Graphics card for both gaming and 3d design

Hi,

I'm an architecture student and do a lot of heavy 3d stuff on various programs such as sketchup and 3dsMax, but i'm also a gamer, mass effect/skyrim/crysis etc.

I currently have a radeon hd 4870 in my desktop(ignore my spec on my profile they are for laptop)

it works pretty good for both gaming and 3d design, however i know cards such firepro and quadro are more suited specifically for 3d stuff.

My question is, if i were to get something like an AMD ATI FirePro V4800 (which is in my price range), would it still handle gaming well?

Secondly, can i just leave my 4870 in the motherboard with the fire pro and just switch cables each time i game?

Thanks!

Honestly, with only 400 stream processors the FirePro would not be ideal for gaming; to put it in perspective your 4870 has 800 stream processors.

You could, however use both if you have two PCIe2 x16 slots, as most games today give you the option to choose your graphics card. I'm not familiar with Sketchup or 3DSMax (though I do dabble in Realsoft 3D; an oldie but a goodie), but check to see if these also support choosing the primary graphics driver.

I don't know the system requirements of your software; you can check this on their websites. Since games run on directx this would be the way to go.

I run a CAD business and thankfully my design software runs on directx as opposed to opengl... makes for a lot of happy "overtime"

Sketchup does have open gl but it doesn't seem to cause any problems, i have autodesk revit also, which is 3d.

Thanks for your help guys! sorry about the late reply