Video card for SW 2006

Hello group, I am attempting to run SW 2006 with Windows XP system.
Plenty of RAM. Can anyone recommend a VIDEO CARD for this software? The
card I have is not doing the job. My computer has PCI expansion slots.
I am not doing models with hundreds of parts, simple models only. Any
help is greatly appreciated.

 

You'll be greatly limited with only PCI slots available. First
determine whether your system is a legacy PCI/AGP system (like Pentium
3's and Athlon XP's) or a PCI-Express (aka PCI-E or PCIX, newer has
longer white slots).

If you do only have a PCI slot, you might find some Quadros, but more
likely an NVIDIA FX5500 will do just fine. PCI only Quadros are very
scarce. Also a Geforce FX card (like the 5500) has enough power to
drive even complex screen geometry. So long as you're not working with
1000 part assemblies.

Here's some choices:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=

This all assumes that your current graphic card is worse than a 5500 and
something alone the line of Intel Integrated Graphics or a very old MX
or such. So it might be wise to figure out what you have now and compare.

 

Make and model of motherboard please.

SW has a list of approved video cards on their website under support.

 

What model Quadro cards? I'm running a pc that has a 133mhz bus (dual
processors athlon mp 2200) and I DO have agp. (different person than
the one who started this.)

Thanks

 

I have had pretty good success with FX500/600. I selected it on the
suggestion of my VAR and the price was fairly reasonable, (($225)
range. I could only find on on line. But, I don't know if there is a
PCI version available. Might be time to upgrade your mother board..


Hope this helps,

Ed

 

Thanks Ed.
In looking on Ebay, it looks like I can pick up a FX 500 for $100 or
less. There's one on there right now for that price, plus shipping. So
I'll probably go with that. 2005 looked fine on my computer, but 2006
does not look as good, so I need to do something.

In 2006, when I rotate an assembly, some of the parts turn into
rectangles. I wonder if that is a video card issue, or just something
they did on purpose?

Jim

 

I remember having this happen a time or two. I didn't pay much
attention to the rectangles because I assumed that SW was automatically
dealing with video/memory somehow because the assembly was fairly large
at the time. Perhaps someone else knows more about this. I'm not sure
that it is graphic card memory of if it is Ram?

Ed

 

There's a setting that controls this: System Options>Performance>Level of Detail. Adjusting
the slider determines the size of assembly instances that are replaced by a rectangular box
during pan, zoom etc. It allows better dynamic motion (especially with a slower video card)
because the small parts don't have to be painted in full detail for every screen refresh.
Parts larger than the threshold are shown in full detail so you have an approximate view of
the assembly during motion.

I've heard this function called "feature decimation".

Art

 

I'm not sure that it is graphic card memory of if it is Ram?
You can use RivaTuner (http://www.nvworld.ru/downloads/rivatuner.zip)
for analyse used Video RAM. By RivaTunerServer I look this in dinamic
like FPS in games.

 

I appreciate your help and response. Can a vidio card be popped into
the chasis like RAM? Or is there more to installing a video card.
Not sure if I should attempt to install this on my own.

 

It's roughly comparable. You'll probably need a screw driver for the video
card. Same precautions against static discharge.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"