At this time, I am looking to build a new system that will either be an i7 3960X or 2 Xeon 8 core CPUs (depending on budget). The software I use are: Vue Infinite, Poser Pro 2012, ZBrush and maybe Maya later on. Most of them recommend nVidia due to their "CUDA" core support, but was not sure of that any more. Also, I know the Quadro 5800 or 6000 cards would be the absolute best, but those will most likely be way out of my price range.

So, I was wondering what is best for those out there using software like this? AMD or nVidia and if I should get a 680 (duel SLI) or 690 card? Also, I was told the new nVidia cards, while they have "CUDA" support that is very good, really are no longer good for 3D programs like the ones I use due to them being poor on 3D benchmarks that have been done (i.e. Toms Hardware, Ars Technica, etc.) They say they are limited on purpose and pushing the Quadro cards instead and only get them if you want to game. Is this true or is CUDA and 3D rendering still very good with the 680/690? I was told AMD Radeon 7970 cards do not have the same issues and score higher in the benchmarks. However, they do not have "CUDA" support obviously, which I may need I think.

Thanks for any advice and feedback.

Jeff

Development on: Mac Pro 2008, Duel-Boot OS - Snow Leopard 10.6.6 & Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon , 10GB 800 MHz DDR2 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT.