GTX Titan Black or 2x R9 290X Crossfire for CAD

[TeslaK20]

Hi, I am getting a desktop primarily for video editing and 3D modeling/animation, but gaming performance is also desired, so the Quadro line can be ruled out. There are two options in my budget, one Titan Black, or two R9 290X GPUs in Crossfire.
My question is, which exhibits better performance in CAD (not gaming)?

Oh, and the Tesla K20 is not a card I have, but a card I would buy if I were the founder of the company that makes the operating system this computer would run.

 

[the54thvoid]

Titan Black pretty much is a Tesla K20, without ECC and the appropriate software that makes Tesla a 'compute' specific card.

 

[TeslaK20]

So you are suggesting the Titan? Or was that just a comment?

 

[Durvelle27]

Have you considered 780 Ti's by any chance

 

[Scrizz]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290x-hawaii-review,3650-31.html

http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?doc_id=269289

 

[TeslaK20]

I will check it out. However, correct me if I'm wrong, the 780 Ti, while a bit better at gaming, is less CAD and HPC oriented.

 

[TeslaK20]

Ok, I checked it out. A 780 Ti SLI will add an extra $200. But is the extra cost worth it? And is it good for CAD and 3D?

 

[erocker]

CrossFire + CAD = no go. However, a single 290x will be more than enough. I wouldn't even consider the Titan Black due to it's price and the fact it really doesn't perform any better in this situation.

 

[TeslaK20]

CrossFire + CAD = no go. However, a single 290x will be more than enough. I wouldn't even consider the Titan Black due to it's price and the fact it really doesn't perform any better in this situation.

I have three questions, first, why doesn't Crossfire work well with CAD, second, would a 780 Ti SLI be worth the extra $200 my desired price?

 

[erocker]

From reading various other forums and people's experiences, it just doesn't work. Plus, you won't come close to full GPU utilization with any card until you start rendering. No, the 780ti or 780ti in SLI isn't worth it. Especially considering the neutered drivers for Nvidia's gaming cards when it comes to CAD. I really see no reason for you to need more than one GPU.

 

[TeslaK20]

From reading various other forums and people's experiences, it just doesn't work. Plus, you won't come close to full GPU utilization with any card until you start rendering. No, the 780ti or 780ti in SLI isn't worth it. Especially considering the neutered drivers for Nvidia's gaming cards when it comes to CAD. I really see no reason for you to need more than one GPU.

Perhaps you're right. I am currently using a laptop with an old, weak GPU (the 540m), so maybe I'm just so worried about GPU performance too much that the options I set for myself are overkill.

 

[TeslaK20]

Another question: Z97 or X79?

 

[Jack1n]

If you dont need more cores,ram slots,pci lanes then Z97,if you do then X79.

 

[TeslaK20]

CrossFire + CAD = no go. However, a single 290x will be more than enough. I wouldn't even consider the Titan Black due to it's price and the fact it really doesn't perform any better in this situation.

If I get an AMD card, will PhysX based dynamic simulations still work? Will they fail? Or will they simply use a different "computing system" to achieve the same result?

 

[yogurt_21]

i thought the whole point of titan was to bridge the gap between gaming and workstations (cad/ compression/ graphic design, etc) The R9 290X may be in that same range gaming wise while being a whole lot cheaper; however, cad wise it should get it's butt handled to it by the titan. Otherwise wtf was the point of the titan?

 

[Franzen4Real]

When you say you're interested in 3D modeling/animation, are you referring to Autodesk software? I only ask because I thought that as far as GPU accelerated rendering in software like 3DS MAX, that it did not support AMD cards. They use Mental Ray rendering which requires an NVidia card. I apologize if I am wrong about this... but I was taking 3DSMax in school and when I would render out a scene I had to do it with software rendering on the CPU only as none of the other options supported my Radeon 6950. (I believe Revit also did not support my card for accelerating a walkthrough rendering video) Perhaps there is now a plug in or something that supports AMD cards? But it didn't support it natively. Again, sorry if I am wrong about this., I'm guessing other users on the forums may know better than I and can correct me if I'm wrong.. But perhaps look into it before spending big on a GPU.

 

[RCoon]

If I get an AMD card, will PhysX based dynamic simulations still work? Will they fail? Or will they simply use a different "computing system" to achieve the same result?

They will still work, but they will be done, incredibly slowly, on the CPU instead. PhysX is NVidia only.

 

[TeslaK20]

When you say you're interested in 3D modeling/animation, are you referring to Autodesk software? I only ask because I thought that as far as GPU accelerated rendering in software like 3DS MAX, that it did not support AMD cards. They use Mental Ray rendering which requires an NVidia card. I apologize if I am wrong about this... but I was taking 3DSMax in school and when I would render out a scene I had to do it with software rendering on the CPU only as none of the other options supported my Radeon 6950. (I believe Revit also did not support my card for accelerating a walkthrough rendering video) Perhaps there is now a plug in or something that supports AMD cards? But it didn't support it natively. Again, sorry if I am wrong about this., I'm guessing other users on the forums may know better than I and can correct me if I'm wrong.. But perhaps look into it before spending big on a GPU.

I dont use Autodesk very often. My main workhorse is Blender, whose cycles renderer supports openCl. I also use Adobe.