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Video Card Choice?
The computer I use at home for AE, Cinema4D, and others is basically a gaming machine I built to satisfy my extreme dork habits… consequently it makes a decent machine for working on projects as well…
Being a gaming machine, however, I do have a “gaming” video card. I am currently using a Radeon X1950XTX… its a great card, pushes out high frame rates at decent resolutions – in games…
I’ve seen AE has Hardware Accel. for effects and other stuff, but when I turn it on I get a message that my card doesn’t support all that as well as it could/should…
Basically my question is this: how much/will I see a performance increase by moving to a more high end video card? Something FireGL maybe?
What is common for use in AE/3D workstation??
Thanks for any info!!!
Brian
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7 Replies
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[Brian Lynn] “Basically my question is this: how much/will I see a performance increase by moving to a more high end video card? Something FireGL maybe?”
In AE… not much. I would say it’s definitely not worth the price tag. Your previews might be faster, but I find that they are generally less accurate using OpenGL. You won’t use OpenGL at all for final renders.
It might improve your 3D app’s performance though… I couldn’t say.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
Yeah, a hot card for AE is a waste of money. For Cinema4D, check the web for the Cinebench scores for the card you want, and check ’em against your own Cinebench scores.
You can download Cinebench from Maxon, if you haven’t already.
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I will check out that Cinebench. Thanks for the tip!!
How about CS2 vs CS3 on Core 2 Duo? I’ve heard mixed reviews on the performance enhancements for dual/multicore machines… Any opinions or thoughts on this? I checked the FAQ but its a little dated on newer versions and hardware…
Thanks a lot!
Brian -
If you go to Barefeats.com you might find something on that. But it’s Mac-only. You’re Windows, right? There should be some benchmarks out there if you Google “core 2 duo” and “After Effects”.
By the way, the MacPro 8-core is quite lovely for C4D and AE. The Cinebench for multi-proc rendering is in the 18000 range. 🙂
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Yes, I am windows… I will search around for some bench marks and see what I can find…
I would work on a nice MacPro, but the one I priced out would cost three times more than my car!
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[Brian Lynn] “I would work on a nice MacPro, but the one I priced out would cost three times more than my car!”
I’d focus on getting a better car first then (;
By the way, never add RAM or additional HDs on Apple’s website. You can get both of these for almost half as much through a 3rd party.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
My car is great though, I love it… ’94 4Runner (ok, its an SUV) but it runs fantastic… paid less than $5000 for it. I have no need for anything flashy or expensive. Who needs to spend all day worrying about their $60,000 car getting scratches in the parking lot?? I dress nice, buy nice toys, and put them both into my dirty, beat up, but always 100% running Toyota =)
I use Apple’s website to price at a worst case scenario… being a system builder at heart (built every windows box I’ve owned since I was 12? 14 maybe) I would go someplace other than Apple for the RAM… Its another reason I’ve never gone with an Apple computer – I like to get my hands inside the box and play around =)
I ran Cinebench on my laptop… scored a whopping 3,000 on multiple CPU renders… about the same on OpenGL performance. Is there a comparison/database site like you can find with FutureMark, AquaMark and the other gaming style benchmarks? Something I can use as a reference?
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