Graphics card that can run Redsdk technology from Redway3D.

mark5

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Hi everyone,

Could you please suggest a cheap graphics card that can run Redsdk technology from Redway3D.

I have installed a CAD programe (BricsCAD) onto my PC but the programme dies when I change to 3d solid modeling.

The following text is from the BricsCAD website:
"BricsCAD's non-wireframe render modes are based on Redsdk technology from Redway3D®.
GPU-acceleration for these render modes requires a supported GPU (graphic processing unit), either on a video card or on the motherboard.
On Windows, Redsdk with hardware acceleration is supported on the following video chipsets:
NVIDIA chipsets
GeForce 8 Series
GeForce 9 Series
GeForce GTX Series

AMD ATI chipsets
R600 family
R700 family

INTEL chipsets
GMA 4000 family

A detailed overview can be found here: Redway3d - GPU List
The latest video drivers are typically required and can be found here: Redway3d - Drivers list "

Unfortunately I have no idea which card will fit in my PC so I look for guidance!

The spec of my pc is as follows.

Motherboard - asus M2A-VM HDMI
Processor - AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+
Hard drive - Seagate Barracuda ST3320620AS ATA
RAM - 2 No. 2 GB DDR-2
Operating system - Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2

The motherboard only has 1 PCIe x16 slot which is used by the HDMI adapter card, so this will have to go I imagine.

Any suggestions for a cheap (under £50) graphics card that will fit my pc would be great. I could even get a second hand higher spec card if this would be a better option.

I will be buying a new pc in around 12 months time so I just need to get the CAD program working for now.
 
The motherboard only has 1 PCIe x16 slot which is used by the HDMI adapter card, so this will have to go I imagine.

HDMI adapter card? Are you sure that's not a graphics card itself? Usually anything that's an actual card rather than just a rear bracket and a wire functions on it's own.

If it is a graphics card you might get away with plugging your screen into that (via a HDMI to DVI adapter costing a pound or two possibly) rather than buying a new graphics card. You can check using something like GPU-Z. The one built into your motherboard is an X1250, if there's anything else listed that's your 'HDMI adapter card'

If it doesn't then those are relatively old cards, the redway list contains plenty of current cards and PCI-Express is backwards compatible so any card under £50 should work in your machine and in theory for your CAD software as well - although I don't have any experience of CAD software so I don't know whether it's relatively undemanding and all the cards are sufficient or whether the slower cards would limit you to smaller scenes/models.

As to specific cards, cheap graphics cards rapidly rise in power for small increments in price, so I would either go for a cheap card (a basic Radeon 6450 at around £25-30 for example) or get the best you can for your budget - a GT 640, 6570 DDR3 or 6670 DDR3. If a graphics card comes with two different types of memory (such as DDR2 and DDR3 or DDR3 and GDDR5) then it's generally been reviewed with the faster memory (the higher number) and the slower memory is substantially slower, so not worth considering unless the faster one is well out of your budget (£70+).

There's a rough list of which graphics cards are equivalent here, although it doesn't really give you the idea of the size of the gaps between tiers.
 

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