video card for 3d animations

Dilbert-FirestormDilbert-Firestorm Nuclear Wasteland, Gretna, LA New
edited March 2005 in Hardware
what would be a good card to do 3d animation stuff?

Comments

  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2005
    the video card actually doesn't matter all that much for doing 3D animation. All the animating will be done in the background by the processor. So any mid range card will do.
  • Dilbert-FirestormDilbert-Firestorm Nuclear Wasteland, Gretna, LA New
    edited March 2005
    all animation rendering would be done in the background?

    btw, what's considered midrange video card?
  • yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
    edited March 2005
    I would say anything between $100 and $200.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2005
    Dilbert Firestorm wrote:
    all animation rendering would be done in the background?

    btw, what's considered midrange video card?

    Maybe we are talking 2 different things here. When some one speaks to me of 3d animation it sounds like you are going to be making your own 3d animations using 3d tools like 3D studio Max, Maya, Lightwave, Cinema4dxl etc....

    These are programs where you make the object set up the backgrounds and in effect make your own 3d animations. The process of making the animation is called rendering and it calculates lighting shadows movement etc.. It's about the most intensive thing you can run a processer with. However it's entirely done off screen (previewing being the exception) so the video card for the major work isn't a factor. The video card only comes into effect during playback which is why any mid range card will do you are actually just playing back a movie.

    If however by 3d Animation you mean playing 3d video games like your typical fist person shooter games then you'll want a high end video card as all the processing is being done realtime by the video card so for good playback at say 1024x768 rex and up you'll want at least a $150 - 200 (min) card for that and that will also be based on a good system. The better the system the more you can get away with on a lower end card. The worse the system the better a video card you'll need for games.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    3D programs like MAX are software renderers. As you may know a graphics card has all the stuff built into it to work normals and other cool crap.... the whole directX9 issue comes to mind, you either are capable of it or not. The card has to have the feature for it to work, otherwise it would need to be done by software render. IE when in the optoins on some games you may set the graphics to run by software or hardware.... hardware being the fastest method.

    Thus becuase of this issue on graphics cards, you may or may not have the ability to hardware render a normal map or directX9 shaders if the card is older, or not up to date. A software render can render ANYTHING that is out at that time, but at a much slower pace.

    There are cards you can buy to help speed up the process though, but I am unsure what or who makes them at the moment. I am sure they are not cheap. I'll look it up, haven't checked on them in a long while.

    I should also mention that a good card is needed for the actual WORK you do... while the render process that you can go have fun outside or something uses your processor. This is where the Quadro line of cards come in handy.

    Although a Geforce 5200 should do a real good job.... where I went to school for this type of work used 5200's and I gotta say, it made my ATi 9800 XT look like crap. But then again, I also like to play video games which the XT clearly beats out the 5200. :p
  • drowddrowd Texas
    edited March 2005
    sorry :D i misread your post :D
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    drowd wrote:
    huh. by the post title, i thought he was referring to rendering as well, not game playing. two very different things. please specify :D

    Me? I thought I was clear....
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