Nvidia Quadro FX 4400 settings

I recently received an Nvidia Quadro FX 4400 video card but so far
I am disappointed by the performance. We ran several benchmark tests
and compared to some of our other lower end video cards and the 4400
came in about even with the lower end cards. We used the "solidworks"
setting and did not change any of other settings and we are using
driver 7.1.8.4. Are there any other settings that we can tweak to get
better preformance from this video card?

Thanks, Sam

 

Sam,

Did you check to see if Software OpenGL was checked ???

Mark

 

Sam,

In recently talking with someone I know, that just did alot of testing,
he found that SolidWorks users for some reason are not seeing any
performance gains on any card higher that a Quadro FX 1400 unless you
start using dual monitors and high resolution too.

KM

 

I cannot seem to find the Software OpenGL option, can you tell me
where that option is located? And should that option be selected or
not?

Sam

 

I'll watch this thread with great interest, often wondered if a "High
end" graphic card would make any noticeable difference.

Way back when I first used SolidWorks 199? on a machine with a low end
$300 NZ card Matrox Millennium G400. I upgraded to a $1,700 NZ ELSA
Gloria 3 expecting huge improvements. I noticed absolutely no change in
performance in any area, Large assemblies, complex parts, drawings or
rendering times. In fact I was worse off the G400 could run two displays
and the Gloria couldn't.

I came to two conclusions.

1/ A fool and their money are soon parted, me being the fool.
2/ I would in future always take a newer faster processor / more memory
over a newer better graphics card.


Current System (looking to upgrade within 6 months)
Athlon 3200+
1.5 GB RAM
Nvidia FX500
120GB RAID 0 for data and virtual MEM
80GB for OS

 

It should not be selected, if selected it will slow your machine
considerably.

http://www.solidengineering.co.nz/help/OpenGL.jpg

John Layne
www.solidengineering.co.nz

 

I would think that for the most part the internals of cad cards are just the
same as gaming cards but with a few optimisations and more conservative
tuned driver. Indeed the fact that older cards could be hacked readily to
the same effect supports this.The main gains in the latest hardware are
about improved frame rates at larger resolutions and 8-16x antialiasing,
textures, real-time lighting and the like so I would think that it is true
that for the most part a typical SW user who doesn't have a need for this
stuff would not see much difference between a mid and high end
card....perhaps in a rotate but then SW has its own detail removal strategy
anyways ...as John says much better to spend the price difference on a
faster processor...of course with Win Vista on the horizon a 256mb
PCIexpress card would be a good investment.

 

Do you know what resolution that person was using? I may get a Quadro FX
4000, and I plan on running at least 1600x1200. Hopefully there is a
performance gain there.

 

Hi Sam

Did you manage to resolve your Graphics Card issues? I am very
interested to learn from your experience, as I intend to buy a new
machine in the next few months.

John Layne
www.solidengineering.co.nz