Currently, I'm using an ATI x1600 card for 2D CAD work. It works just fine for this type of application, but recently I have started to get into Sketchup for 3D design work for our business. The card I currently have just doesn't cut it when I create a large scale model. What we do is design grocery store layouts. With so many textures and models to apply to one work space the card just can't handle it. It becomes slow and quirky very quickly. So my question is which ATI FireGL card should I get for better performance? I choose ATI because I like their brand and have always used their products unless someone can convince me of a better price/performance ratio from NVidia.

Hi Tima
Whats your spec "including PSU & MOBO" please, then i can suggest some Graphics cards

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I'm using a HP m7674n Desktop with 2 Gigs RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo 6400 with a PCI-E slot for graphics. I upgraded my PSU to 400W I believe but it might be higher. I will check later when I shut down for the night. I upgraded the PSU because I added the X1600 card when I bought the machine. I'm also running dual monitors. One of which is a Westinghouse 22". My secondary is a HP 19".

I was thinking the ATI FireGL 5200 would be a good place to start.

From your spec you can run the high mid range cards and in ATI this (ATM, bear in mind the R600 is out very soon) the ATI Fire GL 5200 has "256bit ring bus", the x1800 and x1900 have "512bit ring bus" so if you want ATI i would suggest X1950 XT-X thats if you are going to buy NOW, i would wait for the R600.

nVidia well it would be the BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) or the BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) and if you realy want a top card the Asus GeForce 8800 Ultra HTDP 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) "thats about £500" depends what you want to spend

Spec on the Ultra

GeForce 8800 Ultra core running at 612MHz
- Shader Clock Speed of 1500MHz
- 768MB GDDR3 Memory running at 2160MHz
- 384-Bit Memory Interface
- 128 Stream Processors
- Shader Model 4.0
- Texture Fill Rate: 39.1 billion/sec
- Memory Bandwidth: 103.6GB/s
- Designed For Extreme HD Gaming
- Nvidia Pure Video Technology
- Dedicated Video processors free the GPU Shaders to run 3D applications
- Dual dual-link DVI supports two 2560 x 1600 resolution displays
- HDCP Enabled!!
- SLI ready – Upto 2x the performance of a single GPU (Available on with future driver release)
- True High Dynamic Range Rendering Support – Based on Open EXR technology
- World's first unified architecture supporting Microsoft DirectX10

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One thing to note Tima

The Nvidia 8900 GTX and 8950 GX2 are coming out this summer but as Nvidia have just launched the 8800 ultra and the ATI 600 series is to be launched soon i would imagine Nvidia will also release the 8900 series probably not long after the release of the ATI 600 series as a counter blow to AMD / ATI, Oh but do check with your Motherboards Web Site to be sure you can use the latest GPUs.

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So why not use the cards specifically designed for 3D/2D needs like the NVidia Quaddro or the ATI FireGL? These are cards that are certified for use with AutoCAD and other modeling programs.

Most of todays GPUs are ahead of many programs so yes buy the card you want to match your program if that is the main function of your system, eg my Dad runs two X1950 XT-X`s in crossfire as he loves his games

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Hi Tima

I just mentioned the ATI FireGL 5200 for 3D design work to my Brother he says the ATI FireGL V7350 would be better as you would not be buying old tech (please see link) but again do check that your present Motherboard can accommodate this type of Card

Link > ATI FireGL V7350

Hope this helps

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That is one crazy card! Although I would love to have it, I think it's a little too much for my needs and would be just a little bit of overkill.