Blue_Mockingbird Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT (new low end iMac) Intel GMA 950 on board accelerators (plastic powerbooks & Mac mini) What I seek is information - if anyone has tried these with SolidWorks or Pro/Engineer or Inventor (windows & Unix CAD apps). The usual recommendation is FireGL, but these are a tad expensive & not normally installed in Macs. Certainly not available in iMacs. I have had marginal success with cheap OpenGL compliant cards before. Those worked marginally well, had some weird quirks & were not anywhere truly OpenGL compliant. Hopefully the state-of-the-art has advanced since then. (Was a $130 card - I want to say it was a "Wildcat," but that may have been the eventual replacement card). Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/62681-video-cards-opengl-with-high-end-3d-apps/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoyanf Posted September 8, 2007 Share Posted September 8, 2007 Normally if you go for commercial cad apps you'd have to go for expensive cards to take full advantage of the GPU processing power (Quadro/FireGL). Alternatively there are opensource based CAD apps, maybe you can start with Google Sketch. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/62681-video-cards-opengl-with-high-end-3d-apps/#findComment-443832 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue_Mockingbird Posted September 8, 2007 Author Share Posted September 8, 2007 noob Thanks for the reply, I guess... Google sketch, you say? That's one high powered choice. As I mentioned, I am assessing from the standpoint of certain applications - not the low end application choice. That is my given in the assessment & topic header. Yes, normally one aims for the high end in cards, exceeding $1000 - but I am precluding those. They are not available in an iMac configuration. They are possibly unused in conjuction with the new quads on the "Mac Pro" tower. Thus - I am assessing the run-of-the-mill cards, in unusual context. You don't actually need the high end card to run the high applications. At least this has been true in the past. In my original post - I stated I have used low end cards ($130) in the past, which have proven viable, but quirky & not a long term solution. Its not the long term solution I am addressing in my quest. When dealing with high end CAD -- the manufacturer doesn't pick up the cost of the machine, so of course they will only recommend top drawer - because money is no object, when its not theirs being spent - and the highest end showcases their products in the best light & takes full advantage of all high end functions. If people are using the cards under mention - for OpenGL gaming, it may stand to reason that they will have some marginal value in my application. A degree which I am attempting to ascertain. If you will notice, I did not mention open source applications, nor kiddie toys, though. What I am trying to establish is whether all the mini's & low end laptops are good for - are kiddie toys. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/62681-video-cards-opengl-with-high-end-3d-apps/#findComment-444226 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onetrack Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 I use a combination of civil3d and land desktop at work on a daily basis for the creation of city subdivisions etc, and I have a lowely 7300LE / 256 meg in my dell 9150/PD 805. with 2 gigs of ram I can have 4 simultanious land desktops / map3d's open and working without the system stressing out too much. I would say that HIGH end cards are really only useful for 3d modelling - for the 2d linework i do it doesn't even make the pos card hiccup at all. My bosses computers do even more than I do, and their systems are running on geforce 6150 onboard shared video. The idea you need a UUUUUBER high end card is a bit of a misnomer. I guess unless you're doing engineering and pipe runs, etc. Our systems arn't anything special, and it seems to click along just fine with what we have. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/62681-video-cards-opengl-with-high-end-3d-apps/#findComment-445883 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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