I am relatively new to blender. I am using it more and more to do graphics for web sites that are primarily database driven but I like them to look nice. I could foresee doing some light animation for fun down the road as I enjoy doing voice-overs and such.
Anyway, I have looked through the gpu rendering spreadsheet about 3 times and searched quite a bit. I believe that 1.5GB will be enough for what I want to do and, in any case where it is not, I can make accomodations with render region or other techniques, correct?
Anyway, if it were your money which would you buy? Strictly for graphics, no consideration for games, All are new and with above average cooling systems.
Quite a few places to get a deal on the remaining stock of 580s. To the gaming masses they are obselete. They run hot and draw heavy power relative to cards that deliver comparable performance in games.
This is one of the better deals I have found, straight from the source (China) with a well reviewed Inno3D heatsink assembly.
They truly produce a lot of heat - my GTX 570 is a nice heater for my room in this coming winter …
I am curious if it might make sense to get one or if more modern cards at one point will be a better option
for both power consumption / heat production and CUDA speed.
Strictly for graphics, buy good OpenGL card for modeling and learn to use Yafaray Renderer, noiseless pro quality fast. And for bigger projects Gpu cards are crap, amateur hardware.
I was close to pulling the trigger on the biggest beast of a 580 that there is until I found out that, when fully loaded, it draws 330w!
My plan now is to wait on either a good deal on an MSI lightning 3GB 580 or keep an eye on the price of the 660 ti’s and 760s (shouldn’t be long before one can get 2 3GB 660 ti’s for $300.)
If anyone is interested $295 shipped for an evga recertified classified 580 3GB (3 year warranty)