Since adsk products don't use open GL any more, many of use have gone with a good gamer card for a better value than the Quadro's. You just get more performance for the dollar with a "gamer".
If you plan on doing much rendering, that's where more Vram comes into play - 2d not so much. I happen to like Nvidia drivers as a personal preference. They seem more stable for the C3d work I do (no rendering) and new drivers are very easy to get & install. So for heavy 3d & rendering, I'd go with a 2 gig card.
I think my card was made by ASUS using the GTX 460 Nvidia drivers w/ not quite 1gig of Vram. I felt it was a good price/performance compromise, since I don't do any rendering. Most any of the major manufacturers are going to have good performers though.
One other thing to look at is monitor support & outputs. Newer monitors have HDMI inputs & older have the DVI connection. Make sure whatever you get supports 2 monitors at least. For serious work, you need 2 monitors to see what your drafting, and what all the commands and dialoge boxes are.
Reid
