Rendering: GTX 590 vs ATI HD6990

[Chirag Borawake]

Hey guys, need your opinions for the latest upgrade.
My friend has got:
Intel P55 motherboard
4GB DDR3 RAM
Nvidia 9800GT 512MB
Coolermaster 700watt PSU

He needs to upgrade his Graphics card, probably a GTX590 for 2 years up ahead.
He's Industrial Design Student, from International School Of Design.
3D softwares: Autodesk Alias, 3Ds MAX, MAYA, Rhino, Keyshot, any many more.

Now for rendering, just for 2 years, does he really need to invest that much? Because ATI is launching the HD 7000 series soon (XDR2 memory-twice faster than GDDR5, 28nm processed-less power consumption)
Or if he needs to, then which is better for 3d modeling and rendering purpose? GTX 590 or ATI HD6990?
Or if any other GPU suggestions, they will be appreciated.
Just need your opinions, and a short description why you chose that.

 

[ukee1593]

I'm no expert in this field but here are my thoughts:

Firstly most of these applications (if they even use GPU acceleration) will only use CUDA from NVidia. Therefore I recommend a NVidia card.

Also most of these applications do not have SLI or Crossfire support. Therefore a single GPU card is usually best.

I recommend a GTX 580 at the most for these purposes. Perhaps invest in a model with extra VRAM though. It is the fastest single GPU system available and the NVidia CUDA will ensure that all applications that can be accelerated, are accelerated.

 

[Chirag Borawake]

I'm no expert in this field but here are my thoughts:

Firstly most of these applications (if they even use GPU acceleration) will only use CUDA from NVidia. Therefore I recommend a NVidia card.

Also most of these applications do not have SLI or Crossfire support. Therefore a single GPU card is usually best.

I recommend a GTX 580 at the most for these purposes. Perhaps invest in a model with extra VRAM though. It is the fastest single GPU system available and the NVidia CUDA will ensure that all applications that can be accelerated, are accelerated.

Are you 100% sure that these applications wont support the Dual GPU cards? Does that mean that these applications will use only one GPU, and one would remain idle?

 

[MrMeth]

If your friend is willing to spend that much money he should definitely be looking at the professional versions of the cards from nvidia and AMD. The Firepro for AMD and the QUADRO for Nvidia. These cards are designed specifically to work with the programs he will be using. As for the crossfire and sli comment by ukee , I think they do support sli for nvidia for the quadro cards. And allot of the new professional software has integrated support for cuda so you will see better performance with an Nvida card.

 

[Chirag Borawake]

If your friend is willing to spend that much money he should definitely be looking at the professional versions of the cards from nvidia and AMD. The Firepro for AMD and the QUADRO for Nvidia. These cards are designed specifically to work with the programs he will be using. As for the crossfire and sli comment by ukee , I think they do support sli for nvidia for the quadro cards. And allot of the new professional software has integrated support for cuda so you will see better performance with an Nvida card.

According to my information, the quadro graphics cards dont support SLI, even if two of them are inserted in an SLI motherboard. Correct me if I am wrong..!!

 

[Chirag Borawake]

If your friend is willing to spend that much money he should definitely be looking at the professional versions of the cards from nvidia and AMD. The Firepro for AMD and the QUADRO for Nvidia. These cards are designed specifically to work with the programs he will be using. As for the crossfire and sli comment by ukee , I think they do support sli for nvidia for the quadro cards. And allot of the new professional software has integrated support for cuda so you will see better performance with an Nvida card.

And moreover, in a price range of GTX 590, he cant even get nvidia quadro FX3000 series. So whats the use of getting a quadro lower than 3k series? with gtx590, he could have got better performance than quadro 1800/2800, and it would have been better in gaming too..!!

 

[yasir siddiqui]

NVIDIA is better then ATI so, i have recommended GTX 590.

 

[Device Unknown]

"NVIDIA is better then ATI so, i have recommended GTX 590."

Prove it.

 

[MrMeth]

@Chirag Borawake quadro video cards do support sli , check it out. I do admit the cards are expensive

http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_sli.html

http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_sli_compatible_systems.html