Hardware Guide for X3

[sherpa_jones]

So when the progress bar dbx pops up and says "building model" it is using CPU? I guess that makes sense. I can rotate and view a very complex model quite smoothly. Maybe I should look into a faster processor?

[amddrafting]

You should be fine with that 2.3 GHz quad core. My recommendations for minimum system requirements are any multi-core machine. Although you can run on single core machines as well so the true minimum system depends on what you are doing.

The video card speed difference is a little surprising because we are doing a lot to save memory on the card which should also speed things up.

You may also want to uncheck "Use Enhanced Lighting" in the Render preferences to see how that affects performance.

It may be that the support for shaders on that card is poor leading to slower performance. If that is the case upgrading the video card may make a big difference.

What kind of card is it?

Yeah, the quad 2.3 is definitely not the problem. The video card is. It's always been a problem for Chief. It's just a built-in on the MOBO, so it's always needed upgraded. My boss wouldn't have let me do it before since it wasn't necessary... but now I will be able to, but like I said, it's slim pickin's

[amddrafting]

So now that I'm at work I can tell you exactly what I have. NVidia GeForce 6150SE nforce 430/PCI/SSE2, 128 MB, Open GL 2.1.2

I did what you said, Doug, and turned off enhanced lighting and it works way better now, more like X2 did. It's always been slow to process though especially with final view and the new "art" type renders. Hopefully I can still convince him to let me upgrade. Most good PCI 16x are really cheap these days.

[Doug Park]

A very quick search of the internet for the 6150SE and the first place I looked indicated some rather definitive opinions that this integrated graphics chip is very slow. Adding a graphics card to that machine would probably be a pretty inexpensive way of boosting the performance.

[dshall]

I've heard that dual SLI cards are not all they're cracked up to be, and it is best to just run a high end single card with 1gig. Any suggestions on what I should get, say around the $300 mark?

Rod, I was on the phone today with the co. that put together my computer and they suggested I go the SLI route.... if ...... ÇA would take advantage of the dual cards .... so that is the info I would like to know..... does CA take advantage of dual graphics cards..... does anybody know the answer to this question?

[Doug Park]

We do nothing special to take advantage of them. That is mostly handled by the drivers which are supposed to split up the work load between the cards. I'm not sure how well this works.

[bendcadgirl]

Doug, I'd sure be interested to know what system setups you use at CA. Might help with researching a new system.

[LennyB]

I'll add my two bits.
Just got new Desktop I7, win7 64bit. 8gb ram. Does x2 really fast.
New Notebook: Elitebook8540w. I7, 64bit, 1 gig video. Is very fast with x2. Not too big but bulletproof, mil spec notebook. PCConnection had a special with the notebook and a dockingstation for 1650.00 or so. If I could do it again I'd spend more on the upgrade for the I7 just to get the faster processing speeds. But this one works just fine.

For hdmi, dvi, displayport cables you can't beat Monoprice.com They have great customer service too.
There you have my two cents.

[bendcadgirl]

Lenny, which i7 processor did you get, and what video card on your desktop? Did you buy a brand name computer, or have it built?

[jbt]

Anyone running the AMD's Phenom II X6?

Although the quad core i7 is faster overall for gaming type applications, wondering if the 6 core has an advantage in Chief? As I understand it, Chief does not support hyperthreading. Anyone have any comments?

[Doug Park]

Both X2 and X3 support multiple cores, which includes hyperthreading. X3 has a lot more support than X2. In particular ray tracing and several other expensive 3D operations will take advantages of as many cores as you can get.

[charlesu]

Doug, I'd sure be interested to know what system setups you use at CA. Might help with researching a new system.

I second that (i'm buying a new system just for X3 next month)
With so many opinions going back and forth, a little guidance from cheif as to the best system specs would be helpful (unless they already posted them and I missed it).
Thanks,

[thorn]

My opinion...you will be much better served spending the money for a better single card than two cards using SLI. I spent A LOT of time comparing system running single vs. SLI.
and concluded there was no advantage to SLI configuration running X2.

[adamjedgar]

hi guys,
i read an earlier thread where one of the guys mentioned he had an i7 720. i have just brought one and stuck x2 on it to see how it would go. absolutely sh%thouse!
i have an "old amd 64 athlonx2 desktop pc" (see specs in my signature) that runs chief like a train and only slows up when i really hit it hard raytracing. the amd desktop is 4 years old and this laptop is brand new. i am incredibly dissapointed with the laptop. i guess i didnt realise that the multicore processors still need to be at a 2 ghz speed to run this program properly. i just figured since it has quad cores it didnt have to run so fast as it would be sharing the load between them. (i havent had much to do with these new quad core processors and the like)

does anyone know if i can upgrade the chip in the laptop? (i am not familiar with the internals of laptops, gimmie a desktop anyday)

[dshall]

absolutely sh%thouse!

I am not clear.... is this a good thing or a bad thing? I wish you Aussies would learn to speak English.