Better for Sketchup? 256MB graphics/4 GB or 512 graphics/2GB
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I am thinking about purchasing a new Intel Core 2 Duo mobile workstation and can't decide if I should get a system with either:
a)256 MB NVIDIA Quadro 570M and 4 GB of RAM
b)512 MB GeForce 8600M GT and 2 GB of RAM
Which would be better for working in large Sketchup models (especially navigating the model while modeling), and a little bit of 3D Studio texturing/rendering? I have been reading a lot of conflicting things on whether video card RAM or system RAM is more important, and whether the NVIDIA or the GeForce is better for sketchup/3D studio.
Also, is a Core 2 Duo the best type of processor for this stuff??
Any help and explanation is greatly appreciated!
[cwaters617]
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As far as I know the 8600M isnt a workstation type card, they are both Nvidia though. According to Nvidia the Quadro is a "Performance" level card, and I believe it would be better for working with SU as Quadros are made for this type of work.
http://www.nvidia.com/page/quadrofx_go.htmlI think you may be better off with the Quadro, however all that ram is overkill, because unless you have a 64 bit os you will only actually be able to see 3-3.5 Gbs of that because the system can only recognize 4GB total memory, and gfx cards and other things take up some of that total.
If i had any experience with either chipset i could tell you which is better, but i can tell you that Quadros are made for this type of work, while the 8600M is made for gaming.I wouldnt base your purchase off my opinion though as ive never used either, but the Quadro is specifically made for the kind of work that SU does.
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I understand that the memory in a graphics card is mostly used to store the textures, so if you are not using many,many big textures in your model at a time, it should not be very important.
Anssi
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@anssi said:
I understand that the memory in a graphics card is mostly used to store the textures, so if you are not using many,many big textures in your model at a time, it should not be very important.
Anssi
If that is true then you will be much better off with the Quadro I think. Since that would work out that the card does textures and the RAM handles the actual model... So it would make sense to have more ram, and a better 3d rendering card.
i cant wait till i get my first paycheck, its going in the bank to be put towards a quad core machine running 64 bit vista and if possible i will eventually be running dual Quadros in SLI and more ram than i would ever need. i found that 2GB sticks are plentiful and that would be a total of 8GB in the MOBO im interested in.
I want to go into some form or another of 3d design class.
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XP and Vista(32bit) will only support 2Gb ram.
1,2,4,8,16.... do this 32 times and you get 2,147,483,648Mb that's 2.14GbIf you go to Vista 64bit then you can have 9,223,372,036,854,780,000Mb that's a rather incredible 9,223,372,036Gb
But.....
To access more than 2Gb not only must the OS be 64bit but the application (SketchUp in this case) must be 64bit. Even with nine thousand million Gb of ram in your laptop a 32bit application will only see 2Gb.
In your case I'd go for the better graphics card on a XP machine and when/if Vista 64 comes good and all the applications you use are rewritten as 64bit then add more memory.
I'm running XP at work and I've got Vista(32) on 2 machines at home and as of now (September 2007) I'd suggest that you DON'T TOUCH VISTA.
I could expand on that last bit but Vista's problems ave been covered on many sites many times. -
Ive used SU and kerky on vista on my friends PC without problems. Another friend of mine is using 64 bit vista and he also has no troubles with it.
Someone who is very good with computers wouldnt have any issue getting things to work with vista, and many of the problems are being patched in SP1.And as a correction, a 32 bit OS can and will handle up to 4GB of memory in total. Im dead sure about this. This amount will be taken up by your GFX card's memory, and any other devices which use memory addresses. The reason im dead sure of this is because this friend whom i use his Vista PC for SU once in a while also has a XP machine with 4GBs of ram in it, with exactly 3.21 usable (512 MB gfx card takes some of the total access up) And im positive it is a 32 bit OS because im the one who ordered it and installed it for him.
You are right about the application needing to be 64 bit to use more RAM, and in fact on 32 bit you cannot use more than 2GB at a time for an application. But you can have up to 4GBs of ram, all of which is usable. The thing is, XP doesnt like to let the applications use all available RAM, because it reserves some for itself. I have been on more than one 4GB PC where almost every bit of RAM is being used at some point.
Also you typed that up sort of wrong.
2,147,483,648Mb = 2,147,483,648,000,000 bits which equals 268,435,456,000,000 bytes or 268 GBs so i think there was an error there. 32 bits is equal to 429,4967,296 possible combinations of 1 and 0. You missed one more multiple, 31 bits is equal to 2,147,483,648.You were one short of 64 bits also. 64 bits is equal to 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 possible combinations of 1 and 0.
The name for that number is Exobytes, meaning 18 Exobytes are possible, it goes Giga Tera, Peta, Exo if im not mistaken. -
Opps, started from 1 and not 0 and therefore got 31 instead of 32
re the 3Gb on XP - in boot.ini on the root of XP's boot partion you can add the /3GB switch , this is what MS says it does:
@unknownuser said:
/3GB
This switch forces x86-based systems to allocate 3 GB of virtual address space to programs and 1 GB to the kernel and to executive components. A program must be designed to take advantage of the additional memory address space. With this switch, user mode programs can access 3 GB of memory instead of the usual 2 GB that Windows allocates to user mode programs. The switch moves the starting point of kernel memory to 3 GB. Some configurations of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 may require this switch.For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
823440 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823440/) You must use the /3GB switch when you install Exchange Server 2003 on a Windows Server 2003-based systemI've used it before but found it can make XP a little unstable so stick with the default.
you can find the full list of biit.ini options here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833721 -
Oh thanks, i didnt even know about that. Ill give that a shot on my friends computer (as mine sucks and only has 760 MB of ram) and see if i cant get more use out of all his memory. I can see why it would become unstable, but i imagine there would be a way to fix it.
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Paul,
I think you may be wrong with the understanding that XP 32bit only recognizes 2GB. See attached. Of course I have been wrong before too
Scott
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he is right and wrong. 32 bit XP will only allow you to use 2GBs (or with the modification 3GBs) of ram for programs. Default settings reserves no less than 2GBs for system use, and only lets you use 2 maximum for your software. Although it is capable of using 4GBs of total memory.
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