in my machine.

When I purchased my NP9262 in Jan 2009, I opted for the Nvidia GeForce 9800m GTX card, rather than the upgrade Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M.

Well I am heavily involved in CAD work now (mainly working with 3ds Max, Maya, etc), and from what I understand, the Quadro cards run circles around the GeForce cards for that purpose. In fact, Nvidia makes a 3ds max performance driver that is only compatible with the Quadro cards, not the GeForce cards.

I called XoticPC, where I bought my computer, and they have one 3700M for $950. I checked ebay, and they have several, and they are MUCH cheaper. Unfortunately, none of the sellers can tell me if the cards are compatible in my machine.

So is there a difference between one Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M and another?

Here are the links to the cards - if someone can tell me whether these cards are compatible in my Sager, I would be EXTREMELY appreciative! Thanks in advance!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nvidia-Quadro-F...14915bcd6&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_7694wt_1033

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nvidia-Quadro-F...27abc963bd&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_1994wt_939

http://cgi.ebay.com/488125-001-Nvid...868cb37&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116#ht_1651wt_939

 

Welcome to the forum

It will work, MXM IV are backwards compatible with MXM III.

But you should probably wait so others can confirm this too in case I`m wrong.

 

Eivind is correct. However, there hasn't been a type IV card released since the 7950M GTX. All of the 8-series and 9-series top shelf cards are type III.

 

There is an option buried within 3DS Max that will allow it to run in a DirectX environment (read: maximum GeForce compatibility and performance), but there is no option like that within Maya.

And wait, what? The NP9262 has MXM Type IV slots for GPUs, but my 8800m GTX is Type III and still functions? Neat. I never could get a clarification on that.

 

Thanks for the info guys! Are all of the cards I linked the same? I know quite a bit about the software I use, but I'm not down with the lingo when it comes to these video cards. I don't really know what MXM III means - but if you guys say it will work then I trust you.

Is there a preferable card that runs in openGL for CAD that is compatible with the Sager NP9262? The rep at XoticPC told me that this is the best card that you can put in this machine.

One more question. I hear a lot about SLi - that is where you have 2 cards running at the same time, correct? Can the Quadro 3700M run in SLi mode, and is it even worth it to do that (buy 2 of them)?

Thanks again for the info guys - this forum is great!

 

In the max UI there are display options that allow you to select Directx 9, 10, or OpenGL.

There is no support for DX 10 in max - it crashes constantly. When I run in DX 9, it works, but when i get into high poly counts, the viewport hiccips (cripples) and crashes. From what I understand, the OpenGL cards (Quadro) are MUCH smoother in the viewport, and you don't get the redraw issues and the freezing/crashing when you're in the million+ poly counts, which is where I usually am with complicated outdoor scenes, even with proxies.

I also just purchased Vray 1.5 SP3, and I'm thinking about getting Vray RT, which constantly renders the scene with accurate GI and shaders in the viewport while you're working. I don't even want to try that with the GeForce card - it crashes way too often just in wireframe mode.

I think I'm going to have to give one of these 3700M cards a try - it's only another 400 bucks

 

3700M doesn´t have SLI connector, so.

 

wait so those cards(3700m's), that are issued for the IBM W700 and HP 8730W, will work on our 9262's??? crap... i just got a 2700m because i thought the ones pulled from those systems wouldn't work on our sagers...

can anyone else confirm this?

 

any 3700m will fit, and work.

 

IIRC, even Vray RT is powered by your CPU, not your GPU.

 

Yes, I spoke to a rep yesterday and he informed me that it uses idle CPU to render the image in the viewport. But I would imagine that many of the other problems I'm experiencing in the viewports are related to the GPU. Nvidia sure sells it that way.

Just bumped the ram up to 6GB yesterday. The chipset limitation is supposedly 6.8 on these things, so adding 2x4GB would only give me another 800 MB ram. I don't know if that's worth it for another $200. I'll see if having 6GB has any effect on the performance of 3ds Max, et al.

Again, thanks for the info guys!

 

The good news is that Chaos is working on a realtime (and not only, iirc) renderer that will use GPU.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zVAR_l2w8k

 

Cool, thanks for the info. I did some looking around, and apparently they have no anticipated release date for that. However, when it comes out, it should make a BIG splash.

Nvidia had a GPU based renderer called Gelato, but they abandoned support and development back at Max 2008, and I understand it was quite difficult to deal with. There was another one called rtsquared - but apparently that had been abandoned as well. I couldn't find a lot of feedback on that one.

It seems for now that stacking quad cores and setting up render farms is the only sure fire way to speed up render times.