Mainly, I am trying to decide between the new nVidia 680 or 690 cards for their "CUDA" cores or the AMD Radeon 7970 6GB OC special edition versions. Other software I know seems to work better with nVidia and even take advantage of the "CUDA" cores like Adobe Suite CS6. So, I am not sure which is best at this time.

It is said that the new nVidia 6.xx cards are limited in compute functions and you can see a difference in benchmarks. Yet others will say stay with nVidia regardless because they run better with most 3D software and is what most like e-on suggest tyically. Also, I have seen where AMD cards in the prior versions had issues with Shader Billboards for Vue according to their list of compatible cards (hasn't been updated though). Is that still true and what about the most current AMD cards and drivers?

If I could afford a high-end nVidia Quadro like the 5800 or 6000 I would get it, but I would prefer something more along the lines of a high-end gaming card like the 680 or 690 if not too bad for rendering. Also, I was told by some a 690 card won't help over a 680 because it is like two 680 cards in SLI and most 3D software can't use duel GPU cards with added benefit. Instead, some techs at e-on and other places say to look for the best single GPU card you can get with the fastest clock speed and memory. Sort of like the GTX 580 "special edition" models that had factory overclocked speeds and more memory.

Any advice here on what current video cards you know work great with no issues and good results would help.

Thanks

Jeff

I would rule out the 690 the AMD Radeon 7970 6GB OC special edition versions for two reasons, firstly very few people will use these card, so it won't be used to test software making you more likely to experience issues with it, secondly they are poor value for money. AMD and NVidia will presumably update their FirePro and Quadro series GPUs sometime in the next year, save the money in case it is a must have update!

The compute functions in NVidia consumer cards are intentionally crippled, they want you to buy a Quadro!

Vue 10.5 does not use the GPU for rendering, with the possible exception of some use for Anti-aliasing. Vue also does not do computations on the GPU in the current release, it only uses OpenGL for the viewport display, so the CUDA OpenCL arguments are irrelevent for Vue. You don't say what other 3D applications you are using, or plan to use, so that may be a factor to consider.

You are probably aware that e-on software have a list of suggested GPUs, you can find this here:

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_10.5_infinite/?page=15

For cards not on this list you should ask e-on software directly.

Regarding the use of GPU processing in Adobe CS6, the information you quote is not quite correct. For AMD cards Adobe CS6 uses OpenCL, for NVidia cards CUDA, there is a very short list of functions where GPU processing is only available on CUDA not on OpenCL. See this link for details.

http://blogs.adobe.com/premiereprotraining/2012/05/opencl-and-premiere-pro-cs6.html

Personnally, as OpenCL is an open standard, and CUDA is proprietary to NVidia, I would prefer to see OpenCL implementations over CUDA.

For people who spend most or all of their time working with a single applicaiton like Maya, or Houdini, it makes sense to research the best GPU for the app and invest money there rather than in higher performance CPUs. However, for users that are working accross many different applications it may make sense to spend more of the budget on the CPU, which will benefit all applicaitons rather than the GPU, which may only benefit specific apps.

Finally, I find the whole GPU thing is very complex and not at all transparent. You usually can pick sets of benchmarks that favour whatever card you want to favour! I would rather invest money in CPU, where it is easy to see what you are getting, than GPU where you may or may not see any improvements in performance.

I thought this was already asked and answered before?  http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2849564

Quote - I thought this was already asked and answered before?  http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2849564

You're correct, I did back in May and got some good advice there too. However, things got real confusing when I started doing research on this and looking at benchmarks on various reviews. Sites such as Toms Hardware says one thing, which others like 3DGuru say something different. It got real confusing going back-and-forth trying to figure out what the FACTS were.

Honestly, I appreciate all the replies and think this thread has hit the nail on the head, there is no clear choice unless you are using just one main software package. In that case simply get the video card they recommend most and you're done. But if you have a workflow that consists of multiple 3D/2D software that's where it becomes hard to make a "best" choice.

Hate to ask again so soon, but I am building my workstation shortly and just wanted to see if there was anything else that may help.

What I do is watch a YouTube video of a 3D app I'm interested in (or have used before).  And if I see amazing video performance being shown in the video (no lag and no loss in FPS, while hi-resolution is used), I'll ask the poster what hardware they used.

Sometimes, the poster will say what hardware they are using at the beginning of their video.  Luxology videos tend to be high performance.  But Brad uses a Mac, so I'm not interested in the specs he used.  :)

Quote - I would rule out the 690 the AMD Radeon 7970 6GB OC special edition versions for two reasons, firstly very few people will use these card, so it won't be used to test software making you more likely to experience issues with it, secondly they are poor value for money. AMD and NVidia will presumably update their FirePro and Quadro series GPUs sometime in the next year, save the money in case it is a must have update!

The compute functions in NVidia consumer cards are intentionally crippled, they want you to buy a Quadro!

Vue 10.5 does not use the GPU for rendering, with the possible exception of some use for Anti-aliasing. Vue also does not do computations on the GPU in the current release, it only uses OpenGL for the viewport display, so the CUDA OpenCL arguments are irrelevent for Vue. You don't say what other 3D applications you are using, or plan to use, so that may be a factor to consider.

You are probably aware that e-on software have a list of suggested GPUs, you can find this here:

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_10.5_infinite/?page=15

For cards not on this list you should ask e-on software directly.

Regarding the use of GPU processing in Adobe CS6, the information you quote is not quite correct. For AMD cards Adobe CS6 uses OpenCL, for NVidia cards CUDA, there is a very short list of functions where GPU processing is only available on CUDA not on OpenCL. See this link for details.

http://blogs.adobe.com/premiereprotraining/2012/05/opencl-and-premiere-pro-cs6.html

Personnally, as OpenCL is an open standard, and CUDA is proprietary to NVidia, I would prefer to see OpenCL implementations over CUDA.

For people who spend most or all of their time working with a single applicaiton like Maya, or Houdini, it makes sense to research the best GPU for the app and invest money there rather than in higher performance CPUs. However, for users that are working accross many different applications it may make sense to spend more of the budget on the CPU, which will benefit all applicaitons rather than the GPU, which may only benefit specific apps.

Finally, I find the whole GPU thing is very complex and not at all transparent. You usually can pick sets of benchmarks that favour whatever card you want to favour! I would rather invest money in CPU, where it is easy to see what you are getting, than GPU where you may or may not see any improvements in performance.

Thanks for the reply and details, this helps me too. As stated in post above, you are correct in what I have found out too in there is no clear choice for multiple software use. In regard to what I use at this time, mainly it's Adove CS6 Suite, Poser Pro 2012, Vue Infinite 10.5, and ZBrush.

It seems the 680 will be just fine for what I do from what others have said so I think that is my best choice right now and doesn't cost what the Quadros do. If for some reason it is really bad in rendering and such, then I may consider a workstation card when the new ones come out as you say.

I do plan now to invest the most money in the CPU and may go with duel E5 Xeon 2687 for 16 cores. Take a look at the scores here and what you state about the CPU really stands out in Max and Vue:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/xeon-e5-2687w-benchmark-review,3149-8.html

Thanks again for the info, it just gets a little confusing at times on the GPU side of things, but the CPU is really clear. I just didn't want to spend $2-4,000 on a workstation card when that money can be put to better use for the Xeons.