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kenmo
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I'm thinking of replacing my aging Geforce 8500GT with one of the three...

Nvidia Geforce GT240, 9800 GT or GT430...

http://www.nvidia.com/content/HelpMeChoose/fx2/HelpMeChoose.asp?lang=en-us

I'm leaning more towards the 9800 GT as it has more Cuda cores 112 vs 96 for the other two cards although it is an older card then the other two...

Also since my power supply is only a 550 Corsair unit I don't really want a card that requires a power lead... I also prefer a single slot card as well...

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Ken

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I'm thinking of replacing my aging Geforce 8500GT with one of the three...

Nvidia Geforce GT240, 9800 GT or GT430...

http://www.nvidia.com/content/HelpMeChoose/fx2/HelpMeChoose.asp?lang=en-us

I'm leaning more towards the 9800 GT as it has more Cuda cores 112 vs 96 for the other two cards although it is an older card then the other two...

Also since my power supply is only a 550 Corsair unit I don't really want a card that requires a power lead... I also prefer a single slot card as well...

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Ken

I really would look at the GTX 460 or 465. You can usually find them somewhere around $150+. If you get one with aftermarket cooling, like a Palit, MSI, Asus or Galaxy brands often use, then you really can overclock it much higher than the factory clock (and still run very stable...just google search "Overclocking your model" and you'll find some article that provide settings they used to OC, and use those). I think you really handcuff yourself by choosing single-slot cards with no power cable. Most cards now require them. The ones that don't may not be worth upgrading to, in my opinion.

If you shop around, you can get an inexpensive 700-800W power supply (with Modular cables so you don't have any unused cables to hide), to make sure you have enough juice. You may have enough with your 500W, with the GTX 460 or 465. But the best case would be, especially if you plan to upgrade your CPU as well, to go with a 700-800W PS.

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There are multiple reports about some bad performance with the GTX 400 series in various 3D programs.

See here

I exchanged my 9800GTX for a GTX 460 and noticed a decrease in performance in 3D Coat.

I subdivided a standard cube in Blender a couple of times untill it reached 1.5 million faces and I couldn't even rotate the view anymore.

On the other hand, rendering in Octane blows the 9800 away.

just an FYI

Also see this thread which has some benchmarks between the two cards.

I also must stress out that in DX mode, 3D-Coat is working very smooth for me with this card.

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[Checking the Gigabyte forums there seems to be a problem with my AM3 socket Gigabyte mobo ( GA-MA790X-UD4 ) and Nvidia GT 4xx cards... Perhaps I should be looking at an ATI alternative....and is there an ATI card that anyone could recommend?

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[Checking the Gigabyte forums there seems to be a problem with my AM3 socket Gigabyte mobo ( GA-MA790X-UD4 ) and Nvidia GT 4xx cards... Perhaps I should be looking at an ATI alternative....and is there an ATI card that anyone could recommend?

I don't know in this case, but just because one person has a problem doesn't mean everyone else does. Otherwise, there would be more widespread complaints. For example, the supposed problems with the 4xx series and programs like Max, Maya, and Blender. I haven't noticed any such problem with Max with my GTX 470. E-mail Gigabyte and ask them directly if there is a problem indeed and if so, if there is any resolution for it. I haven't purchased an ATI card in a few years, so I really don't know what to recommend. Maybe a 6850?
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I don't let a few complaints color my decision. There were some bumps in the road when the new cards first came out...those have been ironed out, including the way their drivers operate in 3D Coat. Andrew had to do some work in this area, and Fermi cards are no longer an issue. I'm sure you'll have some issues with ATI cards. In fact, you generally forfeit any GPU processing when you buy one. It doesn't support jack, even with OpenCL. Vray 2 uses OpenCL to accelerate its Interactive Renderer. Guess who is the only card manufacturer to work with it? Hint...it's not ATI.

You can choose CPU mode or GPU, and when running on my GTX 470, it blows the CPU mode away. Easily 10+ times faster.

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I don't let a few complaints color my decision. There were some bumps in the road when the new cards first came out...those have been ironed out, including the way their drivers operate in 3D Coat. Andrew had to do some work in this area, and Fermi cards are no longer an issue. I'm sure you'll have some issues with ATI cards. In fact, you generally forfeit any GPU processing when you buy one. It doesn't support jack, even with OpenCL. Vray 2 uses OpenCL to accelerate its Interactive Renderer. Guess who is the only card manufacturer to support it? Hint...it's not ATI.

You can choose CPU mode or GPU, and when running on my GTX 470, it blows the CPU mode away. Easily 10+ times faster.

Ummm someone correct me if I'm wrong, but OpenCL is part of the driver download for ATI cards from the November build of the Catalyst drivers. And I have not really used OpenCL for anything useful, so I don't know if ATI's OpenCL implementation sucks. I don't use too much of GPU computing (as 3d-coat does not support gpu acceleration on my ati 4850, snif), so I don't know if my workflow in 3d-coat would benefit. Still, for what I use 3d-coat for, it is already quite fast.

I do agree on buying ANY video card with a custom cooling solution. When I bought my HD 4850, it came with the reference cooler, where idle would get you 85°Celsius. Unless you wanted the fan to work at 100%, which would only cool it some 10°C. I Attached a big, externally powered fan inside my case, and positioned it so it pointed towards the video card to help, but that only lowered it 20°C (to 65°C) in idle. Still, even then, when doing 3d work, it would quite easily reach 100°C and beyond. (The nice sticker in the heat disipator cover started pealing no doubt thanks to the heat). But the worst part was that it was a feat to sleep when I left my computer rendering at night, it was just too noisy.

After installing a third party vga cooler, the temperature dropped to 45°C on idle.

Anyway, for today's standards my card is probably old and slow, but I don't see myself replacing it anytime soon, it works perfectly for my needs.

This is my personal experience, and since I don't need CUDA prowess, and since 3d-coat is quite fast for me in non-CUDA anyway, I'm quite happy with my ATI card. Maybe if I really need CUDA I'll think of changing the card, but not for the time being.

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I edited the post to clarify that the only card manufacturer to WORK with Vray RT, using OpenCL...wasn't ATI. You would think they would, but they don't...they are always behind the power curve regarding GPU computing, even with their own video encoding app that is supposed to come with their Catalyst Control software.

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I edited the post to clarify that the only card manufacturer to WORK with Vray RT, using OpenCL...wasn't ATI. You would think they would, but they don't...they are always behind the power curve regarding GPU computing, even with their own video encoding app that is supposed to come with their Catalyst Control software.

That I know. I haven't been able to run that encoding app yet. Could be I'm in XP 64 bits, but still, it IS odd. :rolleyes:

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That I know. I haven't been able to run that encoding app yet. Could be I'm in XP 64 bits, but still, it IS odd. :rolleyes:

My laptop has a discreet ATI 5730 1GB VRAM...and I tried to use it (I think it's called Avivo) and could never really get anything out of it. It's as if ATI is focused 100% on gaming and nothing else.
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I don't let a few complaints color my decision. There were some bumps in the road when the new cards first came out...those have been ironed out, including the way their drivers operate in 3D Coat. Andrew had to do some work in this area, and Fermi cards are no longer an issue. I'm sure you'll have some issues with ATI cards. In fact, you generally forfeit any GPU processing when you buy one. It doesn't support jack, even with OpenCL. Vray 2 uses OpenCL to accelerate its Interactive Renderer. Guess who is the only card manufacturer to work with it? Hint...it's not ATI.

You can choose CPU mode or GPU, and when running on my GTX 470, it blows the CPU mode away. Easily 10+ times faster.

I would agree with you that if it were only a few, but reading those posts and some at newtek and nvidia no comment on those issues, its better to hold off since the 2nd generation cards from nvidia are well on their way.

And ATI, never planned to get. ATI is generally not used in cg much hence I never ever thought of buying them. If I was a gamer I would probably choose ATI.

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I ordered a 750 W Corsair power supply from Newegg and a Nvidia GTS 250 (1 gb memory) from NCIX Computers. Both were onsale and also offered mail-in rebates... Newegg even offered free shipping on the Corsair...

After much research on the Gigabyte forums and e-on Vue forums it appears the 98xx series card is the best for Vue and also my motherboard... Apparently the GTS 250 is like a supped up Geforce 9800 series..

I have 5 hard drives in my case, two fans, and two external usb devices powered via the usb bus....external usb card reader & a Canon flatbed scanner...

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I would agree with you that if it were only a few, but reading those posts and some at newtek and nvidia no comment on those issues, its better to hold off since the 2nd generation cards from nvidia are well on their way.

And ATI, never planned to get. ATI is generally not used in cg much hence I never ever thought of buying them. If I was a gamer I would probably choose ATI.

nvidia 28nm cards won't be out until at least October 2011 that's a long wait :| Gainward is about to release a GTX 580 with 3GB of ram, should be great for DCC apps.

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