Which card for Sketchup/Photoshop?

[floeby]

Hi everybody,

I am not much of a hardware specialist. Have a new system (i7) with my old graphics card from my previous system. I used to be more of a gamer, but off late (for hobby/work) I more and more use it for Sketchup and Photoshop.

My budget is limited and the information on the Internet is a jungle, full of contradictory advice.

What would you guys (and girls) recommend?
A card like e.g. HP quadro 5000 (second hand) or for example a GTX 970?
How would the GTX 970 perform with programs like autocad/sketchup? If it performs adequately, I'm leaning towards the latter since I am not a high end user.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[uthvag]

Hi everybody,

I am not much of a hardware specialist. Have a new system (i7) with my old graphics card from my previous system. I used to be more of a gamer, but off late (for hobby/work) I more and more use it for Sketchup and Photoshop.

My budget is limited and the information on the Internet is a jungle, full of contradictory advice.

What would you guys (and girls) recommend?
A card like e.g. HP quadro 5000 (second hand) or for example a GTX 970?
How would the GTX 970 perform with programs like autocad/sketchup? If it performs adequately, I'm leaning towards the latter since I am not a high end user.

Thanks for the advice!

According to this, the GTX 970 will be better
http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA+Quadro+K5000/review

but quadro was specifically created for 3d purposes
If you are a lihter user get the quadro,or if you are a really heavy type go for the 970
Be sure to get a 6GB 970 as 3d works require a lot of VRAM(heavy rendering)

 

[KC McLaughlin]

Right now the GTX 970 will probably win on all benchmarks because it is Nvidia's newest GPU architecture while the Quadro architecture in use now has been around for a while. Either one will do what you need; however, the Quadro is more specifically designed for tasks such as 3D rendering.

Quadro GPUs are hand tested and carefully built to ensure performance and reliability which is why they cost so much more compared to GeForce GPUs with the same or similar specs. As far as I am aware, Sketchup and Photoshop are not incredibly demanding on the GPU so I would stick with the GTX 970 unless you need hundreds of hours of nonstop uptime from your GPU, which I doubt you do.

 

[bambiboom]

floeby,

Choosing the best graphics card is a complicated decision as the cards become more specialized. As I like to say it, content creation hardware is quite different from content consumption hardware. There are CAD / visualization programs such as Maya in which a $1,000 GTX Titan doesn't perform as well as a $180 AMD Firepro and GTX with astounding 3D performance. See:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493.html

> and a GTX really isn't usable in Solidworks. The workstation drivers just don't do well with viewports as this feature would slow gaming performance.

So, the choice is very much about cards that perform well in your applications, but as that might mean a wide range, it's necessary to have a good performance in almost every kind of program, which is to say- expensive.

The Quadro KX000 series were all replaced in September 2014 with cards (the KX200 series) with more CUDA cores, more memory and higher clock speeds- much better performance and use less power. If I had an unlimited budget, the ideal card I would say is the recent Quadro K5200 (8GB), which has higher 3D benchmarks than a GTX 780, but it's also $1,900. The Quadro K4200 is also very impressive for $850.

More realistically, I would suggest you look into a card further down that same line, the Quadro K2200 (4GB) which are about Eur 500 and only use 68W. The performance surpasses the former series Quadro K4000. Still, a used K4000 (3GB) would be a very good choice and these can be seen for Eur 350-400 on Ebay DE. This is the card I recommend. See;

http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_sop=15&_nkw=quadro+k4000&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc

The Quadro 5000 (2.5GB) would be a good choice for the uses you mention- a 320-bit bandwidth and very good in 2D uses. However, it is now three generations past and I think the K4000 with more CUDA cores, more memory and 80W power use (+cooler) would be a better choice. The 5000 is a double height card and make sure you have the proper power connections- it's 152W and I think uses two 6-pin connections.

Another very good used card in that same price range as a Quadro K4000 is a Firepro W7000 and it has a wider bandwidth and more memory (4GB). See:

http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_odkw=quadro+k4000&_sop=15&LH_Complete=1&_from=R40&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR2.TRC1.A0.H0.Xfirepro+w7000&_nkw=firepro+w7000&_sacat=0

Still, as Adobe (and Autodesk) products are CUDA accelerated, I'd stay with Quadro. With a Quadro far enough up the line, everything is possible- though gaming will not be ideal except near the very top.

A word about Sketchup: I've found Sketchup to have a lot of limitations and having any kind of usable performance requires care and planning. In some ways I think the drawing setup is as important than the graphics card. I did a model of buildings totaling 1.2M square feet on a 200 acre Google Earth terrain and while this file was only 105MB, it gradually became impossible to navigate and eventually would not extract even 2D images. I took a few steps back and placed everything into components and Groups, and into Layers that could be turned off except the area I was working on, used monochrome view, and most importantly redesigned my trees fro low polygon count and subtracted 14M polygons. This made navigation possible but still, I can't get any renderings (VRay) of the whole model as Sketchup is a 32-bit program and my model pushes the memory over the 2GB limit. I think my future is going to be 3Ds Max. However, if your models are modest, Sketchup is very fast to learn and use.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420 (2014) > Xeon E5-1620 quad core @ 3.6 / 3.8GHz > 24GB DDR3 ECC 1600 RAM > Quadro 4000 (2GB)> Samsung 840 SSD 250GB /Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > AE3000 USB WiFi > HP 2711X, 27" 1920 X 1080 > Windows 7 Ultimate 64 >[Passmark system rating = 3923, CPU= 9223/ 2D= 839 / 3D=2048]

Dell Precision T5400 (2008) > 2X Xeon X5460 quad core @3.16GHz > 16GB DDR2 ECC 667> Quadro FX 4800 (1.5GB) > WD RE4 500GB / Seagate Barracuda 500GB > M-Audio 2496 Sound Card / Linksys 600N WiFi > Dell 24" and Dell 19" LCD > Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit > [Passmark system rating = 1859, CPU = 8528 / 2D= 512 / 3D=1097]

Dell Precision 390 (2006) Xeon x3230 quad core @ 2.67GHz > 6 GB DDR2 ECC 667 > Firepro V4900 (1GB)> 2X WD 320GB > 2X Dell 19" LCD > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit [Passmark system rating = 1458, CPU = 3642 / 2D= 433 / 3D=1346]

2D, 3D CAD, Image Processing, Rendering, Text > Architecture, industrial design, graphic design, written projects

 

[blacksheep123]

can you please tell me your budget??

 

[floeby]

My budget would be 400 euros tops (+/- $500)

 

[blacksheep123]

My budget would be 400 euros tops (+/- $500)

ATI FirePro V5900 is a good choice for professional graphic designers

 

[floeby]

floeby,

Choosing the best graphics card is a complicated decision as the cards become more specialized. As I like to say it, content creation hardware is quite different from content consumption hardware. There are CAD / visualization programs such as Maya in which a $1,000 GTX Titan doesn't perform as well as a $180 AMD Firepro and GTX with astounding 3D performance. See:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493.html

> and a GTX really isn't usable in Solidworks. The workstation drivers just don't do well with viewports as this feature would slow gaming performance.

So, the choice is very much about cards that perform well in your applications, but as that might mean a wide range, it's necessary to have a good performance in almost every kind of program, which is to say- expensive.

The Quadro KX000 series were all replaced in September 2014 with cards (the KX200 series) with more CUDA cores, more memory and higher clock speeds- much better performance and use less power. If I had an unlimited budget, the ideal card I would say is the recent Quadro K5200 (8GB), which has higher 3D benchmarks than a GTX 780, but it's also $1,900. The Quadro K4200 is also very impressive for $850.

More realistically, I would suggest you look into a card further down that same line, the Quadro K2200 (4GB) which are about Eur 500 and only use 68W. The performance surpasses the former series Quadro K4000. Still, a used K4000 (3GB) would be a very good choice and these can be seen for Eur 350-400 on Ebay DE. This is the card I recommend. See;

http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_sop=15&_nkw=quadro+k4000&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc

The Quadro 5000 (2.5GB) would be a good choice for the uses you mention- a 320-bit bandwidth and very good in 2D uses. However, it is now three generations past and I think the K4000 with more CUDA cores, more memory and 80W power use (+cooler) would be a better choice. The 5000 is a double height card and make sure you have the proper power connections- it's 152W and I think uses two 6-pin connections.

Another very good used card in that same price range as a Quadro K4000 is a Firepro W7000 and it has a wider bandwidth and more memory (4GB). See:

http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_odkw=quadro+k4000&_sop=15&LH_Complete=1&_from=R40&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR2.TRC1.A0.H0.Xfirepro+w7000&_nkw=firepro+w7000&_sacat=0

Still, as Adobe (and Autodesk) products are CUDA accelerated, I'd stay with Quadro. With a Quadro far enough up the line, everything is possible- though gaming will not be ideal except near the very top.

A word about Sketchup: I've found Sketchup to have a lot of limitations and having any kind of usable performance requires care and planning. In some ways I think the drawing setup is as important than the graphics card. I did a model of buildings totaling 1.2M square feet on a 200 acre Google Earth terrain and while this file was only 105MB, it gradually became impossible to navigate and eventually would not extract even 2D images. I took a few steps back and placed everything into components and Groups, and into Layers that could be turned off except the area I was working on, used monochrome view, and most importantly redesigned my trees fro low polygon count and subtracted 14M polygons. This made navigation possible but still, I can't get any renderings (VRay) of the whole model as Sketchup is a 32-bit program and my model pushes the memory over the 2GB limit. I think my future is going to be 3Ds Max. However, if your models are modest, Sketchup is very fast to learn and use.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420 (2014) > Xeon E5-1620 quad core @ 3.6 / 3.8GHz > 24GB DDR3 ECC 1600 RAM > Quadro 4000 (2GB)> Samsung 840 SSD 250GB /Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > AE3000 USB WiFi > HP 2711X, 27" 1920 X 1080 > Windows 7 Ultimate 64 >[Passmark system rating = 3923, CPU= 9223/ 2D= 839 / 3D=2048]

Dell Precision T5400 (2008) > 2X Xeon X5460 quad core @3.16GHz > 16GB DDR2 ECC 667> Quadro FX 4800 (1.5GB) > WD RE4 500GB / Seagate Barracuda 500GB > M-Audio 2496 Sound Card / Linksys 600N WiFi > Dell 24" and Dell 19" LCD > Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit > [Passmark system rating = 1859, CPU = 8528 / 2D= 512 / 3D=1097]

Dell Precision 390 (2006) Xeon x3230 quad core @ 2.67GHz > 6 GB DDR2 ECC 667 > Firepro V4900 (1GB)> 2X WD 320GB > 2X Dell 19" LCD > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit [Passmark system rating = 1458, CPU = 3642 / 2D= 433 / 3D=1346]

2D, 3D CAD, Image Processing, Rendering, Text > Architecture, industrial design, graphic design, written projects

 

[floeby]

Thanks for your detailed advice. The K2200 sounds like a really good choice. However it is (slightly above my budget....might still try though).
I was just wondering if I would go for the GTX 970, how it would perform (like I said PS, Sketchup 2015, some light rendering). What the real downsides would be, or upsides for that matter???

If I would go for the K2200 what would downsides be (there are always some)...only do a litlle bit of light gaming.

It's confusing, because if you look at the specs, the GTX 970 seems so much better (more CUDA cores, faster etc.)....but like I siad I am the novice here 😉

thanks

 

[bambiboom]

Thanks for your detailed advice. The K2200 sounds like a really good choice. However it is (slightly above my budget....might still try though).
I was just wondering if I would go for the GTX 970, how it would perform (like I said PS, Sketchup 2015, some light rendering). What the real downsides would be, or upsides for that matter???

If I would go for the K2200 what would downsides be (there are always some)...only do a litlle bit of light gaming.

It's confusing, because if you look at the specs, the GTX 970 seems so much better (more CUDA cores, faster etc.)....but like I siad I am the novice here 😉

thanks

floeby,

Overall, if you are not after the last degree of anti-aliasing, 10-bit color, nor using programs with viewport, a GTX 970 will probably work very well. AutoCad in particular is amazingly egalitarian about graphics cards- everything works. . My brother's architectural office uses Precision 390's with dual core 1.86GHz CPU's and Quadro FX550 (128MB) and doing $20M projects in 3D.

So. much of the decision is as to the scale of the work, the need for the professional graphics features -and professional speed- of high end programs, but I think unless you are doing ray tracing rendering, animation in Maya and so on, a GTX 970 would be just fine. As mentioned, Autodesk has always maintained that AutoCad will run on any kind of system. Plus Quadros, as they render and complete every frame- having an image quality rather than image speed focus, are just not great gaming cards- although the upper end should do quite well, but that level costs $1,800 and up.

My choices are narrowed by having to choose a card that will run my largest files on the most demanding program- and I ave a couple that are very demanding, but I believe your use allows a wider choice. I've had some problem in Sketchup and rendering, plus a very hot Quadro, so on Friday I'll be receiving a new Quadro K2200. Trimble should make Sketchup Pro a 64-bit program.

Cheers,

BambiBoom