Ya, I know I’m getting excited over a cheapo graphics card.
but I’m on a college budget and currently just experiementing if TouchDesigner is the right tool for my projects and trying to build a PC powerful enough to prototype TD projects before taking this hobby pro
My TD applications that are graphics-card intensive primarily include texturizing and realtime manipulation of 3d Geometry, video playback and live video effects, and realtime audio-visualization.
Most cards go through one iteration of driver fixes before they are totally usable with TD. So you may not be fully up-and-running right away with a brand new card. The specs are a great middle-ground though for cost vs. performance.
Ended up playing it safe and went with the Geforce GTX 680.
For anyone else that stumbles on this page looking for a budget PC that can handle TD well here is my semi-powerful $1265 USD settup:
$665 - HP H8 3.4GHz (3.9Ghz Overclocked) Intel Core i7, 2TB 7200rpm Drive, 12GB DDR3, Windows 7
$470 - Geforce GTX 680
$65 - 750 watt power supply
$65 - 120 GB SATAIII SSD Total = $1265 USD
This guy is great! The tower PC came with an AMD HD 7650 graphics card. After upgrading to the Geforce listed above, applications that were once running from 0-10 fps are now running at a full 60fps.
I have only caught small stress on the system when using complex particle systems and simultaneous realtime processing of effects to video and 3D geometry - and these applications are still running at a very acceptable rate of ~50fps
I have a good benchmark Halloween application idea I am designing and will update how it handles this project when its done. Good luck shopping!
