AMD or NVIDIA?

[michael john williams]

I am in a bit of a dilemma in choosing the right graphics card for a new pc to run Vectorworks Architect with Renderworks to either go for AMD Fire Pro or NVIDIA Quadro.

What's your opinion?

From the Knowledge Base it appears that there have been problems with AMD but my research shows that they generally have a better Open GL rating. Also

These are the two Dell pc options I am considering:

16GB1 DDR4 at 2133MHz

1TB 3.5inch Serial ATA (7,200 Rpm) Hard Drive

AMD FirePro™ W5100 4GB (4 DP) (2 DP to SL-DVI adapters)

with an open GL rating of 4.4

OR

8GB1 DDR4 at 2133MHz

500GB 3.5inch Serial ATA (7,200 Rpm) Hard Drive

NVIDIA® Quadro® K620 2GB (DP, DL-DVI-I) (1 DP to SL-DVI adapter)

I can't find a GL rating for Nvidia cards

The AMD version is approximately £350 more expensive.

Thoughts appreciated.

[PVA - Admin]

Neither the FirePro nor the Quadro series are ideal, they are marketed as being "Design for CAD" but in reality, they are really just more expensive versions offering esoteric features that Vectorworks does not take advantage of at all. As far as Vectorworks is concerned, they're just overly expensive. The Radeon series from AMD and the GeForce series from Nvidia are better choices if possible, cheaper and just as powerful in Vectorworks.

(Also, that OpenGL number is not a rating or a score really, its a version. For instance, Vectorworks needs a minimum of OpenGL 2.1 in order to run the VGM, show shadows, draw edges in OpenGL, etc and if its lower than that, Vectorworks likely will not even launch.)

As for whether you go AMD or Nvidia, functionally it doesnt matter as long as the drivers are kept up to date and the card is modern. AMD drivers can be problematic in older cards (4+ years old) but anything released in the last 2 years as a dedicated graphics choice would have no issues.

I prefer Nvidia myself mainly out of habit, and recommend the best card for the money as the GeForce GTX 970, but the AMD R9 280X or 290X are also perfectly good choices.

[PVA - Admin]

As a general rule, when looking for a card for Vectorworks, its better to look for cards designed for gaming more than CAD software. They way we use OpenGL and power our VGM is closer in line with a video game than with older CAD-specific drivers etc.

On a related note, this is Linus, below. Linus is a nerd and is excellent at explaining confusing differences in hardware. If you have a moment, take a look:

Edited April 7, 2015 by JimW

[RickR]

I wish you had said that a year ago.