Pro-E 2001 on Celeron with 8MB AGP

I am running Pro/Engineer 2001 on Windows 98.

Does anyone know if it is possible to improve the shading performance of a
model with only 8MB on a 2x AGP card? My system is a Celeron 400Mhz with
128 MB RAM with only a AGP 1.0 slot (1x/2x). It cannot accept one of the
AGP 2.0 4x/8x AGP cards. The PCI slots are also of the older configuration
and will not accept the newer PCI cards.

Wire frame images are fine, but when I view a simple model with shading,
portions of some of the features to not appear and the shaded surfaces of
those that do look very grainy and even looks this way when the model is not
being dynamically rotated. Also, colors to indicate surfaces and edges do
not appear. System is set at 10280 x 1024 with 256 colors.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

A whole new computer on a better OS is the real answer. Pretty much all
hardware is of the minimum acceptable, and even if you get better shading
performance (which a new graphics card will definitely fix), you'll quickly
run into another performance problem. I don't remember which card is the
latest to only be 1.0 AGP spec, but if you can find the latest nVidia,
3dlabs, or Intergraph/Wildcat you should be happy. I'll bet Ebay can find
you the outdated card you need.

The graininess is from running 256 color mode, which I don't believe is
supported by the software.

But back to the first statement - you'll be better off running Windows XP,
256-512MB of RAM, an nVidia or ATI graphics card, and 1280x1024 @24 or 32-
bit color (16.7million). The latest/greatest CPU speed will mean less to
you than the other stuff. A system like that can be had for $800(?)

Dave

 

Thanks for your help!

All I had to do was change from 256 color mode to 16 bit and everything is
ok. No new hardware required.