New here and a beginner. Since starting 3d modeling been having problems with my video card. It is a Nvidia GeForce GT 730 - which is a pretty cheap card. Can anyone recommend a moderately priced display card suitable for 3D modeling? BTW, I have a PC with a quad core, 32 gigs of RAM and Windows 10.

Thanks

Hello VEGASGUITARS.

Well...not so easy to answer.

All depend on what kind of 3D modelling you have to deal with.

Based on my personal experience and the experience of many professional 3D artists/engineers, in short you can consider these suggestion :
(I talk here only about NVIDIA cards, I don't have any personal experience of AMD GPUs)

I have and use everyday a custom overclocked version of the very powerful Gtx 1080 Ti and it's a beast.


1) YOU NEED TO CREATE 3D MODELS/SCENES FOR ENGINEERING AND/OR MANUFACTURING

In this case you have only ONE mandatory choice : THE EXPENSIVE QUADRO FAMILY CARD
I suggest you at least the PASCAL line, P3000 or (better) P4000

2) YOU NEED TO CREATE 3D MODELS/SCENES ONLY FOR RENDERING AND/OR 3D PRINTING

In this case you can go without doubt on the cheaper and powerful GeForce line.
I suggest you at least the Gtx 1060 which has 6GB VRAM.

3) YOU NEED TO CREATE 3D MODELS/SCENES ONLY FOR RENDERING AND/OR 3D PRINTING AND FOR (ALMOST) REALTIME GPU RENDERING AND VR

Go without doubt for the Gtx 1080 Ti!

That's all.

Ciao!

...and...last but bot least...

If you can wait few months the new Nvidia Volta GPU line is on the road...

Hi VG
I work with medium sized architectural projects. I have an Nvidea Gtx 1060 (6gb RAM) and it works well for me for fairly complex modeling and rendering. It is quite reasonably priced.
cheers,
eric

Ended up going with a Nvidia Quadro P2000 - will let you know how it works out.

The Quadro is much better than the previous card which was an Nvidia GT730 - but rendering is still slow. So I'll use this for a while and upgrade again.

All depends on what kind of rendering you are talking about...

If you are using a GPU powered render engine and you want to spend under 700-750USD you have only ONE valid choice : NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti!
Or if you can spend more you can build a powerful rig with a pair of 1080 Ti.
But in that case you have to build a very powerful rig with a very efficient cooling system and a powerful CPU/Mother Board.

But if you really NEED the Quadro line and want to get (almost) the same speed of a single 1080 Ti (and even better) you are forced to buy a super expensive Quadro P6000 that costs about 6K USD!!!!


I have an overclocked version of a "Gtx 1080 Ti" and I usually use Thea Render with the "Presto" engine that leverages on the GPU and it's very very powerful and fast.

Hi Marco,

Thanks - I had a gaming card before the Quadro but it required power - does the 1080Ti? The problem is although have a fairly powerful computer (quad core, 32 gigs or RAM) it isn't made for upgrading and there are no extra power cables - the power supply could be replaced - but would rather try and find a card that doesn't require extra power.

I think this is not a serious problem if you can spend some extra money.

With about 100 USD you can easily get a serious PC case with a lot of room and a good "80+ gold" power supply of 700-750 watt.

Most of the 1080 Ti around have a TDP of 250W.

This is my config (May 2017), and as I said is very good for me because for rendering I don't leverage on CPU but on the GPU 1080 Ti.

Cases Cooler Master ATX MasterBox 5 (but yo can get a much better case)
Mb Intel 1151 MSI Z270 SLI PLUS Chipset Z270
Intel Core i7-7700K (4,20Ghz/4,50Ghz) 1151 BOX KABY LAKE
memory D4 3000 32GB C15 Corsair Ven K2
750W EVGA SuperNOVA GQ
SSD SAMSUNG 960 EVO NVMe SSD, PCIe 3.0 M.2 Typ 2280 - 500 GB
HDD int. 3,5 2TB Seagate Barracuda
Svga MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Armor 11G OC Boost: 1645mhz
Cpu liquid cooler Corsair Hydro H100i v2

Marco (mkdm)