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    • AnssiA Offline
      Anssi
      last edited by

      @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

      securi adversus homines, securi adversus deos rem difficillimam adsecuti sunt, ut illis ne voto quidem opus esset

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      • D Offline
        dsarchs
        last edited by

        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 πŸ˜‰
        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.

        Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination.

        -e.e.cummings

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        • Y Offline
          yukonhoo
          last edited by

          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!

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          • brookefoxB Offline
            brookefox
            last edited by

            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?

            ~ Brooke

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            • D Offline
              Dennis_n
              last edited by

              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?

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              • brodieB Offline
                brodie
                last edited by

                @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

                steelblue http://www.steelbluellc.com

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                • brookefoxB Offline
                  brookefox
                  last edited by

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

                  Thanks.

                  ~ Brooke

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                  • brodieB Offline
                    brodie
                    last edited by

                    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 πŸ˜„

                    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

                    steelblue http://www.steelbluellc.com

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                    • brookefoxB Offline
                      brookefox
                      last edited by

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

                      ~ Brooke

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                      • keea1111K Offline
                        keea1111
                        last edited by

                        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,
                        

                        KEEA

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                        • AnssiA Offline
                          Anssi
                          last edited by

                          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

                          securi adversus homines, securi adversus deos rem difficillimam adsecuti sunt, ut illis ne voto quidem opus esset

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                          • B Offline
                            beau21
                            last edited by

                            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!

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                            • brodieB Offline
                              brodie
                              last edited by

                              @beau21 said:

                              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!

                              Nice computer, you'll be in very nice shape. SU only uses one core but in my experience with large hospital models 2.8 GHz will do you just fine and your graphics card should be plenty good. For the rest of your programs which use multiple cores it'll be a very nice setup.

                              -Brodie

                              steelblue http://www.steelbluellc.com

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                              • R Offline
                                red44
                                last edited by

                                beau21

                                How did you go with the Imac? Any news? Just ordered one but worried now about the ATI reviews...

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                                • R Offline
                                  red44
                                  last edited by

                                  Anyone else any ideas on the 4850 ATI card? In the the Imac preferably, but not necessarily...

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                                  • A Offline
                                    archtrot
                                    last edited by

                                    We have been dealing with 80MB models in my office lately.
                                    I'm considering buying a couple of computers with the following spec:

                                    Windows 7 64 bit
                                    AMD Athlon 3.5Ghz dual core processor
                                    8 Gb RAM
                                    PNY Quadro 580 with 512 Mb RAM graphics card

                                    I can get this package built for around $2000.
                                    Can I do any better than this without doubling the cost?

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                                    • D Offline
                                      danbig
                                      last edited by

                                      Wow--this is a long topic. I made it through about six pages before I jumped here to ask my question:

                                      What is more important for SketchUp: system RAM, or video RAM?

                                      Does anyone have any suggestions for a notebook computer that will do well with larger sketchup files?

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                                      • AnssiA Offline
                                        Anssi
                                        last edited by

                                        @danbig said:

                                        Wow--this is a long topic. I made it through about six pages before I jumped here to ask my question:

                                        What is more important for SketchUp: system RAM, or video RAM?

                                        Does anyone have any suggestions for a notebook computer that will do well with larger sketchup files?

                                        Vram only becomes critical if you use a lot of very large textures. Su is a 32-bit application, so system RAM is not so critical either.

                                        What you should look for in a SU notebook is

                                        • processor speed, number of processor cores is not so important, as SU uses only one
                                        • SU benefits from the TurboBoost feature in the latest Intel multicore processors
                                        • a real graphics card (Nvidia seems still to be more reliable)

                                        securi adversus homines, securi adversus deos rem difficillimam adsecuti sunt, ut illis ne voto quidem opus esset

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                                        • S Offline
                                          seanheadrick
                                          last edited by

                                          Hello,
                                          My father, a long time CAD user was wanting to give SU a try and is having a problem downloading the software. He currently uses Auto Desk on the same laptop, so I found it hard to believe his suggestion that his computer was not capable of running SU was likely. I referenced below his laptop configuration. Could anyone tell me if it seems like he should or should not be able to run SU, and if not what the problem may be. I haven't been able to trouble shoot with him much so I don't know yet if he may just be doing something wrong when installing. I thought I would rule this out first.

                                          Thank you,
                                          Sean

                                          Toshiba Laptop
                                          2.3 GHz
                                          4 GB RAM
                                          235 GB remaining

                                          AMD Turionβ„’ II Dual-Core Mobile Processor M520
                                          AMD M880G Chipset
                                          ATI Radeonβ„’ HD 4200 Graphics with dynamically
                                          allocated shared graphics memory

                                          DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY.

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                                          • thomthomT Offline
                                            thomthom
                                            last edited by

                                            The problem is that he can't download it? That would not be due to the hardware.

                                            What problem is it? Incomplete download? Errors?

                                            Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                            List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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