Workstation video card

[NoodleKnight]

Originally Posted by Skiwreck

ok, got it, quadro/fireGL videocard is overkill...

so basically its mostly processor power. weird. I am used to apps where its all about the video card. THis comp is being designed primarily for the 3ds Max, with possible CAD also. Would it be better to go AMD Athlon 64? I know that these are best for gaming and other 3d apps, but better for animation also? And if we could manage it, we could do maybe up to 4gb RAM and a sweet video card, possibly an nvidia Geforce 6800GT.

Possible system specs, not including drives, etc.

Pentium4 3.0+
4GB RAM (PC3200)
Nvidia 6800GT?

or

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ or better
4GB RAM (PC3200)
Nvidia 6800GT?

or whatever video card would work well. We do want this system to last quite a while.

That stuff alone will total near 1000 dollars, CAD does not require a killer video card, nor does it require a top-of-the-line processor, but it does like to eat up quite a bit of RAM, though 4 GB's of ram seems like a lot. I'm guessing the same goes with animation, but I don't have any real experience. When I render a film using Adobe premiere it helps to have a faster processor, but when I'm actually editing, having more RAM makes things much faster.

As for your other questions, from my experience: AMD's are known to be much faster and cheaper than Intel processors, but Intels usually last longer/are more reliable, and are better at multi-taking capabilites (especially if you have hyperthreading), which could be a good thing for Animation.
ATi's and nVidia cards are about the same in speed and quality; ATi is just slightly faster, nVidia cards seem more reliable, usually. Personally, I always go with Intel and nVidia products.

With a 1000 dollar budget, I'd stick with an AMD processor and an ATi card and stuff a lot of fans in there. The more powerful components you get the more complications you're going to need to resolve (like excess heat and power consumption, all which take more money).

Oh yeah, and I second the post above.