Serious graphics card needed for rendering animation?

[bettsjw]

Hey guys,

New to this board, first post and all that.

Okay, I am using a dual Xeon server with 4gb of ram but only a 512mb graphics card installed for modelling and animation but it's so slow. I'm building a 64 bit quad core machine with 16mb of ram and two 1gb sli graphics cards for Mudbox, Maya, and Zbrush.:evil:

My question is do I need a serious graphics card installed in the server for rendering frames of animation or can I get away with the current setup and let it quietly churn out images while I create models on the higher end machine?

Thanks,
J. Betts

[SgtHK]

Rendering doesn't require the power of a video card. For the viewport display, yeah it helps a great deal.

[Munkybutt]

I thought new generations of cards assisted with the rendering?

[Nukie]

What I understood of it was that some cards helps with the rendering, but you need specialised software for it. Nvidia does have something like that.

[2scale]

Thats a serious machine .Most of the rendering you do is software rendering. You can use hardware rendering in maya which is very fast and gelato which is nvideas renderman like renderer which is avail for free on there website. Mudbox be carfefull with any gcard you go with make sure it can handle real time ambient occlusion ect. Even most of the newer gaming cards have this. I have a quadro 1500fx and Im left out in the cold on that one..bought it before the new mudbox came out...So disappointed.

[Nukie]

Gelato, that was what I mean (ment? :S). Never tried it myself tho so have no idea how and if it works.