Another informative Video Card thread

[Steve C.]

I've done a LOT of research over the weekend and I wanted to pass on what I have learned about the video card world in the realm of CA. I posted a while back that I was struggling with performance on my new system:

HP h8-1050z
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium [64-bit]
• AMD Phenom(TM) II X6 1100T six-core processor [3.3GHz, 3MB L2 + 6MB L3 shared]
• 8GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs]
• 1.5TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
• 3GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 [DVI, HDMI, VGA]
• HP 2711x 27-inch LED Monitor

As good as a 3GB video card sounds there are other variables involved. First off, DDR3 is not the optimal operative for a video card, DDR5 is better. Not sure what those mean exactly, just trust me on this one :-) The memory interface on the GT440 is only 192 bits which limits data transfer and will likely never use the 3GB of memory in the card. CUDA cores also play into your performance. The 440 has 96.

The result: I ordered the GeForce GTX 580 which is about the top of the line gaming card which CA developers recommend over a Quadro price-heavy card. I also order a Corsair 650w PSU to give me the additional power needed to drive the card. So you can compare the two I have posted a link to both cards below. The 580 has 1.5GB of storage but with the improved memory interface of 384-bit (verses 192 in the 440) and GDDR5 it should use every bit of the 1.5GB. Also the CUDA cores on the 580 are 512 (verses 96 in the 440).

GeForce GTX 580
GeForce GT 440

I am far from a computer geek but I felt like I should pass on the information I have learned over the last few days to someone else who may be having similar issues in the future. I appreciate this forum and the "search forum" feature helped a lot in this research. Below are some other links I found to be helpful.

Videocard Benchmarks
SemiAccurate review of the GT440
Guru3D.com Forums
Nvidia Forums

I will post an update after I install my new card and PSU.

[Allen Brown]

Steve, not sure how my card compares to those, but this is what I got:
Asus (nVidia) ENGTX 480 (Voltage Tweaked to be 50% faster) video card @ 1.5GB GDDR5.
And it runs Chief like a dream. The 580 was out when I bought this one, so this one was substantially cheaper.

[HumbleChief]

Very interested in your results - thanks for the post.

And while you research don't forget www.tomshardware.com

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...card,2964.html

[Steve C.]

Thanks for that Larry. I actually stumbled onto that article too and forgot to post it.

[Steve C.]

Steve, not sure how my card compares to those, but this is what I got:
Asus (nVidia) ENGTX 480 (Voltage Tweaked to be 50% faster) video card @ 1.5GB GDDR5.
And it runs Chief like a dream. The 580 was out when I bought this one, so this one was substantially cheaper.

From the research I have done, the 580 was the next generation to the 480. You have a great card based on what I have read.

[Steve C.]

Just installed my new equipment. I was not all that impressed at first until I went into CA and made a few render adjustments (yes the same ones I tried with the old equipment). Now it seems to be running pretty well. I guess I just got spoiled on the speed of my last system which was not all that big, but I was running v.10 base, now I have X3 premium. There wasn't much on v.10 to slow it down so it hummed along pretty well. This is still not as fast as that was but it's close. I can live with it. I was getting pretty frustrated the last couple of days because I was working on a pretty large project and this thing was barely keeping up.

I should have taken a picture of the 2 cards next to each other, it was like a Pinto next to a semi tractor trailer. I really had to work to get the thing installed cleanly in my chassis.