Workstation vs Gaming Rig PC's
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I'm going to buy a new computer soon and I don't know what to buy. I use Maya Unlimited a lot so I need graphic power. You can buy a GOOD gaming pc for about the same price as a so-so workstation. But the main thing is the graphic card. Should I go for a gaming rig with 2X Nvidia Geforce 7800GS's or a workstation with Nvidia Quaro FX540 series card or FireGL v3100 series. What do you all think?
"C++ will solve any problem."
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I'm going to buy a new computer soon and I don't know what to buy. I use Maya Unlimited a lot so I need graphic power. You can buy a GOOD gaming pc for about the same price as a so-so workstation. But the main thing is the graphic card. Should I go for a gaming rig with 2X Nvidia Geforce 7800GS's or a workstation with Nvidia Quaro FX540 series card or FireGL v3100 series. What do you all think?
"C++ will solve any problem."
#hackC++ wrote:
What do you all think?
The main difference between the consumer and workstation card is which 3D interface they are optimised for, and generally it's only in the drivers anyway. The consumer cards are aimed at DirectX performance, with slower OpenGL performance (sometimes artificially slowed down). The workstation level cards are the opposite, aimed at OpenGL performance, with slower DirectX performance. Go with whichever interface you need the most performance out of. Having said that, most people would not notice the difference between the two.
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
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I'm going to buy a new computer soon and I don't know what to buy. I use Maya Unlimited a lot so I need graphic power. You can buy a GOOD gaming pc for about the same price as a so-so workstation. But the main thing is the graphic card. Should I go for a gaming rig with 2X Nvidia Geforce 7800GS's or a workstation with Nvidia Quaro FX540 series card or FireGL v3100 series. What do you all think?
"C++ will solve any problem."
#hackC++ wrote:
Should I go for a gaming rig with 2X Nvidia Geforce 7800GS's or a workstation with Nvidia Quaro FX540 series card or FireGL v3100 series.
We use both for different applications. The workstation will get you about 10-15% faster than the gaming computer, for about twice the cost. When is that justified? that is up to the customer. However the workstation cards will have more accurate sub-pixel accuracy so are popular in engineering applications that require more accurate review processes such as chip design, car design and the like. I have not used Maya for years, so I don't know how well it does multi-processor rendering, but current workstations can go dual/dual. Dual processor, dual core can bring you to four cores for some pretty hefty processing power. I have one at work and love it. It's running a 7950GX2 though, not a workstation graphics card. I managed to get the machine up to 80% CPU usage, I haven't topped it out at 100% yet, but give me a couple of months. The quad-core Core2 gaming chip will be available next month, probably about four to five weeks from now if schedules hold. Prototypes for review are available now, so it looks like the schedule will hold. That means you can get a gaming rig almost as powerful as the workstation dual/dual for less than half the price.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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#hackC++ wrote:
Should I go for a gaming rig with 2X Nvidia Geforce 7800GS's or a workstation with Nvidia Quaro FX540 series card or FireGL v3100 series.
We use both for different applications. The workstation will get you about 10-15% faster than the gaming computer, for about twice the cost. When is that justified? that is up to the customer. However the workstation cards will have more accurate sub-pixel accuracy so are popular in engineering applications that require more accurate review processes such as chip design, car design and the like. I have not used Maya for years, so I don't know how well it does multi-processor rendering, but current workstations can go dual/dual. Dual processor, dual core can bring you to four cores for some pretty hefty processing power. I have one at work and love it. It's running a 7950GX2 though, not a workstation graphics card. I managed to get the machine up to 80% CPU usage, I haven't topped it out at 100% yet, but give me a couple of months. The quad-core Core2 gaming chip will be available next month, probably about four to five weeks from now if schedules hold. Prototypes for review are available now, so it looks like the schedule will hold. That means you can get a gaming rig almost as powerful as the workstation dual/dual for less than half the price.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)