Good graphics card for gaming & CAD?

[Deleted]

Greetings, folks!

So, the graphics card (GeForce 530) that came with my computer was weak to begin with, but lately it has really started to bugger me; it can't run even WoW above 25 fps with decent graphics. Plus I'll be needing good performance for my studies and work, which involves lots of CAD stuff (SolidWorks etc.). The computer's i7 CPU itself is quite powerful, and there's more than enough memory, but its graphics desperately need upgrading. I'm not looking to custom build a computer from scratch; I just need to upgrade an existing one that's otherwise good.

Unfortunately I'm far from a computer hardware expert myself. All those names and model numbers tell me absolutely nothing, and I would appreciate opinions from actual users instead of just the manufacturers or salespersons; so I need to resort to asking advice from forums.

So, my most humble request: I would be grateful if someone could recommend a good graphics card for a typical Windows 7 tabletop PC, with a budget limit of 150-200 $/€, for both gaming and working.


PS. no ideological rants about Windows, PC vs. Mac, Explorer, min-maxing performance or other stuff, please; just the graphics card.

[Logwyn]

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support...rdtesting.html

and

http://www.nvidia.com/object/best-cad-components.html

Showing you how to fish... not giving you the fish.

[Deleted]

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support...rdtesting.html

and

http://www.nvidia.com/object/best-cad-components.html

Showing you how to fish... not giving you the fish.

Thanks, but the SolidWorks site has no option for Asus, and the Nvidia one is just what I've tried to avoid -- the manufacturers trying to promote and sell their most expensive products. I was looking for advice based on first-hand experience from gamers and other users.

[Parrin]

Thanks, but the SolidWorks site has no option for Asus, and the Nvidia one is just what I've tried to avoid -- the manufacturers trying to promote and sell their most expensive products. I was looking for advice based on first-hand experience from gamers and other users.

You actually don't want advice from gamers. You want advice from CAD users. If you buy a gaming video card (even a top of the line one), it will suffer greatly in CAD. You want a workstation video card. You may have to lower the graphics settings for some games, but even a low-end workstation video card will grind it's way through any game you throw at it, just with lower quality graphics. And, in this case, AMD will probably be preferable to NVIDIA. Here's a link to some fish: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...%204017%204018

[Deleted]

CaD to CaD application can have huge difference. If you mostly doing 2d work then it doesn't matter all that much how powerful the gpu is, the work is done mostly by the cpu. IF you have a very powerful gpu that say could use cuda cores then things change. Especially if you run motion 3d. Like you have designed a highway and you are going into the drive option and you basically get 1st person view like you would see driving it for real. In any case you don't have the budget for it. Workstation gpu's are 500 upwards, up to 5k.or the average/normal 3d rendering your 200€ gpu will work at 30-50% load, single cpu core performance will matter more.

What you can buy with your budget is obvious. Get a R9 380 or gtx960 and if you find a sweet deal for the 4gb versions even better. Either card for cad 2010 onwards have full support for either open cl / gl. If you use older ones tho probably want to get an nvidia card and generally nvidia in workstation gpu's is a little better than amd. But with gaming cards thats another story and both are as good.

[chazus]

How important is the CAD stuff? You said it was for work.

If it was me, the job ought to buy an actual CAD-designed card, not some gamer card that does half the job.

If you just want the best gamer card you can get, thats all you can get. There isn't really different 'versions' of cards you can get for gaming. You just get the best money can buy. Some cards do function slightly differently with different programs, however.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Does the CAD suite support OpenCL or CUDA?