What to upgrade to from a Matrox Parhelia 256mb ?? (and sticking with CRT monitors)

[Synapse Syndrome]

I've recently upgraded to ArchiCAD 10 and Autodesk ViZ 2007, and my computer
is choking on complex models again. It's about time I got a new graphics
card as well as a new computer. The problem is that I have been using
Matrox cards for years and I don't know what to replace my ancient AGP
Parhelia with as Matrox don't have any powerful PCIe cards.

I am sticking to my Iiyama CRT monitors as large LCD screens of similar
picture quality would cost a fortune and they can't go up to the high
resolutions that these can.

The thing is that the Parhelia has particularly good colour and digital
analogue conversion, so I don't want to be disappointed with my new graphics
card. I am not sure a modern consumer GeForce or Radeon card will be the
same in this respect.

The card doesn't have to have extremely high frame rates obviously, but has
to have decent OpenGL performance. I also would prefer it to be silent, or
at least quiet. I have fitted a Zalman ZM80C-HP to slience the Parhelia.
Would I have to get something similar for the next card?

Software used:
ArchiCAD 10
Autodesk ViZ 2007 (essentially the same as 3ds max)
Sketchup (not sure if this uses OpenGL)
as well as Photoshop, Piranesi, etc

So I am thinking of:
a Radeon or Geforce card (really don't know how to make sure it has a good
DAC)
or a workstation quality card from eBay -
Quadro, 3Dlabs VP series, FireGL

Any suggestions? I don't want to spend much more than £200 ($370) including
quiet/silent cooling if needed. I'd like to spend less than that if
possible as I don't need loads of raw power.

ss.

 

[Fid]

I've recently upgraded to ArchiCAD 10 and Autodesk ViZ 2007, and my computer
is choking on complex models again. It's about time I got a new graphics
card as well as a new computer. The problem is that I have been using
Matrox cards for years and I don't know what to replace my ancient AGP
Parhelia with as Matrox don't have any powerful PCIe cards.

I am sticking to my Iiyama CRT monitors as large LCD screens of similar
picture quality would cost a fortune and they can't go up to the high
resolutions that these can.

The thing is that the Parhelia has particularly good colour and digital
analogue conversion, so I don't want to be disappointed with my new graphics
card. I am not sure a modern consumer GeForce or Radeon card will be the
same in this respect.

The card doesn't have to have extremely high frame rates obviously, but has
to have decent OpenGL performance. I also would prefer it to be silent, or
at least quiet. I have fitted a Zalman ZM80C-HP to slience the Parhelia.
Would I have to get something similar for the next card?

Software used:
ArchiCAD 10
Autodesk ViZ 2007 (essentially the same as 3ds max)
Sketchup (not sure if this uses OpenGL)
as well as Photoshop, Piranesi, etc

So I am thinking of:
a Radeon or Geforce card (really don't know how to make sure it has a good
DAC)
or a workstation quality card from eBay -
Quadro, 3Dlabs VP series, FireGL

Any suggestions? I don't want to spend much more than £200 ($370) including
quiet/silent cooling if needed. I'd like to spend less than that if
possible as I don't need loads of raw power.

If you don't get any answers here, you could try one of the CAD or AutoCAD
groups.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

If you don't get any answers here, you could try one of the CAD or AutoCAD
groups.

Thanks, but I have. If you check the headers you'll see that I have asked
most of usenet.

ss.

 

[Fid]

Thanks, but I have. If you check the headers you'll see that I have asked
most of usenet.

Mea culpa. ;-)

Have you tried comp.cad.solidworks? A quick check with GrabIt shows that
group has almost 3 times the messages of the busiest autocad group.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

Mea culpa. ;-)

Have you tried comp.cad.solidworks? A quick check with GrabIt shows that
group has almost 3 times the messages of the busiest autocad group.

Cheers. I'll check it out if this thread continues to get no answers.

ss.

 

[meow2222]

I've recently upgraded to ArchiCAD 10 and Autodesk ViZ 2007, and my computer
is choking on complex models again. It's about time I got a new graphics
card as well as a new computer. The problem is that I have been using
Matrox cards for years and I don't know what to replace my ancient AGP
Parhelia with as Matrox don't have any powerful PCIe cards.

I am sticking to my Iiyama CRT monitors as large LCD screens of similar
picture quality would cost a fortune and they can't go up to the high
resolutions that these can.

The thing is that the Parhelia has particularly good colour and digital
analogue conversion, so I don't want to be disappointed with my new graphics
card. I am not sure a modern consumer GeForce or Radeon card will be the
same in this respect.

The card doesn't have to have extremely high frame rates obviously, but has
to have decent OpenGL performance. I also would prefer it to be silent,or
at least quiet. I have fitted a Zalman ZM80C-HP to slience the Parhelia.
Would I have to get something similar for the next card?

Software used:
ArchiCAD 10
Autodesk ViZ 2007 (essentially the same as 3ds max)
Sketchup (not sure if this uses OpenGL)
as well as Photoshop, Piranesi, etc

So I am thinking of:
a Radeon or Geforce card (really don't know how to make sure it has a good
DAC)
or a workstation quality card from eBay -
Quadro, 3Dlabs VP series, FireGL

Any suggestions? I don't want to spend much more than £200 ($370) including
quiet/silent cooling if needed. I'd like to spend less than that if
possible as I don't need loads of raw power.

ss.

I have no answer either, but why dont you contact the main mfrs and ask
them?


NT

 

[Chris Chan]

Hi Synapse,

have you had a look on the graphisoft.com website to check out the
compatability tests for various cards?

It doesn't have every card - but it might be useful... here is the link:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/compatibility.php

Hope this helps,

Chris
=========================