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AutoCAD 2013 - Memory / RAM limitation when rendering

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Message 1 of 3
MF6685
2894 Views, 2 Replies

AutoCAD 2013 - Memory / RAM limitation when rendering

Please help!

I am rendering in AutoCAD 2013 and it is very slow given the specs of my PC.

With the AutoCAD file open at idle, Windows Task Manager states 344 MB memory use for AutoCAD.exe

When I start the render, AutoCAD then uses about 430 MB of memory – so it barely uses any extra memory!

I have validated with Kingston that my 16GB of DDR3 memory is correctly installed and operational. The PC is fast and I don’t have any other issues with other programs.

All up the, the total memory use for my PC during an AutoCAD render is only 14%

 

PC Specs:

 

1/ OS: Windows 8 64-bit

 

2/ Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 670 with Driver 320.49 (01/07/13)

 

3/ Memory / RAM: Kingston 16GB (8Gx2) DDR3 1600 MhZ installed in white slots DDR3_1 and DDR3_2 Blue slots DDR3_3 and DDR3_4 are vacant.

 

4/ Mother Board: Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H

 

5/ Hard Drive: Samsung 840 Series 500GB SSD

 

6/ CPU: Intel i7-3770K

 

Settings:

 

1/ AutoCAD options, Hardware Acceleration has been enabled.

 

2/ WHIPTHREAD  system variable is set to 3 to enable multi-threading (PS this works – CPU runs at 100% during renderings). Tried at 0 also.

 

3/ Have installed the latest NVIDIA Control Panel and tried numerous ‘3D settings’ including adding acad.exe to the list and ‘Let the 3D application decide’ + others pre-sets.

 

4/ In the render pre-sets, there is a setting under Processing, Memory Limit – by default this is 1048. I have tried doubling, tripling this setting etc makes no difference.

 

5/ Windows Virtual Memory – by default set to ‘Automatically manage paging file size for all drives’ + tried setting a custom size with the Initial size to 24,576 and the  maximum size to 49,152. Also tried 4,000 / 8,000 and 8,000 / 16,000. Note I have 16GB of RAM installed. Does anyone know how to set this up properly? To my knowledge if you have ample RAM, just set it to Automatic?

 

6/ Have AutoCAD 2013 SP2 installed.

 

Conclusion:

 

1/ Maybe NVIDIA purposefully limit AutoCAD RAM usage on their GEFORCE cards / drivers to force customers to purchase their QUADRO cards? Can anyone confirm if QUADRO cards take advantage of a PC with allot of memory installed?

 

2/ Maybe there is an NVIDIA Control Panel setting that will work? Or, is it possible (and straightforward) to use a QUADRO driver?

 

3/ Is there an AutoCAD RENDER or OPTIONS setting to increase RAM usage?

 

4/ Kingston’s response: “If everything works fine in AutoCAD except for rendering, it would probably be hard drive or AutoCAD”.

2 REPLIES 2
Message 2 of 3
dgorsman
in reply to: MF6685

A little late on this, but I've got an extra minute.  I don't think anything is wrong with your system, or AutoCAD.  Rendering takes a long time to do detailed work.  The video card has no part in the process.  The RAM is good enough for what you need - it needs to hold the OS, the software, the source drawing, and the render output.  Using more RAM won't make the electronic gnomes paint the picture any faster - they still have to finish painting each pixel before they get to the next one.

----------------------------------
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 3 of 3
detroit808
in reply to: MF6685

MF6685

You say Hardware Acceleration is on. 

 

Type 3DCONFIG->click Performance Tuner Log button

 

In the performance tuner log window, does it happen to say:

"Your machine contains a 3D Device that is not certified."

 

then farther down does it say:

 

"Current application driver: acaddm11.hdi"

 

Maybe also copy and paste the log here.

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