Upgrade my grafix card..

[hashirluv]

i've been posting this thread quite a few times but i am not able to make up my mind..

i do animation..much animation and rendering..
my system config is core i7 920, 6 gb ddr3 Ram, 640 HDD, ati radeon 3450 HD.. its dell studio xps..

i use softwares like 3ds max 2009, maya 2009, after effects cs3..

i wud like to upgrade my grafix card..

wat should i go for? rendering cards like quadro (entry level) or the ones like 8series and 9series? my maximum budget is 250$...

i heard that rendering depends on CPU and not on GPU..is it true??

if i'm changing GPU, should i upgrade my power suppy unit SMPS??

 

[hashirluv]

i finally narrowed my choices to nvidia gtx 260 and ati hd 4870.. which is a better one?

 

[renz496]

if you can't afford more money just get which one you can afford between the two. as for performance GTX260 and HD4870 are pretty much on par

 

[Noobster15]

Nvidia GTX 260 would be better for animation. Especially with applications using Cuda and Physx

 

[jsh1284]

I'd have to agre with the above poster. I love my AMD however for what you are doing, CUDA and such .. it makes Geforce a better choice in your case.

 

[hashirluv]

Can you explain wats Cuda and Physx?? How can i make my application to make use of these?

 

[warmon6]

Cuda = gpgpu: General purpose computing on graphics processing unit(s). All this means is that stuff you normally do on a cpu like video rendering will be transfered to the faster gpu for processing. (although you need special programs to use this feature)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPGPU
http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_what_is.html

PhysX= This is nvidia way of speeding up physics in games and science programs. This make the programs act much closer to reality than before.

Example for games: instead of shooting at a window and doesn't break, well in with this (if the game programed for it) the window will break.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physx#PPU
http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_faq.html