Which Graphic Board would you choose?

I know this has been covered before, so please excuse me.

Using Pro/e 2001, Mechanica 2001, P4 2.26Ghz, 2g ram,
and have been having trouble with my ATI Fire GL8800.

Either I can limit my open Pro/e windows to 4 or
I can have many open Pro/e windows but randomly
lock up the OS while spinning in shaded mode.
These two are results of two different drivers.

I was told by IT that I can choose among the next
3 cards:

Nvidia Quadro FX500

ATI Fire GL X1 (ATI sort of leaves a bad taste in my mouth)

3DLabs WildCat VP870

Which would you pick?

I don't really have time to search for reviews,
because I have to order before this Wednesday,
or I am stuck with this board until we all get
new IBM workstations in July.

PLEASE HELP.

Marc

 

Jon,

IMHO, the best bang is going to be the FX500 (~$250)!
And, if you have 8X AGP on your motherboard, all the better.

Although, the Fire GL X1 is very good, it's 2X more expensive.. but
you're not going to get 2X more performance.

I'd strongly suggest that you wage for upgrading your CPU to at least a
2.8ghz (~$180-$220 (533/800 FSB)) if you can!?

If you can swing it, the better way to go is getting the two, a 2.8ghz
cpu upgrade and the fx500.. or about $450 total and that should be less
than the (1) fire gl x1?

Now, that's a winning combination (~50% overall performance increase)
for you and your company and if your IT people can not recognize that,
well, you're screwed.

Here's a reference link for graphic card and cpu prices..
http://www.pricewatch.com


Good luck.

 

: I know this has been covered before, so please excuse me.
:
: Using Pro/e 2001, Mechanica 2001, P4 2.26Ghz, 2g ram,
: and have been having trouble with my ATI Fire GL8800.
:
: Either I can limit my open Pro/e windows to 4 or
: I can have many open Pro/e windows but randomly
: lock up the OS while spinning in shaded mode.
: These two are results of two different drivers.
:
: I was told by IT that I can choose among the next
: 3 cards:
:
: Nvidia Quadro FX500
:
: ATI Fire GL X1 (ATI sort of leaves a bad taste in my mouth)
:
: 3DLabs WildCat VP870
:
I think PTC makes the list you (or rather your IT dept.) should be picking from.
You can see, for example, their list of supported hardware at the following url:
http://www.ptc.com/partners/hardware/current/proe.htm

Granted, your IT dept. might not care or might be too ignorant or cheap or
shortsighted to consider this, but you ought to make them aware of it anyway and
suggest that, even if they don't follow it strictly, they'd be shooting themselves
in the foot to completely ignore it. Especially if they hope to get support from
PTC. Who knows, one of your IT depts. 'favorites' might be on it or they might not
know about this list and you could come out a hero for telling them about it. Or
not. Shot in the dark.
\
David Janes

 

Thanks a bunch Paul.
I think I'll go with the Nvidia.

I wish I could upgrade CPUs now,
but we are all getting (supposedly in July)
new dual Xeon IBM Intellistations (maybe 64 bit by then?).

If I can run Pro/e with the max open windows, and
Mechanica without checkerboard shading, I will
be a happy camper.

Again,

Thanks for the quick response.

 

Thanks David.

I've seen this list already.
Those cards that I listed in my orginal post, are on the PTC approved
graphics card list, unfortunately PTC lists them as part of a complete
systems.
PTC does not certify individual components anymore.

So I am "screwed" as for as support from PTC until July.
On the plus side at least I will be able to work in
shaded mode again and have more than 4 Pro/e windows open.

Ever seen checkerboard Mechanica stress result models?
It hurts my eyes to look at them.

Again thanks.

 

I use 8800 and never had any problems.
You might have some bad drivers or maybe a defective card.
I have the bad taste from Nvidia re: drivers updates as they tend to just
abandon you after buying a product.
I would go for X1 as is a newer core than 8800 and also 8 pipelines
architecture. The 256 MB version would be indicated if you use large
assemblies. I just bought a Radeon 9700 for $150 (my other workstation)
which can be easily hardware modded to a X1. I will do it this weekend and
let you guys know.

Cheers.

 

I would request the Wildcat or Quadro FX500 and not worry about it.
Regardless of PTC's support, these mfrs have a good history of supporting
Pro/E compatibility.

Dave

 

No prob. Hey, I know you said your IT only gave you those options but
I'd suggest two others...

Quadro 980XGL (~$520)
Quadro FX1100 (~$620)

As for the 64 bit, if you have not read the article at PTC on 64 bit
cpu's,... you should read it.
They confirm what I've read over the years,.. that 64 bit will not make
Pro/e faster, actually it will be slower in most cases. Where it will
be faster is when the app accesses more memory.
That is, currently most 32 bit OS's limit a app to 3 gig's of system
memory, the newer 64 bit systems and OS's should allow 16 gigs or system
memory per app? And, yes, there is a helluva lot more access to
external memory.

Anyhow, the Xeons should help with their larger cache, and the duellies
should be sweet!?

But.. I can not help note the mistake of your IT people here, the
investment now on a 2.8ghz cpu upgrade should easily pay for it self
well before July! It's a win-win, period! Or you loose $ by not
upgrading. Sorry, as a independent designer, it's obvious to me. That
is, I would take advantage of it, because I know it would pay for
itself. Or putting it nicely, your company's IT or management is not
being resourceful as they should be to keep you and them productive.
Sorry.

later... 8^)

 

I have found that IT departments are unable to grasp the difference between
how engineers use their computers and everyone else. Where I work the
"workstations" were mid-level gaming boxes with no certified parts in them.
Fortunately, the worked OK for a few years but eventually were unable to
keep up with Pro. There are other interesting issues too ... engineers
using Pro tend to send e-mails with models attached which (surprise!) the
e-mail servers are set to stop because they are too large ... I do analysis
using Excel and a spreadsheet can take minutes to run on my 3.0GHz
workstation but I can't send it to my boss to review because his pc is my
old gaming one (it would take an hour to run on his) ... our file server is
the same "server" (a converted workstation) as our Intralink server .... I
could go on and on.

IT should get their act together ... engineers are not spending all day on
their computers writing letters to mother.

 

I ordered the Nvidia Quadro FX 500.

Thanks for everyone's input.

I CAN'T get IT to even consider early CPU upgrades,
they still write with chisel and stone here.

BTW. I exchanged my Fire GL8800 twice before this
current one, and have tried almost every driver out
there. IT actually re-installed the OS to make sure
once, and I still have the orginal problems.

Will post when I get my new FX500!

 

If you really are losing time b/c of lack of RAM or CPU (as I once was,
and IT refuses to believe it is insufficient (heck, they did double the
minimum system requirements from 128MB to 256MB), try this:

Take your boss or boss's boss - someone with enough clout to butt heads with
IT if necessary.
Open an assembly or draft of a product this person knows and can relate to
(high priority project helps a lot).
Make a change and regenerate - a change that you would make on a daily
basis. Sit back in your chair and watch the screen while they wait. Maybe
make a casual remark "I get a lot of this", or "you want a coffee?"

This person will quickly decide they can't have you waiting like that things
will change. Worked for me - our Engg director spent not 30sec waiting for
a big assembly to regenerate and he had ants in his pants.

They might not understand tech, but they will understand a person sitting
and waiting.

Dave