Max 2011, Windows 7, Nvidia Quadro Slow Viewports! Advice?!

[mcquarrie1]

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help.

I'm using a Boxx 8500 workstation and Renderboxx 10300 rendernodes. Machines are new and full of RAM. Previously had 3ds max 2011 on the machines using xp 64-bit and everything working fine.

I formatted the drives to install Windows 7 clean and reinstalled max 2011 as well as the most recent NVIDIA drivers for the two NVIDIA video cards, a Quadro FX 3800 and FX 580. All installed successfully, 3ds max 2011 launches fine, but the viewports are so slow they're almost unusable. Drawing a simple sphere with no textures in a new file stutters and flickers when drawn. Can't dolly around same basic sphere without viewport pausing and skipping.

Autodesk reports Windows 7 and Quadro FX 3800/580 certified with 3ds max 2011.

Tried video cards in both Direct X 9.0 and 10.0. Same result.

NVIDIA website only has performance driver for 3ds max 2010 and will not allow me to install it without 3ds max 2010 present. I could install 2010, but that seems ridiculous. So I'm using the general performance driver which at the very least shouldn't be stuttering on a sphere.

Thanks again for any help.

Mcquarrie

[Anonymous]

Have you tried to disable the "Tablet PC Input Service" to disable the useless glowing blue circle/ ripple effect?..probably because you're new to Windows 7 and this problem appear since Vista (you said you were using XP before), you can go to "Service" from Start Menu and disable the "Tablet PC Input Service". It's a long known issue with Windows 7 and Vista. Hope this help.

_Revel

[timd1971]

If u r going to try that, u may also have to goto device manager and disable the wacom ( I think; search forums to be sure) HID.

Wow, sounds like u got "certified" hardware... u would think u wouldn't have this rediculous problem? Jeez go figure.

Maybe uninstall/disable the 580. Take it out. Then see what happens? If works fine, then that may be the problem? Then install the card again and see what happens?

[Anonymous]

No need to uninstall/ disable Wacom. Otherwise you'll spent your money to buy the Wacom and end up not using it. Wasted. Disable the build-in-windows-tablet-driver, which is the “Tablet PC Input Service” is enough.

PS: mcquarrie1, you didn't mention that you use Wacom or not, I just assuming you're using one because this is the typical problem that Windows build-in tablet driver cause to your Max.

_Revel

[mcquarrie1]

Hey guys, thanks for taking the time to respond. I am not a tablet user, so I'm afraid that's not likely to be my fix.

After posting I found this AREA thread which details very similar issues with 3ds Max 2011, Nvidia Quadro cards, Windows 7 and Boxx workstations:

http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autodesk-3ds-max/autodesk-3ds-max--3ds-max-design-2011/help-with-quad...

Issues currently unresolved by others with similar issues. Sigh.

Thanks for your help.

Mcquarrie

[Steve_Curley]

I have no idea if this will be of any use to you Win7/Quadro users, but MS has released a patch to improve graphics performance.

An update is available for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2 which provides new functionality...

[Anonymous]

Do you know if this patch is included in the regular windows updates or do I have to install it separately?

And while we're here, have you seen any performance / stability increase with this? Is it worth it to install if your system is currently stable?

[Steve_Curley]

I can't answer that - I merely passed on the info in case it was of some use.

I'm still on XP64 so I can't try it.

[Pyro777]

I have no idea if this will be of any use to you Win7/Quadro users, but MS has released a patch to improve graphics performance.

An update is available for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2 which provides new functionality...

How can I tell if this has already been installed?

[Steve_Curley]

Dunno - as I said I'm on XP so I can't look at or check anything regarding Win7. Presumably it will either reinstall over the top (if it was already there) or refuse to install.

[Anonymous]

Look at your installed updates for the "KB2028560" update in the windows list.
Go to your "Control Panel" the select "Programs" then pick "View insalled updates."
Scroll down to the Windows section.

[Anonymous]

looks like this...

[Pyro777]

Thanks. Have you seen any increase in performance since loading the hotfix shown?

[Anonymous]

Did you install this manually? It looks as if MS update hasn't installed it on its own on my system (though it did install a different hotfix yesterday).

[Anonymous]

I have not but I am running a FX4600 as stated above...(In sig) and have not done any "testing" so don't take too much stock in that.
Yes, double click the downloaded file to start the install...restart the computer when done.
Sorry for getting back "late" from lunch...lol

[Anonymous]

Go into your BIOS and make sure speedstep or enhanced speedstep technology or EIST is disabled. Boxx tends to leave it enabled, and it causes severe performance issues in Max.

[jeandenishaas]

I could be wrong about this, but I had the same problem with Maya and a Quadro 3800. It looks like it's a DirectX problem. Even though there are Win7 drivers, the card does not support DirectX 11, only 10. I tried to delete dx11 from the regedit directory and then to install dx10 but that didn't work. Dxdiag tells me there is still 11 installed. My old school's lab has it working with the 3800, Win7 and dx10, don't know how they installed it though. The Quadro 4000 supports dx11 though and the price is about the same, so switching to that is my current solution.

[Anonymous]

i can confirm that said hotfix DOES indeed fix the extremely slow viewport problem in SOFTIMAGE 2011, and i expect it would be as effective at tackling same problem with MAX 2011.

thanks a lot Steve_Curley now i don't have to turn to my laptop when i need to use SOFTIMAGE.