Upgrade Help - Please Advise

Autocad Users,
My company is using AC2002. We are having some performance issues. A
typical system is as follows:

Shuttle AK31 v3.1 MB
1.5 Gb Non-ECC Ram
64 Mb nvdia or ATI video card
40 Gb 7200RPM Hard Drive
Athlon XP1700 Processor
Windows XP

We are opening some models/drawings that are around 125 Mb's and they
are crashing our machines when we shade and/or rotate them. I just
bought a Quadro 980 XGL video card and did a clean install of Windows
2000 hoping to help resolve the situation. This only managed to keep
the machine from crashing as often. Still extremely slow. I did
notice that anytime a command or movement in the drawing was made, the
CPU would top out at 100% usage. I would like some help in knowing
which way to go next as far as upgrading. I just convinced my boss to
shell out $550 for a card that I hoped would make AC work a little
faster. We're not to thrilled. Does anyone have any ideas? I would
like to be a little more informed before we take the next step.

 

Just an assumption, models = 3d ?

Try changing your Options in AutoCAD Right-Click in the model space area,
choose the System Tab, then pick the properties button on the Top Left
(Graphics Display), then look near the bottom right and switch over to
Hardware Acceleration. The default is software, which works for most people.
Give that a try.......

Val