hi-end graphics cards

lilbandit

lilbandit

I hate Meath
Can anybody recommend a good quality high end graphics card suitable for cg work? As I'm currently working and studying I have little or no time for cg work but I hope this will change in a couple of months when I finish college. I'm currently working on a powermac DP867 and it is adequate for the software (LightWave3d) but the graphics card is rubbish (geforce4 mx) leading to system slowdown when working on high-res scenes and objects. I don't mind long final render times (last one took 10 days around the clock) but decent responsiveness is necessary when modelling. Ideally I would buy a wildcat or quadro but these are not compatible with macs to my knowledge. Has anyone got any suggestions/experience to offer? Texture and light, open gl, volumetrics and heaps of memory are a priority!
 
Those aren't high end, er...at least not in a professional class, which is what the poster was going after.

Aurora supposedly makes some good quality cards for the Mac, although I think they're tailored more towards editing and capture for broadcast/video.

http://www.auroravideosys.com/


This isn't really on a pro-class level, but maybe worth considering. Might be an idea to sell off your DP g4 and grab yourself a DP g5 while you can still use the education discount (assuming your studying mentioned is at a school). ATI announced a 9800 series Pro special edition for the Mac, at 256mb of ram an 8x AGP (G5 only card). I haven't seen much on the specs for the card, but it seems to me that it could do what you want...especially on the wide open architecture of a G5 based system.

http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2004/4724.html
 
I've been out of the loop in cg for the past year or so, been busy studying while teaching also. I was hoping that somebody had some good news about a 3dlabs product such as this or this . Neither support Macs and I was hoping for some better news on this front after the release of the G5. I'm looking forward to spending more time working on cg as soon as I finish my studies and hopefully I'll invest in a new workstation. I can avail of an educational discount so I'll probably get a G5. I'd like a pro-graphics card if possible but it's not vital.
 
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