Which of these Cards should I go with?

[AlexKram]

Hi,

I want a GPU for using with After Effects & Nuke for compositing, Maya & Houdini for Particle effects and some 3D rendering.

I have i7 6700 non'K' on ASUS H170 Motherboard,
16 GB DDR4 2133 ram,
Corsair RM650 PSU, stock cpu cooler,
Sandisk 240 GB SSD.

I'm confused between RX 480 8GB & GTX 1060 6GB.

What do you guys suggest? Which one would be better for these applications. I don't do Gaming.

Please Help.

 

[tommyducker19]

As you don't do gaming I would look at an NVidia Quadro or AMD Fire Pro. They are a lot more expensive than the Radeon/Geforce cards. But they are specifically designed for what you are going to use it for.

 

[AlexKram]

As you don't do gaming I would look at an NVidia Quadro or AMD Fire Pro. They are a lot more expensive than the Radeon/Geforce cards. But they are specifically designed for what you are going to use it for.

I am still in university, I cant afford those Professional Quadro/Fire Pro cards. 🙁 I'm on a very tight budget for the GPU.

I'm a vfx student, Want to practice on these softwares.

Guys, please suggest which ones better for the Applications mentioned above.

RX 480 8GB or GTX 1060 6GB? ....I cant afford the 1070.

 

[ErikMcLeod]

I doubt either one will make a noticeable difference. The 1060 slightly outperforms the 480 in most games, so I'd just go with that for the gaming headroom. The difference between 8GB and 6GB of VRAM likely won't make a difference unless you plan on doing some higher-end after effects. Do you know the VRAM requirements of your planned workloads?

 

[ErikMcLeod]

As you don't do gaming I would look at an NVidia Quadro or AMD Fire Pro. They are a lot more expensive than the Radeon/Geforce cards. But they are specifically designed for what you are going to use it for.

Actually, current GTX's closely trail behind Quadros for compute/render performance. Really the only reason for buying a Quadro is the need for massive amounts of VRAM and absolutely perfect image accuracy, but those aren't worth discussing unless you contract for major film companies and have massive workloads planned.

 

[AlexKram]

As you don't do gaming I would look at an NVidia Quadro or AMD Fire Pro. They are a lot more expensive than the Radeon/Geforce cards. But they are specifically designed for what you are going to use it for.

Actually, current GTX's closely trail behind Quadros for compute/render performance. Really the only reason for buying a Quadro is the need for massive amounts of VRAM and absolutely perfect image accuracy, but those aren't worth discussing unless you contract for major film companies and have massive workloads planned.

Hi ErikMcLeod,

I'm not completely sure how much VRAM i'll be using, but my particle simulation effects will be mostly for learning purposes, no high-end stuff.

Also, Maya uses CUDA for particle sims but houdini uses openCL. Thats why i'm leaning more towards gtx 1060, since I can use this card for both Maya and Houdini whereas RX 480 has no CUDA.

What do you think.

My main use is Compositing with Nuke while learning particle effects, smoke, pyro in MAYA and Houdini.

 

[ErikMcLeod]

As you don't do gaming I would look at an NVidia Quadro or AMD Fire Pro. They are a lot more expensive than the Radeon/Geforce cards. But they are specifically designed for what you are going to use it for.

Actually, current GTX's closely trail behind Quadros for compute/render performance. Really the only reason for buying a Quadro is the need for massive amounts of VRAM and absolutely perfect image accuracy, but those aren't worth discussing unless you contract for major film companies and have massive workloads planned.

Hi ErikMcLeod,

I'm not completely sure how much VRAM i'll be using, but my particle simulation effects will be mostly for learning purposes, no high-end stuff.

Also, Maya uses CUDA for particle sims but houdini uses openCL. Thats why i'm leaning more towards gtx 1060, since I can use this card for both Maya and Houdini whereas RX 480 has no CUDA.

What do you think.

My main use is Compositing with Nuke while learning particle effects, smoke, pyro in MAYA and Houdini.

Then get the GTX 1060. Its 6GB of VRAM won't hinder you, and its architecture is more applicable to your needs. There doesn't seem to be any reason to get the RX 480, even if it is a bit cheaper.

 

[AlexKram]

As you don't do gaming I would look at an NVidia Quadro or AMD Fire Pro. They are a lot more expensive than the Radeon/Geforce cards. But they are specifically designed for what you are going to use it for.

Actually, current GTX's closely trail behind Quadros for compute/render performance. Really the only reason for buying a Quadro is the need for massive amounts of VRAM and absolutely perfect image accuracy, but those aren't worth discussing unless you contract for major film companies and have massive workloads planned.

Hi ErikMcLeod,

I'm not completely sure how much VRAM i'll be using, but my particle simulation effects will be mostly for learning purposes, no high-end stuff.

Also, Maya uses CUDA for particle sims but houdini uses openCL. Thats why i'm leaning more towards gtx 1060, since I can use this card for both Maya and Houdini whereas RX 480 has no CUDA.

What do you think.

My main use is Compositing with Nuke while learning particle effects, smoke, pyro in MAYA and Houdini.

Then get the GTX 1060. Its 6GB of VRAM won't hinder you, and its architecture is more applicable to your needs. There doesn't seem to be any reason to get the RX 480, even if it is a bit cheaper.

Thanks Erik

 

[ErikMcLeod]

As you don't do gaming I would look at an NVidia Quadro or AMD Fire Pro. They are a lot more expensive than the Radeon/Geforce cards. But they are specifically designed for what you are going to use it for.

Actually, current GTX's closely trail behind Quadros for compute/render performance. Really the only reason for buying a Quadro is the need for massive amounts of VRAM and absolutely perfect image accuracy, but those aren't worth discussing unless you contract for major film companies and have massive workloads planned.

Hi ErikMcLeod,

I'm not completely sure how much VRAM i'll be using, but my particle simulation effects will be mostly for learning purposes, no high-end stuff.

Also, Maya uses CUDA for particle sims but houdini uses openCL. Thats why i'm leaning more towards gtx 1060, since I can use this card for both Maya and Houdini whereas RX 480 has no CUDA.

What do you think.

My main use is Compositing with Nuke while learning particle effects, smoke, pyro in MAYA and Houdini.

Then get the GTX 1060. Its 6GB of VRAM won't hinder you, and its architecture is more applicable to your needs. There doesn't seem to be any reason to get the RX 480, even if it is a bit cheaper.

Thanks Erik

No problem

My last piece of advice is to avoid the EVGA and Gigabyte cards. EVGA ACX 3.0+ cards don't have thermal pads for their VRMs, and the Gigabyte G1 cooler seems a bit shoddy. Look for an MSI or ASUS GTX 1060. My personal favorites are the dual- and triple-fan non-OC ASUS 1060s ($280 and $300 USD respectively on Newegg).