Simviation Forums

As the subject implies, I'm looking for information about the ATI FireGL X1-128 video card - does anyone know what it's like?  Good, bad, ugly?  A friend has offered me a good deal on one, brand new, and I'd like to gather a few opinions first.  Originally I was looking to get an 9800XT, but then this deal came up and... well, any advice would be fantastic .

I'm work in the CG animation field myself, primarily from the studio but a workstation level card in my home system would definitely be handy.  The thing is, I have no idea how these workstation graphics boards run for gaming, and I would hate to shell out the money for something that will handle Maya no problem but isn't supported by half my games, particularly FS2004.  I mean, the whole point of going home is to get AWAY from work in the first place .

My system specs:

Intel P4 2.8Ghz 800 fsb (AGP 8X slot)
1 gig DDR PC 3200 RAM (400Mhz)
80Gb Maxtor Serial ATA 8Mb cache HD (7200rpm)
Radeon 9600XT (256mb)

Thanks!

Actually, I've always wondered how a top gaming card would run your workstation graphics!  ;D

I heard somewhere that the FireGL's were not particularly suited to gaming, but I haven't seen any evidence to back that up.

FireGl is a graphics design card, and is not suited to gaming.  The way it runs commands would mean it could not run a game very well but a CAD program extremely well.  As for top-range gaming cards in CAD programs, they are not suited for demanding CAD programs, but will cope with your average CAD program.