ATI mobility radeon 9200 graphics card?

Heya ... I just want to know whether this graphics card (mobility radeon
9200 64mb) is acceptable for running CAD. I am guessing that the bulk of
work will be put on the cpu and i have cpu power and RAM in abundance. Just
hoping that there are no quirks with this particular card and CAD.

Thanks

James

 

None that I know. Google AutoCAD and your board to see. AutoCAD requires
nothing fancy for graphics. It will run fine on the cheap motherboards with
integrated chipset graphics or the basic $25 video board.
bg

 

James,
I have used AutoCAD and related products since R12 and build my own
workstations for my home and business. And I have learned that the more
CPU, RAM, and video RAM you can afford is always better than the
minimum required by the application.
The minimum requirement might run the software, but the app will
probably crash a lot. If you are going to do nothing but 2D line work
and don't need the capability of a good card for rendering, or gaming
if your into it, than the 64MB of video RAM should be sufficient.
Additional video RAM and the advanced capabilities of a higher end
video card really come into play with 3D rendering and gaming; which
also require more CPU and system RAM.
I would stay away from "cheap" anything because the old adage "you get
what you pay for" is as true for computer components as it is for most
any consumer product.
As far as on-board video is concerned, it will work OK if the
motherboard and integrated video do noy use "shared RAM". That means
the system is always competing with the integrated video for memory
space. One of the contenders always loses out.

 

No it is not. The RAM is set aside by the BIOS for use with video. It is
unavailable to the OS. There is no competition. There *is* a reduced amount
of RAM available. If the BIOS is set to use 64MB for video, that much less
is available. to the OS. This is not much of a concern if the box has 1 or 2
GB of memory.

We use Accurender for rendering and Navisworks for realtime 3D walkthroughs
of our models. There is no benefit to putting in a $300 gaming video board
in this case. I've tried them. As long as the video supports open GL, no
problems. Of course there may be other modeling software that requires the
advanced 3D processing power of these cards making them necessary.
bg