Graphic Hardware Survey

[malexander]

Hi all,

With the release of 11.0, Houdini uses much more capabilities of graphics cards than it did in previous versions. I had a few surprises with the hardware some people are running, so I thought I'd run a quick, informal survey to see what's out there. You can select more than one choice if you have multiple systems.

If you're unsure of one of the answers, there are ways to find out, or you can select "Unknown".

In Houdini, you can determine the GL version using About->Houdini, and clicking "Show Details". The 4th line will contain the OpenGL version. You can also determine the graphics card as well on the line above it. Note that OSX currently only supports OpenGL 2.1, even if the hardware is OpenGL4.0 capable (like the ATI 5000 series graphics available with the new Macs).

The installed VRAM is the hardest to determine if you don't know offhand. You can do the following on various platforms:

Windows: RMB click on desktop, select "Nvidia Control Panel" (then System Information) or "Catalyst Control Center" (Information).

Linux: Run 'nvidia-settings' (click on GPU-0) or 'amdcccle' (ATI, "Information" tree item)

OSX: Apple menu->About this Mac, "More details" (or "system information", I don't recall which; it's the only button other than close).

Wikipedia also has a fairly exhaustive list of the various Nvidia and ATI pro and consumer cards' specifications.

You can also determine the Hardware OpenGL version from this list:

OpenGL 4.0 and higher:

Nvidia Quadro 4000, 5000, 6000

ATI FirePro series with second digit of 8

ATI Radeon 5000 series

Nvidia GEForce 400 series

OpenGL 3.0 to 3.3

Nvidia QuadroFX with second digit of 6,7 or 8

ATI FirePro series with second digit of 7

Nvidia GEForce 8000 series, 9000 series, GT100 series, GTS/GTX200 series, GTX/GTS 300 series

ATI Radeon 2000, 3000, 4000 series

OpenGL 2.0 and 2.1

Nvidia QuadroFX with second digit of 4 or 5

Nvidia GEforce 6000 or 7000 series

ATI FireGL series

ATI Radeon X800/600/300, X1000 series

OpenGL 1.0 - 1.5

Nvidia GEForce 5000 series and below

ATI 9800/9700/9600 series and below

Thank you for participating!

[JoshJ]

Hi,

Does Houdini make any special use of opengl 4.0? I'm wondering if things would run better with the quadro 3700 I have, or a opengl 4.0 capable card like gtx 480. Am I missing out on much?

[malexander]

OpenGL 4.0 (and 3.3) was released too late in the Houdini 11 cycle to be included in any way. Houdini 11 only uses OpenGL 3.2 (multisample texture, geometry shader). So there is no reason to switch at the moment. Future versions may include GL3.3 and 4.0 features, so I would recommend upgrading when it becomes necessary (and prices drop a bit on GL4 hardware). The 3700 should be able to meet all of Houdini's current requirements.

[ykcosmo]

just bought IMAC 27 for Houdini and starcraft 2...

ATI Radeon HD 5750....

Edited August 28, 2010 by ykcosmo

[ykcosmo]

just bought IMAC 27 for Houdini and starcraft 2...

ATI Radeon HD 5750....

[malexander]

Thank you for all your votes! I will likely run this poll again next year to see what the general hardware trends are, and how quickly hardware is changing.

[ykcosmo]

Next year ??!!??!!?