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Forums > COE Forums > General Discussion
Subject: 2 Quadro FX1700's vs 1 Quadro FX3700

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Author Messages
RGARZA


09 Sep 2008 11:13 AM

Howdy,
I am looking to buy a Dell Precision T7400.
I have a question regarding video cards.
Would it be better to buy 2 Quadro FX1700 cards or one Quadro FX3700 card?

Mostly, I use the following workbenches:
Part Design, Assembly Design, Drafting, and a little Generative Shape Design.

You assistance in this decision making will be greatly appreciated.
JSTRAWN


09 Sep 2008 02:17 PM
I don't think either would be necessary for what you describe.

How big are your assemblies? If you are building assemblies with tens of thousands of instances, then you might need 512MB of Video Ram, but otherwise as single 1700 should be sufficient.
Jim Strawn
Cessna Aircraft Co.
RGARZA


10 Sep 2008 08:23 AM

Howdy Jim,

My assemblies typically have ~3000 parts; but, the feature complexities  are high enough to bog down my Quadro FX3450 {256MB GDDR3}.

I guess what I'm really asking is: Which of the two options is better?

I don't know much about how two video cards can be used. I suspect Catia will have no problem leveraging two video cards. But, even if it does leverage two video cards, can the two 1700s {with a banwidth of 12.8 GB/sec} really do better than a single 3700 {with a banwidth of 51.2 GB/sec.}.

Unless there is some kind of multiplier associated with using two video cards, I don't see how two 512MB DDR2/PCIe x16 cards can beat one 512MB GDDR3 PCIe 2.0 card.

Can you see any way the twin 1700 option can outpace the 3700?

 
EMAGNETTO

10 Sep 2008 10:44 AM
In my experience, there's no gain using SLI with CATIA, son I would go to the 3700 (or higher if budget is enough!).

Any other experiences with SLI?

Eduardo
BFELSHER

10 Sep 2008 12:03 PM
I have the FX3700 on my new Dell mobile workstation and the FX4500 on my desk workstation. All other components are nearly identical. I don't notice any substantial difference in performance between the two computers.

If money's not an option- get the FX5600. Figure it's 3X's as powerful. You can spend $12000 or more and have the most powerful system available- but do you need it? In a few years, it will all change, prices will drop, and these types of systems will probably be standard.

For your application, I'd just get a 64 bit system with a FX5600 graphics card, the fastest quadcore processor you can afford, and 12 GB's of RAM. With that set-up, you'd have the top of the line system and Catia would be a true joy to use.
Bryan Felsher
True Precision
ROGER_BOMBASSEI

15 Sep 2008 01:56 AM
I have SLI with two 512 mb Quadros. Since I bought my system from Dell outlet, I paid about 1/10 of the price compaired to a 1 gb quadro.
If the price was the same, I would have just went with the 1gb card.
I believe that the purpose of SLI is to keep the cost down. I could be wrong though.
Thier might be some advantage to having 2 cards if you want to run 2 or 4 monitors at once.
Roger Bombassei - rbombassei@elcamino.edu
Online CATIA NC Instructor - El Camino College
http://www.elcamino.edu/faculty/rbombassei/
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Forums > COE Forums > General Discussion > 2 Quadro FX1700's vs 1 Quadro FX3700


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