Can anyone recommend graphics cards for running rhino5/6 well?
I have a nVidia GTX 1080, which seems to work pretty well–in spite of my old Sandy Bridge 2600k pushing the triangles through it. On the negative, these last-year video cards do not support video-game raytracing, but they do work for Rhino’s 6’s cycles real-time raytracing.
If you are on a budget a 1070 might be more affordable, but I wouldn’t go much lower than that, unless you are doing stuff that’s so simple that an Intel integrated boat-anchor --ehm GPU would work.
On the positive: the market is glutted with videos cards because the blockchain miners have moved on to custom silicon FGPAs and ASICS, leaving us with a lot of choices. Bwahahah!
Last-years GTX 1080ti cost less than my 1080, and it’s 30% faster.
This is a great time to buy a video card, but be careful with the nVidia 2080’s as at least one of them has burned, but if you are a game to keep your CAD skills sharp you might want to be patient until they get that sorted out, because I doubt that nVidia has the valor to add that to the 1080 or 1080ti.
One person stated that that their Quadro was faster than a GTX. One. My feelings are that most of these overpriced cards do not cool themselves well.
I strongly prefer the blower-style cards that empty ALL of the hot air out of the back of the computer case–instead of mixing it with your hot processor air. This is important in CAD systems, GPU enabled video editing systems, and raytracing systems. The alternative is an “open air” card which will warm your processor, which I feel is bad because by keeping you CPU cool, or GPU for that matter, often allows it to run faster before throttling.
I wouldn’t spend a lot of money for an overclocked card because usually the overclocking is less than 10%. Additionally, overclocking takes a lot of power than the base/stock clock speed.
Regardless, your power supply has to be to scratch with the proper power connectors to support an “enthusiast” video card. That’s not to state that you need 1000 watts of power supply, but the power supply you choose should be a decent one, and it might be worth considering both the warranty and the efficiency.
[I have a 7-year old Corsair HX1050, bought on sale. It’s not gold at high current, but it’s gold efficiency at the moderate current draw where I run it.]
Perhaps someone will chime in about AMD’s, which are comparable but I don’t know well.
Thanks for this.
I’ve been doing some reading and it seems AMD isn’t very well supported, so am more inclined to choose from NVIDEA. As for Intels, I think I’ll stay clear!
Didn’t consider the cooling of the card, thanks for bringing this up.
BTW, my next CPU will be an AMD. They are really beating intel right now.
I’ve like nVidia, but they are becoming uncomfortably evil.
AMD is really taking over confidently nowadays.