AutoCAD Civil 3d Computer Specs

[ghost_uwi]

Good day 

I have AutoCAD Civil 3d and when i render extremely large drawings (1 kilometer of data with a ton of points) it move pretty jerky when orbitting. The Specs on the Computer is 

2 x X5650 Intel Xeon Processors

1 x Quadro 5000

32gb DDR3 1600 MHz RAM

10000RPM Velociraptor Hdd

However on a machine with lower grade specs

1 x AMD (6core)  (not sure exact model)

1 gig 9800 GTX

16 gigs Ram

Solid State Harddrive

It runs smooth. Exactly what could be wrong with the higher end machine ?

[jaich]

Ask this over in the Civil 3D forum.

[peterfunkautodesk]

Could you provide a few more data points:

1. Version of Civil 3D

2. OS on each machine

3. Core speed for each of the CPUs

Thanks,

Peter Funk

Autodesk, Inc.

[gccdaemon]

Looks like you need more RAM....lol. kidding of course.

[ghost_uwi]

I am using

AutoCAD Civil 3d 2011

Win 7 Ultimate

DUAL X5650 XEON PROCESSOR 2.66GHZ CHIP12M CACHE LGA1366 6.40 GT/SEC

(6 cores per CPU with HT so appears as 24 cores in total)

[peterfunkautodesk]

Win 7 Ultimate 32 or 64?

What is the clock speed of the second machine?

Peter Funk

Autodesk, Inc.

[BrianHailey]

Most likely it's a video card issue. I'm out of my area of expertise but I have seen some issues with hardware acceleration. Perhaps try turning that on/off and seeing if it makes any sort of difference.

[ghost_uwi]

Win 7 64 bit

Other computer I am not sure as it is not my own nor will I be able to find out easily.

I turned of hardware acceleration still jerky. I think its a driver problem could be wrong but I have the most up to date drivers as of yesterday. My Nvidia control panel how ever does not appear like other machines as in I do not get the options to change the performance level. Not sure if that last piece of info helped.

Also I ran the same file on a Dell workstation 

Single Xeon processor (not sure speed)

12 gigs Ram

Quadro 4800fx and I found it run a little bit snappier.

Also is it possible for a Nvidia gaming card to outperform a quadro in autoCAD ?

[peterfunkautodesk]

While it may be an issue with the graphics cards, in our testing the 2nd most important thing after the OS (Win 7 x64 is the best) is the speed of a single core on the computer. The faster the single core speed, the faster Civil 3D will run.

Cheers,

Peter Funk

Autodesk, Inc.

[gccdaemon]

Peter, Do you know if Autodesk has the ability to use multiple cores instead of just one?

[AllenJessup]

Only for a few graphics operations; zooms, redraws, regenes. Read help on WHIPTHREAD sysvar.

Allen

[peterfunkautodesk]

Allan's easement is correct. The architecture of Civil 3D unlike a graphics rendering application or a game doesn't lend itself to multi threading operations because there is no way to break the work into operations that can be done in parallel. This is why we've been saying the CPU core speed is so important and not the number of cores.

Peter Funk

Autodesk, Inc.

[AllenJessup]

I would expect any easement created in Civil 3D to be correct, Peter.

Allen

[peterfunkautodesk]

I love spell check...

Peter

[ghost_uwi]

hmmm ok interesting.

So in Civil 3d which is better quadro vs nvidia gaming card for 3d and for the card that is it better is it in every scenario or only in certain situations.

In the case of the CPU power that would mean just go for clock speed and some degree multi threading.

[ghost_uwi]

is there any form of documentation to show this and any other additional info on getting the best performance from autoCAD

[ghost_uwi]

The problem occurs after the site has been rendered I use the object viewer command when I start rotating it moves slowly.

I assume again that this is a CPU problem. I have also used the whipthread command and set it to <3> but i don't really see a difference in anything. This is also the main part when i get the slowness (slow varies from 1 second to 10 seconds) or so occuring. 

[ghost_uwi]

I tried the same file on my PC home and it took a hell of a lot longer than the 2 xeon processor pc I mentioned earlier.

The specs of my PC are

1 Quad core extreme 9650 3.0Ghz

4 gigs of RAM ddr2

480 GTX Nvidia card

7200 RPM hdd. 

I have a feeling the solid state harddrive is the main ball game changer in this. The only big difference between the computers that take forever to the one that moves super fast in orbiting in object viewr is the solid state harddrive. 

Wonder if anyone has experience with Solid state hard drive and AutoCAD 2011?

[AllenJessup]

Have you read the release notes on the video drivers? Especially the one for the Quadro card. Does if tell you to turn OFF "Adaptive Degradation"? That made a huge difference with my Quadro 4600FX.

Allen

[ghost_uwi]

Hmmm I think I tried it but will try it again. Also another question does your NVIDIA control panel come up for your NVIDIA quadro?