Middle range GPU advice

Hi all,

First, I’m glad to join the blender’s community. Blender is great and so it is of all the people involved in it’s development.

I’m planning to buy a new computer for the main purpose of sculpting in blender 2.57. I’m not going to focus on renders.

Basically, I’ve came with a X58 motherboard, core i7 950 and 3x2Gb of PC 10600 value ram.

To fit my budget, a GPU should not cost more than 250€. I’ve came at first glance to a GTX 560 Ti 1Gb DDR5, but the seller strongly recommended me to exchange it for a Quadro 600 fermi, even for working with blender. After reading several discussion here and here, I’m not convinced that the quadro would be the right choice.

So, first, is the low end quadro 600 a better choice than the GTX 560 Ti at the same price? If not, is the GTX 560 Ti a good choice, or should I look toward another nvidia, or a radeon (for example the HD 6950 2 Gb)?

Thanks for your help!

I just finished going through the process of upgrading my GPU (the new GT 430 Fermi came yesterday). Haven’t really been able to put it to the test just yet, but what little ive done ive been impressed. From what i understand ( and i don’t know how true this is), the only real difference between a workstation graphics card and a desktop card is the way they handle OpenGL. “APPARENTLY” manufacturers limit the performance of OpenGL on desktop cards. That being said, a mid-high end GPU like the GTX that has the latest OpenGL APIs and decent specs should probably handle most of the stuff your going to do in Blender. But, i’m biased, i was eyeballing the GTX 560 ti myself, but couldnt get it because of my M-ATX setup…