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Recommended Graphics Cards for Inventor

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Message 1 of 26
sbrusco
23735 Views, 25 Replies

Recommended Graphics Cards for Inventor

Hi All,

 

Please forgive my ignorance of graphics cards but the card recommended by Autodesk for running Inventor is

 

"MS Direct3D 11 capable or higher; 512 MB or equivalent"

 

...and the quotes I got for computers list


2 GB NVIDIA Quadro K2000 (2DP and 1DVI-I) (2DP-DVI and 1DVI-VGA adapter) in the desktops

and
AMD FirePro M5100 w/2GB GDDR5 in the laptops

 

The provider "assures" me that these meet the spec but I just don't know. Can someone please shed some light and pull me out of the dark?

 

TIA,

Sal


25 REPLIES 25
Message 2 of 26
mcgyvr
in reply to: sbrusco

Both are directX 11 and both are 2GB which is > 512mb

both "should" be just fine.. 



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventor 2023 - Dell Precision 5570

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Message 3 of 26
sbrusco
in reply to: mcgyvr

Thnx mcgyvr,

I knew someone here could and would help me.

Sal


Message 4 of 26
LT.Rusty
in reply to: sbrusco

Either  card will do just fine, but they're both really overkill in terms of price.

 

Get a mid-grade or high-end gaming card.  It'll be a LOT cheaper than the Quadro or FirePro, and it will handle Inventor just as well.

 

 

nVidia gaming cards of the current numbering scheme tend to have 3-digit model numbers, with some letters afterwards.  If you're looking at nVidia, look for a card with number XY0, where X is a number 6 or higher and Y is a number 5 or higher.  (e.g., 650, 760, etc.)

 

ATI cards are named as Radeon HD with some numbers afterwards.  Look for a card there with the number XYZ0, where X is a number that's 4 or higher, Y is a number 7 or higher, and Z is a number 5 or higher.  (e.g., 4870, 6850, 7770, 7950, etc.)

 

I'm using almost 6-year-old Radeon HD 4870's in my workstation at home (current up to date CPU / RAM / SSD though) and they're keeping up just fine with Inventor 2014 and even most games that I feel like playing at 1080p.

Rusty

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Message 5 of 26
sbrusco
in reply to: LT.Rusty

Thanks for your input LT. I will make your suggestion to our IT department and see what they say.

 

Sal


Message 6 of 26
Nelson_C
in reply to: LT.Rusty

I don't recommend the gaming cards, we went that way first and burned a few out, and the workstation cards hugely outperform them in CAD as far as I could tell. I've been really happy with the AMD Firepro V5900 (can be found for around $400). We've been running these for 2.5 years. I couldn't justify the extra dollars for the Quattro with the same specs for triple the price. Here's a great list of workstation cards and specs: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=95
Message 7 of 26
LT.Rusty
in reply to: Nelson_C


@Nelson_C wrote:
I don't recommend the gaming cards, we went that way first and burned a few out, and the workstation cards hugely outperform them in CAD as far as I could tell. I've been really happy with the AMD Firepro V5900 (can be found for around $400). We've been running these for 2.5 years. I couldn't justify the extra dollars for the Quattro with the same specs for triple the price. Here's a great list of workstation cards and specs: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=95

 

 

Depends entirely on what you're doing with them.

 

Inventor uses Direct3D, not OpenGL.  The gaming cards will give you better performance at a far lower price-point with Direct3D applicati....  If you're burning up a graphics card using Inventor, then you've got some sort of hardware issue other than simply having a gaming card.

 

Think about it: these things are made for nerds in their mom's basement to have marathon sessions pushing demanding games.  Running Inventor for 8 or 10 hours at a time shouldn't push you very hard.  I see core temperatures and fan speeds on my card go higher with even older games - Portal, Half Life 2, Empire: Total War, that sort of thing - than I do with Inventor.

Rusty

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Message 8 of 26
Nelson_C
in reply to: LT.Rusty

I'm only speaking from my experience. The gaming cards seem to run really hot (maybe pushing the limits more?) and so running for 50+ hours a week every week leads to higher failure rate. The workstation cards don't produce as much heat, its very possible that they are designed to be more reliable rather than constantly pushing the envelope like gaming card manufacturers have to. This might also be reflected in the workstation card prices. A 3 year old workstation card is pretty much the same price but a 3 year old gaming card is a fraction of the price as when first launched since 20 new versions of that card have come out since.
Message 9 of 26
dgorsman
in reply to: Nelson_C

The workstation cards are more designed for the visualation crowds, with extra features that enable them to do things like GPU rendering and real-time on screen work.  In order to do that they include more robust cooling systems.  That means they perform better when dumped into an ordinary box system.  You dump a high-end gaming card into an off-the-shelf box you may very well have cooling problems, as they aren't designed for the air flow required.  Gaming boxes have much better air flow and usually come with an extra fan or two which dramatically improve heat removal.  Both of those are necessary for the high-end hardware.

----------------------------------
If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.
"I don't know" is the beginning of knowledge, not the end.


Message 10 of 26
sbrusco
in reply to: sbrusco

Can someone point me to an Autodesk page that lists all the "acceptable" and "recommended" video cards?


Message 11 of 26
LT.Rusty
in reply to: sbrusco

Right here.

Rusty

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Message 12 of 26
lkrenzler
in reply to: LT.Rusty

I used to work at a VFX shop and we used a LOT of different cards.  This is my experience:

 

I've had better luck with Nvidia drivers than ATI/AMD.

 

Quadro cards are far too expensive for NO performance gain.  They can burn out too.  The only reason for them is that gaming cards are artificially hobbled in their OpenGL and CUDA performance so Nvidia can overcharge for "Pro" cards.  Inventor doesn't as yet use either OpenGL or CUDA as far as I know.

 

Gaming cards have a very wide range of quality of manufacturing and power consumption/cooling.

 

Some gaming card do run very hot and or loud so look for something that doesn't.  Look for something a bit more conservative and it'll still vastly outperform a Quadro of similar price.  Look at the number of cores, and memory bandwidth of each card to compare.  If it does fail, you can replace it about 6 times for the price of 1 Quadro.

 

However, some IT departments believe the Nvidia propoganda so they won't go with anything else so you're stuck.  A good performing Quadro is a crazy price unfortunatetly for what you get.  I currently have to use a Quadro K2000 and it's very quiet and low power consumption but performance is very lack luster.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inventor Pro 2019 - Win. 10 - GeForce GTX 1080 .
Message 13 of 26
LT.Rusty
in reply to: lkrenzler

Yep, exactly.  I would however note that Inventor USED to use OpenGL, but moved to D3D sometime back pre-2008.  Not sure exactly when, though.

 

My company bought me a really sweet Quadro ... 600.  Because, y'know, it's workstation class.  And I've got a workstation.  So obviously that's better, right?

 

Too bad that it's really just a GeForce GT430 (available for <$30, if you shop around a little) with enhanced OpenGL performance that Inventor doesn't use.

 

 

 

Rusty

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Message 14 of 26
dmorrison
in reply to: LT.Rusty

gaming cards, i.e. GEForce cards do NOT work with Inventor. Thye do not handle the metagraaphicss. CAD cards need to - gaming cards do not need to.

Message 15 of 26
mpatchus
in reply to: dmorrison


@Anonymous wrote:

gaming cards, i.e. GEForce cards do NOT work with Inventor. Thye do not handle the metagraaphicss. CAD cards need to - gaming cards do not need to.


I've never had any issue with any GEForce cards running Inventor.

Everyone I've ever used has far outperformed any of the "Autodesk certified" cards.

 

Right now I'm running a GEForce GTX770 in my Alienware laptop and it easily outperforms any of the desktops we have in the office. (especially when rendering in Studio).

Mike Patchus - Lancaster SC

Inventor 2025 Beta


Alienware m17, Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10980HK CPU @ 2.40GHz 3.10 GHz, Win 11, 64gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super

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Message 16 of 26
mcgyvr
in reply to: dmorrison


@Anonymous wrote:

gaming cards, i.e. GEForce cards do NOT work with Inventor. Thye do not handle the metagraaphicss. CAD cards need to - gaming cards do not need to.


Rubbish...

Geforce user here (on multiple computers).. Works just fine with Inventor.

 

 



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventor 2023 - Dell Precision 5570

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Message 17 of 26
LT.Rusty
in reply to: dmorrison


@Anonymous wrote:

gaming cards, i.e. GEForce cards do NOT work with Inventor. Thye do not handle the metagraaphicss. CAD cards need to - gaming cards do not need to.


 

 

Sorry, you have no idea what you're talking about.

Rusty

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Message 18 of 26
dmorrison
in reply to: mcgyvr

Well thats nice for ytou, we have had a number of problems over timne with GE Force cardss and Invnetor but no problems with nVidia

Message 19 of 26
dmorrison
in reply to: LT.Rusty

I know exactly what our experience has been and also that the NVidia Quadro cards work just fine
Message 20 of 26
salariua
in reply to: sbrusco

I am already sorry for getting dragged into this but LT is right. Go for direct3D video cards.

Get one of the GeForce in the list starting from the top down.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

See this test in TomsHardware (never mind that it's testing AIP 2013)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-7.html

I've got a Quadro K5000 and it's rubbish but that's my own opinion, besides take a look at this forum and see what are the Expert Elite members using for day to day, this has been answered before.

Adrian S.
blog.ads-sol.com 

AIP2012-2020 i7 6700k AMD R9 370
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