Professional Graphics, no games

[morrie8]

I am a Graphic Designer/Illustrator, and I really don't give a rats patootee how fast I can play QuakeII. I mean how can you base a quality piece of hardware on game performance? I would like to know if anyone has advice for a piece of quality professional graphics hardware (lots of colors) with strong 3D.

[collinj]

3dlabs Oxygen VX1 as far as I know is the best of the lower level 3d app cards out (about $300)

[Tempest156]

I run programs like AutoCAD R14, Photoshop & Paint Shop Pro @ work on an Elsa Synergy II (32mb).....runs pretty sweet. It retails for $299.....I've been seeing it in the $200 range......excelent buy.....

If you want to get super fast performance you're going to have to spend some super bucks ($1k-$2k)......for that I would suggest (from reviews, not personal experience) the Intergraph Wildcat 4000. This card features frame buffer sizes up to 256 MB (SDRAM) and up to 1 GB of dedicated texture memory for hardware accelerated texture mapping. Wish I had one......

[This message has been edited by Tempest156 (edited 07-14-99).]

[Tarrant]

Don't mean to be stirring up anything but I have to address this. I quote "I mean how can you base a quality piece of hardware on game performance?" I suppose those of us who pried the heatsink on our Riva TnTs, replaced it with a heatsink fan, and overclocked the video card chip should base the performance on how well they perform graphic design? Pardon me but this is like saying "how can you base the performance of a suped-up sports car on how fast it goes?". I think game performance says quite a bit about the quality, design, driver implementation, etc. of a video card. Games, at the very least some of them, do quite a job at taxing a graphics card and various other components of a computer. By this I mean, processor, RAM, and so on. Not having tried graphic design or illustration I may be opening myself up to dispute but I had to say something in my defense....

[roadrunner-gs]

For Low-end 3D-Graphics try:
-ELSA Synergy II 32MB SDRAM ~500DM [~250$]
3D Studio Max2.5/PII400&128MB
Benchmark 7 13.5fps
Benchmark 2,grid 7.27fps
-Oxygen VX1 32MB SDRAM ~700DM [~350$]
3D Studio Max2.5/PII400&128MB
Benchmark 7 11.0fps
Benchmark 2,grid 7.2fps
For Mid-end 3D-Graphics try:
-Diamond FireGL1 32MB SGRAM ~1800DM[~900$]
3D Studio Max2.5/PII400&128MB
Benchmark 7 11.8fps
Benchmark 2,grid 12.5fps
-E&S Lightning1200 15MB 3DRAM Framebuffer
16MB CDRAM Z-Buffer
~1450DM[~725$]
3D Studio Max2.5/PII400&128MB
Benchmark 7 6.9fps
Benchmark 2,grid 6.2fps
For High-end 3D-Graphics try:
-ELSA Gloria XXL 16MB VRAM Framebuffer
24MB EDORAM Z-Buffer
~4498DM[~2250$]
3D Studio Max2.5/PII400&128MB
Benchmark 7 8.2fps
Benchmark 2,grid 13.9fps
-Oxygen GMX 16MB VRAM Framebuffer
80MB EDORAM Z-Buffer
~4198DM[~2100$]
3D Studio Max2.5/PII400&128MB
Benchmark 7 11.4fps
Benchmark 2,grid 13.9fps

hope dis will help
p.s.: prices are level of Germany, could
vary in your country

[Toolbox]

I don't play much games either but you're rude!

[Dusting_Boy]

Dear: Morrie8,

I, myself don't play much games and don't like games that much either. But I'll keep that for myself. Respectively I don't but others do.
I shouldn't have to express/introduce myself that rude.
Well, I know you just don't mean that anyways.

[girlnextdoor]

Tarrant, V3000 is known to do better in 16bit than TNT2 or G400(well, not always),
But you wouldn't go buy that card to work on 3D studio max would you?
If are building a house, and need to go to the hardware store to pick up some lumber, you woudln't take Lamb Diablo or Porc 911 would you?

[This message has been edited by girlnextdoor (edited 07-15-99).]

[Ronin]

I use a Viper TNT2 Ultra and it works great with AutoCAD, Illustrator, Photoshop and 3D rendering programs. It does a nice job in rendering becuase it can do OpenGL. The max resolutions and refresh rates are really good. Cost is about $225 and that's not too bad considering it's really fast.

[Tarrant]

Girlnextdoor,

Lamborghini to the hardware store? Believe me, if I had one, I'd take that puppy down there twice! Nah, not heckling morrie8 for wanting perhaps a lesser performing card to do design work. I was just curious about the "I mean how can you base a quality piece of hardware on game performance?" comment. This statement in and of itself says, "you can't judge the performance of a graphics card on how well it renders games". I'm just simply pointing out that I disagree with the statement. However, if I do get a Lamborghini, I'll swing by and pick you up.....

[joshua_web]

Well I personally like 3DLabs. They give quick reponse to their customers. As you are a designer in 3D you would come across technical problems from software like memory conflicts and so on. 3DLabs staff are known to answer your questions as quickly as possible.

For you guys out there, I own a Riva TNT and know its limitations. This is one of them. If the 3D program supports OpenGL than it is possible to use it efficiently.