Video Card Question - Nvidia - SW tested cards and drivers

Hello,

I've honestly tried browsing and searching this group for my answer
and thus far can't find a clear answer, please forgive me if this has
been covered and perhaps point me to the correct thread.

I have an Nvidia Quadro NVS AGP8X with 64Mb of RAM running on a 1.5Ghz
P4 with 1Gb of RAM. This computer was initially Win2000 but I upgraded
to WinXp. This computer used to work great with SW 2001 at some point
but somehwere in there either with upgrading OS, or moving to SW 2004,
or getting this new video card with dual DVI output, it is running SW
very slow. I ran Mike's ship in a bottle and got 109 seconds.
Sometimes I wait 30-60 seconds for medium sized assemblies to open or
save.

My question is about video cards. I can't seem to see what people
like. Our IS thinks the Nvidia card is causing the problem. He wants
to use an ATI card. I looked on SW's "video card testing" page but it
seems to not have been updated in awhile. Can anyone point me to
recent info on cards? We are buying our computers from DELL so they
usually come with Nvidia. Our newest computer came with an Nvidia
GeForce FX 5200 AGP8X with 128Mb of RAM and it got 44 seconds on
Mike's test. It is a faster proc thoguh. Any suggestions would be
great. We are not doing anything fancy, just 3D modeling and 2D
drafts. Lots of parts but simple parts at that.

Thanks in advance.

 

The Nvidia Quadro NVS is certainly part of your problem. Despite the
Quadro name, this card is NOT optimized for 3D CAD applications. The
NVS is targeted towards typical office programs that emphasize 2D
quality instead of 3D quality or performance.

I would recommend almost any Nvidia Quadro or ATI FireGL card (not
including the NVS, of course). I am most familiar with Nvidia, so I
would recommend them, although the FireGL often does very well in the
benchmarks I have seen.

I would recommend a Quadro4 750 or Quadro FX 500. These are mid-range
video cards ($250-$350) that perform pretty well with SWX and, most
importantly, are optimized for 3D CAD like SWX. The more expensive
quadros will give better performance, but there is a point of
diminishing returns. FYI, I believe the ATI cards are fairly close in
terms of performance for a comparable cost.

Note: 'Gaming' cards such as the GeForce can work pretty well with SWX
as well, but they are really not optimized for it. These cards DO have
certain issues with SWX, especially after multiple windows have been
opened. For instance, the screen may not refresh properly, or
dimensions may disappear, or the graphics will suddenly SLOOOW DOOWWN
(the most common problem with GeForce cards).
More than likely, you will not see these problems by just running Mike's
Ship in a Bottle benchmark (in fact a GeForce will often beat an
equivalent Quadro by a hair). The reason for this is that this
benchmark does not open multiple graphics windows nor does it really
stress the graphics subsystem. It is more of a CPU/software speed
benchmark.

P.S. It is possible to cheat some GeForce cards into thinking they are
a Quadro and gain all of the benefits that come with a Quadro, but, IMO,
it is not worth the time and effort and hassle.

 

I would estimate your 1.5 ghz could do about 75 secs with a better card.
you may have other hardware issues as well though. as Arlin said the NVS is
really for 2D.

 

Did the test, 50 cycles in 49 secs.

Specs.

HP/Compaq xw4000 'Workstation' with AGP 4x
Intel P4 2,4 GHz
512 + 256 Mb RAM (PC2100)
Nvidia NVS
SWX 2004 SP1.0

Question is: 'Is it the card?'

 

Mike's test is a great benchmark of Solidworks rebuild, but as I understand
it, it has precious little to do with video performance. For example, it
wouldn't show you the difference between a gaming card and a pro cad card,
as there just isn't much happening graphically with the benchmark.

I think your biggest problem(s) lie in the processor and amount of memory.
In other words, more of either one will gain a better ship score. A better
graphics card might not.

Mike, is this correct?

- Eddy

 

Hey Thanks for all of the answers. I've done some searching on "NVS"
on this board and sure enough they are not recommended. We have 5
computers running SW here, all with Nvidia cards, and the ones running
simple GeForce cards are way outperforming the two computers with NVS
cards. I will request to either downgrade to GeForce or to get a
non-NVS Quadro. Perhaps we'll try an ATI card as well, since a lot of
guys here are big fans of ATI.

As far as the benchmark goes, I agree it probably isn't the best
benchmark for graphics card testing.

Thanks again for the responses. Hopefully I can contribute likewise
someday.

 

Back in 2002, I had an ATI all in wonder 128mb card It was crap!!!
I switched to 3DLabs Oxygen GVX1 32mb it was outsanding compared to the
previous card.
A short while later I bought a home computer, it came with Nvidia geforce2
400 MX. 32mb
It performed at the same level as the gvx1. ,
At work my workstation has a Nvidia 900XL 128 mb. Another workstation here
is an identical box except it has a ATI fire GL 128mb and it is noticeably
slower than my box.
Stick with Nvidia Quadro 750 or better, You won't regret it. You certainly
can use the geforce, I do at home but for my work computer I'd pry the coin
from the boss's pocket for the quadro.
My 2 cents