Comparison – Nvidia 8500GT vs ATI Radeon HD 4870 0
8500GT 3D Mark06 Stats
These are the embarassing stats of my existing entry-level/budget video card. It works for Blender, since blender is so happy with any resources, and is not a resource hoggy type of an app. But for 3DS Max, that’s another story. Hence the coming of the ATI. It should arrive anytime now, according to the tracking info.
The Nvidia handles 3DS Max objects pretty well, but when you get large scenes, with hundreds of objects, and then complixify it with animation, the display struggles. Lower FPS than is acceptable. (I’d be ok with 15-20fps for a large scene, but the one in question runs at around 3-5).
Now The New Radeon
Radeon HD 4870 1GB 3D Mark Stats
Ok – so the Radeon is definitely better. It whopped the Geforce 8500, which was expected. Interestingly though, the CPU score with the Radeon is a little lower. I’m not sure if that’s reflective of the extra bandwidth being used, or something else. Anybody with comments?
So the Radeon is also definitely faster in the 3D viewport in 3DS Max Design 2009. It’s hard to give any exact test numbers for comparison, as I didn’t record anything officially with the Nvidia. But it is faster – no doubt about it.
It’s also faster by a couple orders of magnitude in the GPU based Folding@Home program. Again, no official numbers, but waaaay faster.
So for only $230 after mail in rebate, It’s definitely a worthy card. My bottleneck now, I think, Lies in my motherboard’s budget abilities, and my budget ram. Even though the q6600 is overclocked, it’s not fast enough due to mobo limitations.
