Hardware recommendations
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The i7 looks like the system to go with, turbo-boost will eliminate the slower speed when using a single core (which SU is) and more ram will be useful. I haven't kept up with mobile processors so I don't know which gen that i7 is, but the newest intel cpu version has JUST been released (goes on sale this Sunday) and (I've only read about the desktop line but I assume it carries over to the mobile selection as well) is about 20% faster and uses less power. Something to look into.
@ Brodie
I've always heard that SU doesn't like AMD/ATI cards, but I've never come across this, despite having a mobility 9700 (ATI) card in my laptop for the past 6 years. I've always had good performance and no problems. Do you know if this is only a problem with VERY low-end ATI cards or is it merely a thing of the past?
Has anyone had a problem with the last 2 generations of cards (5xxx/6xxx) and sketchup? I've always assumed this is just no longer an issue.
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My personal experience comes from 2 different cards a couple years back and further. They were mid-range ATI's that we used here at work for the CAD machines. Basically the issues were the usual, faces would appear selected that weren't, selections would select a face that was behind the one I selected, etc. The other bad experience was with an old dell I had with integrated graphics which had identical issues. Occasionally, I've heard of nvidia's with similar issues but those were always easily solved with a driver change, something that never seemed to completely solve the problem with the ATI's.
In the last year or so, I've seen very few comments regarding ATI's either negative or positive, at least insofar as SU is concerned. So the issues may be fixed. But, I personally, still wouldn't guy an ATI out of fear, and I'd recommend that others at least do some checking into the issue.
-Brodie
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There used to be some problems with certainATI cards.
@unknownuser said:
Basically the issues were the usual, faces would appear selected that weren't, selections would select a face that was behind the one I selected, etc.
Yes, basucally this was the issue and even in SU 6, there was an OpenGL setting to correct this bug:
But (at least since v 7.1 - I cannot remember v.7.0) it has been removed meaning that this seems to be no longer an issue.nVidia's still have some advantages as some renderers tend to prefer them (think of CUDA support) but for SU modelling, there should not be a difference.
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I recently got an ATI card for my work computer - high-end quality ATI card, updated drivers. But I experienced glitches very often when using SketchUp and other OpenGL applications. I made the IT manager replace it with a nVidia card - then everything went back to normal.
So I'm not sure if ATI is still completely free of issues. Seems nVidia is more stable - least for OpenGL. -
Fine, thanks for the info Thom. Whenever I am looking at different (possible new) comps, I am also trying to get an nVidia for them. Just in case.
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Good to know Thomthom.
Gaieus, ya, I recall that 'correct reverse picking driver bug' checkbox. I'm not sure what it did internally, but as I recall, it never really fixed the problem in my case, although it would make the problems different which is sometimes a nice change of pace
. It is interesting that it was taken out, I'd forgotten all about it.-Brodie
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Thom, which card did you get? I'm just about to buy a new ATI card and now you have me reconsidering.
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nVidia Quadro 3800
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Thom, i think he may have meant which ati card did you get that gave you troubles
-Brodie
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Has anyone used a GTX 460M (Notebook) card with SU? How does it perform? I am considering getting this but I concerned about openGL performance. Would a quadro notebook be worth the money for SU?
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Dale, I got this this machine a few weeks ago: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=298556#p298556 ...I use it with SU and Vue(even more demanding than SU on openGL) and no problems so far.
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@d12dozr said:
Dale, I got this this machine a few weeks ago: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=298556#p298556 ...I use it with SU and Vue(even more demanding than SU on openGL) and no problems so far.
That's the exact notebook I'm thinking of getting. How is it for handling massive scenes in SketchUp? Have you tried any scenes in the 100MB range?
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I haven't tried anything above 20MB yet. I did try the "How many Susans" challenge and got up to 100,000 Susans. SU broke a sweat at 10K copies, but was fine if I just added 10K at a time...from 90K to 100K took about 3 mins, the save took ~7 mins. I tried to go from 10K to 100K, but shut the program down after 30 mins of it cussing at me
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Hi All!
...I'm using a I7 with a QuadroFX1800, but I'm not so happy with the fx1800 in programmes like Photoshop(it's glitchy). After I read this article http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/newsfeed.asp?nid=4960 , I'm really going to doubt If I should buy the GTX 480! Look at those scores for SU! Is this article wrong or what? Does someone has any experience between these two cards?
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There are 2 tests on there. I'm not sure what the numbers are referring to on the first test so I can't comment on that one. But on the second test the 480 seems to do pretty well. The comments at the end of the article are useful as well. He basically says that the results are really quite similar between all the cards and recommends not using SU as your primary benchmark when purchasing a graphics card.
I saw that same article some time ago and if it taught me anything it's that graphics cards are really unpredictable when it comes to viewports. You can buy a high end card that would run the best fps on the market or do great in a cinebench test, but lags behind a mid range card in viewports. Very weird.
-Brodie
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It's strange and it's a bit confusing, but I think the Fermi architecture play a very important role in this. But nevertheless, the numbers, in the Sketchup test, are strange. I thought I've bought a high-end card that would blow away all those Geforce game rubbish....not....
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@pep75 said:
It's strange and it's a bit confusing, but I think the Fermi architecture play a very important role in this. But nevertheless, the numbers, in the Sketchup test, are strange. I thought I've bought a high-end card that would blow away all those Geforce game rubbish....not....
It does not go quite like that. Gaming cards have definitely more bang for the buck than the QuadroFX models. What you get with a Quadro is some more reliability and better drivers optimized for 3D content creation.
I have been happy with my FX1800/i7/Win7-64 combination, also with Photoshop. Are your drivers up to date?
I am not sure about the situation today, but some years ago Photoshop and DTP professionals used to prefer Matrox cards, and definitely they gave the best looking screen image on CRT monitors. You have to forget about SU, though - I once tested, and got a BSOD...
Anssi
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My drivers are up to date...and I think/know CS5 is working "crappy"...and I don't notice spectacular differences with my fx1800 card...that's why I'm wondering what I should do!
Well....
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This might be a little late of a response but maybe it will help someone or at least be a useful reference.
I just built a system around an i5-2500k and an AMD HD6950. I've played with it all weekend (although not exhaustively yet or even had a chance to benchmark anything) and have had absolutely no problems with sketchup or any other program. I'm not sure if it's the processor or the GPU but performance is (subjectively) very impressive.
From my point-of-view the ATI (now AMD) su errors are a thing of the past. If I do come across any problems after I have a chance to use it a bit more I'll let people know. -
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