Hardware recommendations

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

brookefox · 28 Apr 2010, 17:36

I wasn't being sarcastic: I just tried the second, thread, link, which was useful to me.

keea1111 · 24 May 2010, 19:13

HI,

I just moved onto a used Mac os x 10.5 DUAL 2 GHz PowerPC G5  8 GB DDR SDRAM.  It has a 128 VRAM ATI RADEON 9600 video card.  I know that is the minimum video card sketch recommends, especially for the PRO version.  I am wondering if I need to bump it up to 512 VRAM.  Will I notice a big difference in this leap, or is it more subtle and unnecessary?  I do quit a bit of design work within SU/LO, so I do want to get set up the best I can within reason.  Does anyone have any insight into this need?  thanks,

Anssi · 27 May 2010, 21:12

Keea,

In real life VRAM is mostly relevant if you have a lot of large textures or multiple large screens. I can run SU quite OK with my old laptop that has Nvidia graphics with 64 Mb VRAM, and my other old computer that has an ATI card with 128 Mb, drives a 1080 x 1920 widescreen display quite well too.

Anssi

beau21 · 5 Jun 2010, 02:50

I'm looking to buy a desktop at the end of the summer and was hoping to get some opinions on the model I'm leaning towards..

Specs:
27" iMac
2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB

What does everyone/anyone think of this configuration? Would that be good for modeling programs such as Sketchup, CAD, and the like.

Any/all opinions welcome.

Thanks!