Hardware recommendations

wm_cheng · 30 Nov 2009, 21:02

I plan to be building a i7 Core 920 soon and received a handful of "hand-me-down" graphics cards which I hope you can help me decide on which ones would be best for SketchUp use;

ATI Radeon 5850
ATI FireGL v8650
ATI FireGL v7600
ATI Radeon 4850

I think the 5850 is the newest of the bunch (but it primarily for gaming) whereas the FireGL is workstation class with 2Gb of memory, but it IS 2 years old (which is an eternity by computer time!). Which would be better to use? Would I benefit from "Cross-Fire" linking of them in SketchUp? Can I cross-fire link a Radeon with a FireGL?

I hope to build the new rig with 6Gb RAM and Windows 7 64bit - anything I should be aware of as it pertains to SketchUp?

Thanks,

brodie · 30 Nov 2009, 21:12

I can't speak to those specific model numbers but I've had both Radeon and FireGL and have run into quarky issues with SU. Some of them have been detrimental (selecting faces behind the one I selected) and some of them have only been annoyances (odd coloring of selected faces). If you browse around this thread you'll see all sorts of recommendations against ATI cards in conjunction with SketchUp.

That said, if they're free it's worth giving them a shot before you spend cold hard cash on an nVidia card. But what might end up being the determiner isn't so much which card is best but which card plays nicest with SketchUp. I'd start with whichever card is the newest and has the latest drivers unless someone speaks up who has one of these cards in particular.

-Brodie

Anssi · 30 Nov 2009, 21:31

I would start by trying the FireGLs. Last week I had, after being sceptical for a long time, to admit that a mobile FireGL in a Lenovo notebook seemed to work OK with SU. However, the OS was the tried and tested Windows XP 32-bit. So it is definitely a question of finding the right drivers for the OS.

As for performance, I don't think you will have any problems about that. SU is still quite CPU-oriented (and single-threaded), and any decent graphics card will do. In comparison to my old P IV notebook with mobile Geforce graphics a quad-core Xeon with a middlerange QuadroFX is noticeably, but not explosively faster, but the older one is still quite usable, at least with my small models.

I understand that linking two graphics cards only speeds up gaming (Direct3D) performance, but has no effect on OpenGL (that SU uses)

Anssi

charly2008 · 30 Nov 2009, 22:22

I have now taken a decision for the following equipment:

Processor : Core I7 920 4x2,67Ghz

Mainboard : Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 Chipsset

Memory : 6 GB DDR3 1333Mhz

GPU : Nvidia Geforce GTX 275 896MB

Operating Sytem : Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit

chango70 · 1 Dec 2009, 10:26

Some good info on graphics cards

(www.gpureview.com)

chango70 · 1 Dec 2009, 10:31

I heard the latest batch of ATI graphics cards (Radeon HD 5770 and HD 5970)have taken the long held performance crown from Nvidia. Whilst they might be gaming champs do they play nice with Sketchup? Has any early adopters had any experience? I am currently thinking about jumping the bandwagon but are worried about the old ATI driver reputation.

thomthom · 1 Dec 2009, 11:12

I just got a new computer at work with and ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Powerful beast - but some graphical glitches on occasion while working with SU.

Powerful Hardware is one thing - but it doesn't help much if the software isn't to par. IMO - i still prefer nVidia as their drivers and OpenGL support seems more stable.

chango70 · 1 Dec 2009, 11:47

Cheers. I guess I will have to wait until Jan next year for the next batch of competing Nvidia GPUs (as rumors go). I wish ATI would just sort out their OpenGL driver issues.

thomthom · 1 Dec 2009, 11:49

I want my Quadro FX 3500 back....

charly2008 · 13 Jan 2010, 21:44

Hi,
finally, my new PC is ready for use. I've installed all the software again. Only with the driver for the Creative Audigy sound card, there are problems. Also, some older programs can't be installed any more. Now I have to try the power the PC brings.

I have selected the following equipment:
Processor: Intel Core i7 860
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3, Intel P55
RAM: 8 GB
Grafics card: XFX GeForce GTS 250 512 MB
two SATA Harddisk each 350 GB
OS: Windows 7 64-bit

The first test with Sketchup delivered the following results:

brodie · 13 Jan 2010, 22:45

Good looking computer and good benchmarks there.

-Brodie

dsarchs · 29 Jan 2010, 21:55

This might be a little late in answering but I'm almost positive you need two of the same card to use cross-fire (eg. (2) 5850 CARDS).
I'd be wary of spending a bunch of money on a workstation graphics card for SU. The only real difference between "gaming" cards and workstation cards are the drivers and the tech. support. For some programs -- 3d Studio Max, for example, the drivers make a huge difference. I haven't heard that they've been optimized for SU.
For ATI cards, the DirectX 11 seems to be useless for anything less than a 5850 as the cards aren't powerful enough to compensate for the performance hit from using dx11 instead of dx10. The 5000 series is MUCH more energy efficient but you can get more power/$ from using the 4000 series (not to mention more mature drivers). The 4890 is a very powerful card and can be had for ~$180 or so. That said, the 5850 and 5870 are very nice cards.
Recently there was an article (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2d-windows-gdi,2539-11.html) about 2d (and 2.5d) graphics where the ATI cards perform VERY poorly (and the NVIDIA cards are not much better). Fixes are supposed to be in the works, but it's still worth knowing.

NVIDIA cards tend to be more expensive than ATI for comparable power although they are sometimes more stable and you need an NVIDIA card to use CUDA (having the graphics card help with general processing) in programs like Octane Render (which looks like it could be amazing).

Hopefully some of this is helpful.

Anssi · 30 Jan 2010, 21:45

@dsarchs said:

This might be a little late in answering but I'm almost positive you need two of the same card to use cross-fire (eg. (2) 5850 CARDS)...
...For ATI cards, the DirectX 11 seems to be useless for anything less than a 5850 as the cards aren't powerful enough to compensate for the performance hit from using dx11 instead of dx10.

DirectX performance and crossfire and related technologies are totally irrelevant in the case of SketchUp. SU uses OpenGL, not DirectX, and OpenGL does not support the multiple graphics card technologies.

Anssi

dsarchs · 1 Feb 2010, 20:34

I was just responding to an earlier question about whether or not you could use different types of cards for cross-fire/sli.
As for directx, I was saying that the benefits of directx 11 are useless unless you get the top level of cards. I know that SU doesn't use cross-fire or dx, but presumably the machine will be used for programs other than su. GPGPU rendering/processing is coming soon to say nothing of games
Besides, if SU is the sole reason for investing in new hardware your money would be better spent on cpu/cooling/ram or something and just getting an 8800gt video card.

yukonhoo · 13 Mar 2010, 17:43

I haven't read through this entire thread (couldn't do 22 pages!), so I apologize if this has been mentioned already, but I'm looking to get some kind of external storage, or something to back up my system because my computer has been acting up lately.

I was wondering if there is a particular storage system/brand/type that is most reliable for long-term storage of sketchup files? and then also a system that is best for accessing files more often?

Thanks a lot guys!

brookefox · 18 Apr 2010, 00:45

So its been a year and a half or so since the survey got under way? Are the results buried in here somewhere, or buried somewhere somewhere?

Dennis_n · 20 Apr 2010, 16:26

hi there,
did anyone come across the ATI Radeon HD 3200 on a laptop?

also, If I buy a laptop in a store, and prepare a flash card with a viewer and a fat skp file, what is the best SU test I can do to compare available models?

brodie · 27 Apr 2010, 02:49

@dennis_n said:

hi there,
did anyone come across the ATI Radeon HD 3200 on a laptop?

also, If I buy a laptop in a store, and prepare a flash card with a viewer and a fat skp file, what is the best SU test I can do to compare available models?

I ran across a ruby awhile back that allows for a SU benchmark http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10750#p75785

If you continue through the following pages you'll find several benchmark skp files that people posted and subsequent results.

Also have a look at http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=20076

-Brodie

brookefox · 27 Apr 2010, 22:10

Uh..., that's a seriously useful re-direct.

Thanks.

brodie · 28 Apr 2010, 01:55

haha, sorry about that first link. I thought it would link directly to my post. The link was supposed to redirect you to the 4th page of this thread where I bring up the Test.time_display ruby

By the way, it doesn't seem to work unless you capitalize that first "T". In other words, it must be Test.time_display NOT test.time_display

-Brodie