graphics cards for photo manipulation/cad

I need to upgrade a computer that runs CS4 and CAD. One of the issues is that under CS4 it runs out of memory when using some brushes or filters. I presume it is running out of graphics memory as the computer has 4 gigs of ram and doesnt seem to use half of it. It currently has a 8800gt with 512.

Im wondering if it is worth buying from the Quadro FX line or just a higher spec standard one with more ram. obviously the quadro ones are $$$$$ especially once you start getting over 512 ram.

In the past for CAD (ProE) we have been fine with high end gaming graphics cards.

thoughts?

I suspect a workstation card like the Quadro etc is what you're going to need to look at. Cards with the best OpenGL performance.

Most gamer cards are optimised to render textures and the like, not vector stuff.

I'd see if you can find a recent version (i.e. not from 2006) of this sort of review.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/opengl-workstation-graphics,1269.html

I have no such problems with a 8600GT 256MB & 4gb or even when I had 2gb.

CS4 only uses the card to speed up display and do a few tricks that would otherwise be impossible like spinning the canvas. Future versions may make more use of the card though but I doubt it will be a prerequisite for a while.

Off the top of my head, check that Photoshop has a decent amount of ram available to it in the preferences>performance, (mine uses about 2gb) and that scratch disks are properly set up - although by default it should be. If you have too many history states you might start running into problems too. Um, bit depth & resolution should be appropriate for the output intent.

Other than that, there is something wrong with your Photoshop installation?

Seen a couple of Quadro FX cards on tardme quite cheap, not really familiar with them & unless you are doing some serious high-end CAD work I really don't see the point personally.

Oh also perhaps look at this pdf, it was posted up on John Nack's blog recently (he is the Photoshop product manager and it's a really interesting and constantly updated blog if you are into that sorta stuff):
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/pdfs/pscs4_opt_performance.pdf

cheers for that,

I've set up dedicated scratch disks and played around with the memory settings before though it might have been a bit ad hoc. Will go back and look at it again.

My first thought was the install but i completely reinstalled the os/ cs4 etc about 6 months ago due to unexplained slowing downs (cpu/ram was ok, not much in the way of disk activity) but its worse now.

Might be a bung computer, i have certainly had a few issues with Dell quadcore machines of late. New graphics card is the next step after checking optimisation then on to switching with a HP comp.