Graphics Card That meets the architectural and gaming requirements

Hi all,

I run an architectural visualization and design firm. We are quickly moving to be able bring VR experiences and walkthroughs to architectural projects. One wall I’m hitting early on is the different graphics card requirements for autodesk architectural products, and VR gaming. Wondering how other firms using a workflow that includes unreal engine are addressing this. Do you buy a gaming based computer to run your VR and unreal engine, or is there a graphics card that’s going to perform well in Revit and also In unreal with VR. My inclination is that this is a two machine workflow, but I’m wondering if anyone else has hit on other simpler workflow solutions?

Thanks

GTX 1080 should work very well. Beyond that there’s the GTX Titan X Pascal and then the Quadro workstation cards.
While the Quadro cards are designed to improve CAD software they don’t offer very good performance unless you get the most expensive cards and at that point you’re looking at thousands of dollars for a GPU and they definitely don’t offer that much performance improvement over something like the GTX 1080 which is $650

GTX 1080 all the way!!!

You’ll always have to make a decision when it comes to for tools like CAD / 3ds Max (Quadro) with the real-time computer graphics for gaming / vr (Geforce). However, with 10 years in doing both together, I’ve found that it’s always better to go with Geforce vs Quadro cards. Only in more extreme cases (like for auto design and monstrously complex BIM designs) will the Quadro cards be an overall better card to get, and in that case, you should likely just use 2 different workstations.

Now for the Geforce cards, and having use the Titan X and GTX 1080, there is a key point in what would make one more effective than the other. The GTX 1080 is a slight bit better with moving around, working with, and demonstrating complex scenes (including in during use for VR), *however *the Titan X has more video memory, which is CRITCAL when trying to create and capture high resolution output often needed for Arch Viz purposes (like capturing screenshots, videos, or more recently 360 stereo images).

Hello,
My team worker has a couple of Quadro 5000 and a tesla K20 and he is unable to run properly a game in Unreal Engine…:slight_smile:
Quadro and others Pro cards are really a marketing argument for a 4000 $ solution it should be the top but it is not.
with my GTX 1060 i get around 70 to 90 FPs in most project.
and with my GTX 1070 on an other computer i get 90 to 120 FPS in most project.
So you’d better by a GTX Geforce if you want to play in VR…

The university I attend in NZ has a ton of Vives running through 970s. I also used a 970 until recently, but they’re just not up to it anymore if you want decent foliage, tesselation etc. I upgraded to a EVGA GTX1080 a month ago and haven’t looked back, the performance increase is immense.

We use the 1080, for on screen and VR archvis. We make a second map for a more compatible version for VR. The 1080 Ti comes out in March apparently if you wanted to wait for that.

GTX1080 and a solid multicore CPU will get you the best performance ! Even better if you can get dual xeons or computers for swarm light baking.

This is a very ancient way of looking at video cards. If you were in an industry that needed the extra precision of a Quadro or a Fire Pro, you would know it. Stick with a Geforce.

A Gtx780 can run all your stuff just fine. No need to go 10xx if you don’t want to for quite few years.

A 780 is far from being enough for VR archviz. :confused:

Also, the GTX 1060 for example, is cheaper, faster, quieter and more energy efficient. You should never buy an older generation card unless it’s an amazing value.

My suggestion is to go for the newer Radeon RX Vega graphics cards, especially Radeon RX 64 Vega. It is a much better card in terms of professional work compared to GTX 1080.

Jeebus! You guys should see what I am running! Im used to be on a quadcore 6600 cpu with a 8740Radeon. It was ok but not enough. So upgraded to a mobile solution amd got a flip laptop with a geforce 940m with a i7. Lol
Doing arch voz on it! Seems to handle ok but my 1st interior apartment with 3 bedrooms,1 bath an livimg room takes 18 hours to cook.

But nor VR.

But in all seriousness, you need 8gb ram on that card or more, so go a 980ti or better.

One other thing not totally obvious to consider is how you are going to sell your product. Are you only showing it in your office? Or are you giving it away to clients. Do you want your clients to run the project on their computer? It might not be a high end one. I know people are selling computers with the projects but then the price of the hardware will most likely go out of your fees.

I’m using a 1070, not because I can’t afford a 1080 but to keep in touch with the usual guy who probably won’t have the most advanced video card. - Just a thought.

I don’t want to say that Quadro is better or GTX is better because to be honest Epic games doing its best to make this engine run on both cards GTX and QUADRO and you won’t believe guys I am using Nvidia QUADRO 2000 series and I am getting 120 FPS in UE4 and haven’t notice any problem, its working totally awesome.It consume less power and still works great.

GeForce vs Quadro as Fast As Possible - YouTube this thing will solve this myth. and current latest version of UE4 works best with both cards.

Uses basically the same chip as the GTS 450, and is just as energy efficient. A $100 GTX 1050 would give you 2.5x the performance of the Quadro 2000, at nearly the same wattage.