choosing computer hardware for speed

[ptc-2078267]

Can anyone give me some information on what to look for in making regeneration times shorter during standard Pro/E modeling? My current model has reached a point where regens (that I have to sit through every time I change any little thing) take several minutes. This has killed my productivity. My current hardware is a 2.16GHz Core2Duo with an ATI X1900 graphics card (basically a mid-range 2 year old gaming card with dedicated video ram and pretty good gaming performance). Now I am going to buy a new computer. The question is what CPU and should I spend money on graphics card. Does regeneration speed during standard modeling and/or assembly mode benefit well from larger number of cores? That is, should I be trying to get 4 or 6 cores rather than 2? Does it benefit particularly greatly from memory bandwidth (ie should I go for a Nehalem/i7 processor even if it is lower clock rate than a less expensive C2Duo?). Or is everything pretty much single threaded with the best way of getting better speed just being to get the highest clock rate of a C2D/C2Quad or something? Nehalems are a lot lower clock rate than C2Ds of comparable price. In some things I know Nehalems cream Core2s because those things are very memory bandwidth intensive (like rendering). However, I only care about regeneration time, which may or may not be nearly as influenced by memory speed. Lastly, what things do the fancy $500 "Pro" graphics cards speed up? thanks
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[eric.mills]

Here is a quick list for a computer 1. Fastest clock speed, Pro-E is still single thread 2. On graphics gamer cards are not the right choice. The best choice is Nvidia Quadro FX series, with the 3500 series or in that 3000 series is about the best Pro-E can use, anything above that doesn't gain much vs. the money spent on the card. 3. 64 bit with lots of RAM, Pro-E doesn't work well or will crash if you run out of system memory. Final word the fastest computer in the magazine is not always the best. A stable system will save you more time than one that crashes. Good luck

[ptc-2078267]

What exactly do the higher end graphics cards give you? Do they improve speed across the board? Or do they mostly just speed up movement of parts and that sort of thin?. Can they actually speed up regeneration somehow? I would think that most things (like regeneration) would be CPU and memory.

[JAZOZevenaarbv]

For your HD, you could also take a look at SSD (Solid State Disk)... I don't have any experience, but from all the tests I have read they are blazing fast...

[ptc-2078267]

I'm getting a WD Velociraptor. Can't afford an SSD yet. Can anyone tell me what exactly graphics cards contribute to the equation in terms of performance though? I'm not clear on what aspects of performance they can actually affect. For example, between a $300 and a $600 Quadro or FirePro, what does the $600 one do better exactly? Can any of them reduce regen times?

[ReinhardN]

Here http://www.proesite.com/ you will find benchmarks and results which may give you a clue.

[ptc-2078267]

Having access to benchmarks is useful. I'll definitely be looking for those when it comes time to to pick between different purchasing options. However, they don't tell me what higher end graphics card do exactly. I'm more interested in knowing what exactly graphics cards do before I worry about which one is the best etc. Can anyone just tell me what exactly they make faster? Do they only make moving graphics faster? Or do they also do things like make regeneration times faster? I know in games they basically let you run higher resolutions at higher frame rates. Do they basically only do the same thing for CAD -- improve performance at rotating assemblies and stuff like that? I would immensely appreciate it if someone could give me an idea of what exact effects higher end graphics cards have on a Pro/E users CAD experience.

[RodneyDecker-di]

For CAD applications a professional grade GPU (e.g. NVIDIA Quadro®) will give you cleaner detail on your models than a standard or gaming GPU. Also panning, zooming, rotating your model will maintain better visual integrity with a GPU designed for 3D CAD applications. Getting into the cost differences between lower and higher end professional grade GPUs you will need to determine your actual requirements. For the majority of engineering applications you should not need anything more than a mid-level professional GPU (e.g. NVIDIA Quadro® FX 1800). Unless you do a lot of rendering and need photo-quality images for various reasons the higher end GPUs won't make a lot of difference on performance. If you're doing more engineering analysis I'd recommend going with mid-grade GPU and putting extra cash into CPU, hard drives, and RAM. Just my 2 cents worth, oh, and I'm just using NVIDIA as an example, our workstations utilize both NVIDIA QuadroFireProTM and ATI Fire GPUs. Hope this helps.

[RodneyDecker-di]

"Rodney Decker" wrote:

our workstations utilize both NVIDIA QuadroFireProTM and ATI Fire GPUs. Hope this helps.

[RussDavidson]

Nvidia has a comparison chart on their site that will show you how the Quadro FX cards perform on a synthetic Pro/E benchmark (as well as others). We have never seen the need to go beyond the mid-range cards either as the cost/perfomance curve gets real steep beyond there.