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Thread: Graphics Card for both Revit and Lumion

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    Default Graphics Card for both Revit and Lumion

    Hello,

    Does anyone know which graphics cards work well for both Revit and Lumion? My nVidia Quadro FX 1700 needs to be replaced. I can't seem to find the definitive answer for which of the recommended Revit cards would also work well for Lumion.

    [I have Building Design Suite Premium on subscription.]

    The current card still works for Revit (although I think I have had some minor problems with it lately -- fill regions not behaving properly in some views) and also pretty well for Esri City Engine.

    Any advice appreciated ... am contemplating a Lumion purchase, but my current card barely works with it at all ... impossibly slow.

    Thanks!

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    Super Moderator david_peterson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Graphics Card for both Revit and Lumion

    You're asking for 2 different things. Since revit doesn't really use much of the Video card for much of anything (IMHO) a cheep basic graphics card works just fine.
    I can't remember what type we put in the box that we're running Lumion on, but I know we spent about $1000 for it. We also had to buy an upgraded box with extra fans (I believe it's got 6 fans on the outside of the box) to keep the video card cool. Lumion is all video card. I don't have any solid data for you, but the better the card, the better it'll run. I'd also be interested in finding out what others have found with regards to what's better, high end Gaming card for Lumion or high end workstation card.

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    Default Re: Graphics Card for both Revit and Lumion

    Hi David,

    Thank you very much for your input. It's helpful to hear from someone who actually uses Lumion. I am reluctant to get one that is not on the "Revit recommended" list from Autodesk, so was thinking about getting the one on that list that has the best speed (that I can afford -- and I was thinking less than $1000.) The top-rated card on the Lumion benchmark chart, though, is the GeForce GTX 780 Ti -- but the recommended ones for Revit are mostly nVidia. The nVidia K5000 is in the top half of the list, but is more than twice the price of the GeForce (around $700) and therefore out of my reach right now.

    Here is the Lumion list: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

    Do you know exactly what Revit uses the card for?I will be using Revit a lot more than Lumion, so have to be cautious.

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    Default Re: Graphics Card for both Revit and Lumion

    The 5000-series is mostly aimed at the visualization crowd, who will be using software to view models fully rendered in real-time as part of producing animation or stills. There's also some application in rendering animation/stills (but only in the high end visualization software, not Revit), where the card takes over some of the process instead of the CPU. A good quality gaming card should suit most users for most work, unless a software specifically relies on certain aspects of of a Quadro card (like ReCap). Not sure about Lumion, but Revit will not use SLI (or whatever the ATI equivalent is).

    The most important point is don't bottleneck your system ie. with a modest processor and modest amount of RAM, a $10K video card won't be much of a difference from a $250 card. A water cooled overclocked gaming mostrosity with a $10K video card won't be much good with only 8 GB RAM. And so on.

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    AUGI Addict cdatechguy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Graphics Card for both Revit and Lumion

    I'd stick with one of the latest GTX cards....since Lumion is 3D driven, those are best. The Quadro's are terrible in 3D. Revit works just fine with a GTX card too... I have a GTX 680 and was running Revit and Lumion just fine.
    Michael "MP" Patrick
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    Default Re: Graphics Card for both Revit and Lumion

    Thank you all for the input. I have a 64-bit, i7-2600K CPU with 16 GB RAM (built by my son). While my main pursuit is Revit, the problem is that I also use Max and am contemplating both a Lumion and a City Engine purchase (at some point in the future). Extremely unlikely to use ReCap, due to the cost of working with scanning (as a freelancer, that is). So I'm feeling more comfortable with using a "non-approved" card based on all your comments. We think it might make sense for me to install my son's computer's card to try it out as a field test.

    Thanks very much again--all of your comments have been very helpful!

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    Default Re: Graphics Card for both Revit and Lumion

    I fully agree with cdatechguy. I also have a GTX 680 and it works great with Revit and excellent in Lumion. Basically the more CUDA cores and bigger VRAM, the better the performance in Lumion. The GTX Titan (6GB, 2688 CUDA Cores) will be an excellent choice for Lumion/Revit but if you can't justify spending $1000 for a graphics card, then the GTX 780 (3GB, 2304 CUDA Cores, $500) will be great, as well.

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