Recommend a graphics card for Revit

[ROBinHI]

We're looking to build custom Revit workstations instead of going through Dell. I've been reading where good/decent gaming cards will preform just as well or better than higher end cards available through Dell's configuration with their workstations.

Looking to see if I could get some graphics card recommendations from actual Revit users. Looking for stable graphics cards that users have had good success without trouble from incompatible drivers, bugs or glitches.

Not sure on the exact specs of the system we're configuring but its on the lines of running an Intel i7 processor with 12GB+ of memory on Windows 7 Business 64-bit.

Appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

[Scott Womack]

Our firm has been using the Nvidea Quatro FX series with good results on dual monitors. We have had the FX 1500, and now mostly FX 1800's. I know users have had issues with some of the other types of NVidea cards, but the Quatro FX series have been stable in Revit 2011 back through Revit 2009. This has been on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7

[Munkholm]

Have also had great succes with a Quadro FX3800, and several Quadro Mobile Cards - But it´s really a waste of money, if it´s only for Revit (Another story if you also use Max)

I just ordered a new box last week, and expect to have it delivered today... Since i´m not using Max anymore, I´m getting a much cheaper ATI Radeon HD5770... NOT on the supported list, but it´s probably gonna be just fine... I´ll let you know when I´ve tested it for a few days.

Complete specs, for the new box:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AM3 motherboard (SATA3 & USB3.0)
CPU: AMD - PhenomII 1090T 6x3,20GHz (Turbo 3.60GHz)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Alpine64 GT low-noise cooler
Ram: Kingston HyperX 16GB DDR3-1600 DualChannel RAM
Harddisk 1: Intel X25-M 80GB SSD
Harddisk 2: Seagate 1TB S-ATAII 3Gb/s Fluid Silent (7200rpm)
Graphic: ATI Radeon HD5770

It´s better than x-mas - just can´t wait :-)

[tropitech]

Have also had great succes with a Quadro FX3800, and several Quadro Mobile Cards - But it´s really a waste of money, if it´s only for Revit (Another story if you also use Max)

I just ordered a new box last week, and expect to have it delivered today... Since i´m not using Max anymore, I´m getting a much cheaper ATI Radeon HD5770... NOT on the supported list, but it´s probably gonna be just fine... I´ll let you know when I´ve tested it for a few days.

Complete specs, for the new box:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AM3 motherboard (SATA3 & USB3.0)
CPU: AMD - PhenomII 1090T 6x3,20GHz (Turbo 3.60GHz)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Alpine64 GT low-noise cooler
Ram: Kingston HyperX 16GB DDR3-1600 DualChannel RAM
Harddisk 1: Intel X25-M 80GB SSD
Harddisk 2: Seagate 1TB S-ATAII 3Gb/s Fluid Silent (7200rpm)
Graphic: ATI Radeon HD5770

It´s better than x-mas - just can´t wait :-)


I am building a new system in the next month, i will be interested to hear of your experience with the Solid State Drive, do you expect much of a performance gain?

Also, i;ve always used intel till now and was considering a lower end i7, but AMD chips of comparable speeds are waaay cheaper. are you able to give a comparison of revit's performance between Intel and AMD cpu's?

I have used a couple of 3 series ATI graphics cards (on the HCL) and found they produced a lot more drawing errors than my current (older) 9600gt nvidia (also on HCL). that was however on a 32 bit xp system, and im now using win7 x64.

[brenehan]

I have some direct expierance with the nVidia Quatro series. Just in regard to Revit 2011 we have found the following.
Dual monitors do take extra power. There is defenitaly a performance hit. More video RAM does seem to resolve it.
The below comments does include the latest approved autodesk drivers, windows 7 64 bit.

nVidia quatro fx 1500 - we were loosing fedality in sketch mode and on temp dims, even on small revit files 50mb
nVidia quatro fx 1700 - worked well on small to medium jobs 50 - 120mb. A bit slow with dual monitors
nVidia quatro fx 1800 - this is our typical revit graphics card. Works well on most jobs
nVidia quatro fx 3800 - on very large jobs (above 250mb) there is definetly better performance over the Fx 1800. I'd only recomend it for those extra large or clomplex geometry projests. We nottice the new massing and adaptive component panels and elements can be graphics memory heavy.

I would be interested if others had similer thoughts. I have also heard the comments on using gaming cards but have not been it myself.

[patricks]

I have heard reports of some of the 1GB+ GeForce cards working just as well or better than some of the Quadro cards in Revit.

I upgraded the card in my Win7 machine earlier this year to a Quadro FX580 512MB card driving a 24" display and a 19" display, but I wish I had gone the 1GB+ GeForce route. Much more display power for much less money.

Quadro FX1800 768MB card will set you back over $400, while a 1GB+ GeForce card can be had for $100 or less.

[Munkholm]

I am building a new system in the next month, i will be interested to hear of your experience with the Solid State Drive, do you expect much of a performance gain?

Also, i;ve always used intel till now and was considering a lower end i7, but AMD chips of comparable speeds are waaay cheaper. are you able to give a comparison of revit's performance between Intel and AMD cpu's?

I have used a couple of 3 series ATI graphics cards (on the HCL) and found they produced a lot more drawing errors than my current (older) 9600gt nvidia (also on HCL). that was however on a 32 bit xp system, and im now using win7 x64.

Just posted an update in the hardware forum: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=124293

The SSD drive is pretty much only giving a performance gain when launching the program / Revit. But I also like the fact that Windows boots faster, and that it´s very silent, compared to the standard 7200 RPM drives ;-)

So far it looks like the AMD 1090T is a much better buy than any I7 series... at least for rendering... but have only had it up and running for a few hours now.

[brenehan]

Has anyone done any side by side testing on a CAD Workstaiton graphics card vs a gaming card with both a medium (150mb) and a very large (300mb) project?

Thanks
Brian

[iru69]

So far it looks like the AMD 1090T is a much better buy than any I7 series... at least for rendering... but have only had it up and running for a few hours now.
For rendering, the Phenom II 1090T offers a very good value - six cores for a very low price. For everything else, the i7/i5 offers generally superior performance once you get beyond the entry level CPUs. AMD is very competitive with Intel at the lower end, but for general Revit use, i7 is still the way to go in my opinion.


Has anyone done any side by side testing on a CAD Workstaiton graphics card vs a gaming card with both a medium (150mb) and a very large (300mb) project?
They both can work great - it's all about the performance of the card and whether Revit plays nicely with it. "Gaming" cards are a much better value than the "CAD" cards.