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Question asked by Noel Buckley on Mar 22, 2007
Latest reply on Mar 28, 2007 by Noel Buckley

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I have a new computer with a 7900GTX card in it. I know it'snot a "certified" card and don't want to replace it witha Quadro or something similar. My last computer had a GeForce6600GT card in it and it was more than fast enough for Solidworks. However, my new computer - which should be WAY faster -isn't. It seems like the card isn't using all of it'sability: so perhaps a driver issue?

When I rotate models, all the "complicated" parts become"dumbed down" into blocky representations of themselves. Not exactly ideal. And it's slow.

My computer is a Core 2 Duo @2.13 GHz, with 2GB ram, Windows XP,dual Dell 20" monitors and the 7900 GTX with 512 mb ofram.

My Solidworks is version 2007 SP0.0

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Noel

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Anna Wood Mar 22, 2007 4:50 AM
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Noel,

What were the specs for your old computer? What version and SP of SolidWorks were you running on the old computer?

It would be good if you installed the latest service pack of SW2007, it is up to SP3.0. There have been improvements since SP0.0.

As far as the blockyness when rotating the model that is a setting in SolidWorks under System Options > Performance. The slider called Level of Detail controls how much detail is rendered when rotating the model. More detail will need more system resources.

Regards,
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- Martin Cox @ Anna Wood on Mar 22, 2007 8:16 AM
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  If you look at tools, options, performance settings is the software open GL setting enabled, and can you change this setting?
  You must have no documents open to adjust this setting.
  
  With some unsuported dual monitor setups it is not possible to set up hardware aceleration.
  It may be worthwhile unplugging the secondary monitor to see if this alllows you to set hardware acceleration.
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- Noel Buckley @ Anna Wood on Mar 22, 2007 5:29 PM
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  Thanks for the replies!
  
  The old computer (which is only just over two years old) was a P4,with 1gb ram, and a GeForce 128mb 6600GT. It only had onemonitor (a 19" flat screen at 1280 x 1024). I wasrunning SW 2005 and 2006 on it mainly.
  
  The monitors on the new computer are dual Dell 20" Ultrasharp2007FP monitors each running at 1600x1200. Don't know if thatmakes any difference or not.
  
  I'll definitely upgrade to SP3.0 on my new machine.
  
  The "blockiness" issue was resolved with the slidersetting - thanks!
  
  The "Use software Open GL" button is unchecked -performance is much slower with it checked. However, with itunchecked it's still no where near as fast as my old computerwas.
  
  I'll start playing with the monitors, but that would be a realshame not to be able to use both of them. And I definitelydon't want to have to buck up for a new video card either.
  
  Cheers!
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  - Pete Yodis @ Noel Buckley on Mar 22, 2007 6:23 PM
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    If you did have to "Buck up", an nVidia Quadro FX 560 would run you at about 250-270$ and would drive SolidWorks pretty well. Don't know how much 250-270$ is "bucking you up"...
    
    Pete
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  - Anna Wood @ Noel Buckley on Mar 22, 2007 6:35 PM
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    Noel,
    
    What speed was the P4 processor? We want to be able to compare the two processors and we need to know exactly what P4 processor you had.
    
    You have a lower speed version of the C2D and you may have had a higher end P4 that gives you about the same perfomance as the lower end C2D you have today.
    
    You are pushing a lot of pixels with two monitors. How is the performance compared to you old system with just one of the Dell flat panels set-up? This would be a more apples to apples comparison on basic system performance.
    
    Do you have your system set so the it is still running with all the Windows XP eye candy or have you adjusted your system settings for "Best Performance" under Computer > Properties > Advanced > Performance > Settings
    
    Can you post a screen shot of SolidWorks running on both the old and new computer? Are both your old and new computers configured the same with regards to performance and system settings?
    
    SolidWorks 2007 seems to need a higher horsepower computer, I am not sure if your new C2D is a higher performing CPU then you old P4. The E6600 and preferably the E6700 C2D are better choices for SolidWorks 2007. You do not have any headroom in your system for later versions of SolidWorks that will require more resources to run at comparable speeds.
    
    Regards,
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    - Pete Yodis @ Anna Wood on Mar 22, 2007 6:42 PM
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      Clock speed of a CPU is not nearly as relevant today when you are comparing a core2 duo versus a P4 architecture. This is what confused people comparing AMDs to Intel P4s. Its about throughput, not just clock speed. I am sure the core2duo that Noel has beats the pants off of his P4, even though the clock speed looks to be less, the same, or close. The core2 duo is just so much more efficient, and there may be 2 of them as well... I would look at the graphics card driver that is being used, since it seems Noel is complaining about graphics speed. Can you be anymore specific about what seems slow, Noel?.
      
      Pete
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      - Noel Buckley @ Pete Yodis on Mar 22, 2007 7:06 PM
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        Hey Everyone, thanks for the help!
        
        Yes, the new 2.13 GHz C2D processor is WAY faster than my older P4 (3.2 GHz), even though the clock speed is "slower".
        
        The cost of a new graphics card is not really the issue - it's justthat an older card (lower end gaming card) worked better than thenewer card (higher end gaming card). Of course, the muchhigher resolutions of the monitors could be the issue, but I don'tthink so.
        
        I have also found that when using "Shaded With Edges" thespeed is much slower than "Shaded". When set atShaded, rotations and such are pretty much almost as fast as theyneed to be (probably hitting 15-20 frames per second, or howeverit's measured in Solidworks). However, with Shaded with Edgesturned on, that speed drops down to about 4-5 FPS. Does thatmake sense?
        
        I also don't think that our models are particularly complicated -at least not compared to what I used to do in Solidworks in thepast.
        
        I'll be doing the SP3.0 upgrade today and make sure that I have thelatest Nvidea drivers.
        
        Cheers!
        
        Noel
        
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      - Noel Buckley @ Pete Yodis on Mar 22, 2007 7:12 PM
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        In terms of what is actually "slow", it's basicallymoving models around in Solidworks.
        
        So, if I'm rotating or panning with models, that's where theperformance issues pop up. This also means that when I doDrawings (in 2D), the drawing views are also slow to movearound.
        
        Thanks!
        
        Noel
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        Pete Yodis @ Noel Buckley on Mar 22, 2007 7:24 PM
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        Can you just drive one display and see how the performance is? If you have 2 displays and spent the money for that, then wouldn't it make sense to have a card that can adequately drive both? If it is indeed the 2 display issue, then it might be a little penny wise and pound foolish to use the card that you currently have. Also, I would make sure you are using the recommended driver from SolidWorks, and not just the latest driver from nVidia, although you could compare them to see if performance gets better or worse and if stability is an issue. Often the latest drivers from grpahics card companies can cause issues with CAD systems.
        
        http://www.solidworks.com/page...videocardtesting.html
        
        All in all I would sell the GeFroce card on eBay and buy a quadro FX 560.
        
        Pete
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        Noel Buckley @ Pete Yodis on Mar 22, 2007 7:43 PM
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        Hey Pete:
        
        I'll definitely play around with the drivers and see if anythingchanges.
        
        The issue with the card isn't the cost of a CAD specific graphicscard. It's that I'm trying to have one computer that does thejob of two - CAD stuff and non-CAD stuff. In the past thegaming card worked just fine. So, I'm hoping that my newcomputer with a gaming card should also be able to work fine (sincethe computer and the card are way faster than the old setup). The only major change is the dual monitors at higherresolution. If at the end, I can't get reasonable CADperformance out of my gaming card, then I'll look into getting aCAD specific graphics card.
        
        Cheers!
        
        Noel
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        Pete Yodis @ Noel Buckley on Mar 23, 2007 12:53 PM
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        Good luck Noel. Let us know how it goes.
        
        Pete
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        Noel Buckley @ Pete Yodis on Mar 24, 2007 8:43 PM
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        WOoo HOOO!!! Problem Solved!
        
        OK - so after some fooling around, it looks like I have solved theissue and it in fact did lie with my nvidia drivers (actually thedriver settings).
        
        "Moving models around speed" is back to it's normalquickness - no issues at all even at 1600 x 1200 with "Shadedwith Edges" mode. The "hidden lines removed"and "hidden lines visible" settings are not quiteperfectly smooth, but I rarely use those settings anyway, so it'snot really a problem.
        
        So, here's what I did:
        
        I opened the nVidia control panel. I clicked on "3DSettings" and went to "Manage 3D Settings".
        
        There is a tab labeled "Program Settings": I clicked thistab which lets you adjust the 3D settings individually for eachprogram.
        
        I then clicked the "Add" tab. This then looks foran *.exe file and I selected the file:
        SLDWORKS.EXE which is of course the main Solidworks executablefile.
        
        Then, I adjusted the individual settings to switch them from"globally controlled" to "applicationcontrolled".
        
        I restarted Solid Works and things are now much, MUCH better.
        
        Cheers!
        
        Noel
        
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        Larry Kutcher @ Noel Buckley on Mar 26, 2007 5:35 PM
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        Is this the same as setting the active profile to"SolidWorks"...?
        
        Kutch
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        Pete Yodis @ Noel Buckley on Mar 26, 2007 5:53 PM
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        Good news Noel. Happy modelling. You make me jealous with 2 displays at that resolution. For my home use I am considering making the move to a 24" display.
        
        Pete
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        Derek Pepino @ Pete Yodis on Mar 26, 2007 7:01 PM
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        Solidworks is not graphics intensive... (anything bigger thana quadro 3xxx is a waste of time unless your graphic designing withSolidworks)
        
        It is processor and memory bandwidth intensive...
        I deal with 2000+ component assemblies and I barely hit the 2gigRam mark....
        
        Upgrading your Video Card will not make Solidworks go faster...
        
        The best SW performance gained by attacking SW's bottle neck.MEMORY BANDWIDTH
        Faster ram, bigger pipelines, lower latencies....
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        Travis Andrews @ Derek Pepino on Mar 26, 2007 9:38 PM
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        I can use over 2GB of ram in Solidworks with a 10part assembly...
        
        My parts are ~20,000 faces, scaled down from the original 500,000. The data comes from anatomical scanned polygonal files converted to nurbs...
        
        In this case SolidWorks is limited by graphics card, memory, and cpu speed. It's never enough. But I get by alright, you sometimes have to learn to limit the operations that you are trying to do to suit the software's limitations.
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        Noel Buckley @ Pete Yodis on Mar 28, 2007 7:51 PM
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        Hey Peter:
        
        Don't be jealous! It's by no means a perfect setup. Itoo was considering the single 24" wide screen display, but inthe end went with the dual 20" monitors: pretty much the samecost and more usable real estate.
        
        I don't model full time - I go through times when I do a lot of it,but also other times when I do a lot of document writing,e-mailing, Excel, etc...
        
        So, Solidworks typically only runs on one monitor. In fact,to get it working properly with my video card, I have to restrict asingle session of solidworks to a single monitor (i.e. I can't spanacross both monitors). I can span across both monitors if Ienable the default hardware acceleration setting, but then it slowsdown a bunch. I can run two sessions - one on each monitorand both are accelerated at full speed then, but I don't find thisset up to be overly useful for what I do. Besides, I usuallyonly really need one monitor to model - the second monitor is aglorified e-mailer / Winamp whore However it ISnice when I'm doing configurations as I can have a couple of Excelwindows open on the second monitor.
        
        Cheers!
        
        Noel
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