computer question

[disbanded]

Howdy, I am looking for a little info on how to resolve my computer issue.

Autocad Architecture 2012 can often run fairly slow.  For example, clicking a command icon sometimes takes a few seconds to get going, zooming in large drawings is very, very slow, the startup of Autocad itself takes forever, etc.

As you know, these are time killers, and not knowing much about computers, I am looking for some input on making my cad experience better and much faster.

My current stats:

Gigabyte Ultra Durable 3 mobo - EP43-UD3L

Intel Core 2 CPU

6400 @ 2.13 GHz

3.50 GB of RAM

NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti

Is there something I can upgrade to get Autocad to work faster?  New mobo, processor and memory?

I have tried all the other little tricks to get autocad to run faster, but it just doesn't help enough.  Just not sure what I need to do.  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. 

[MarySeufert · Accepted solution]

I'm not really an expert on which parts are the best to use, but can give you some general advice... 

I would add as much RAM as you can to your system. Here is a link to Crucial.com, run the system scan to figure out what your MOBO can handle. It is important that your memory sticks match, so either replace what you have or match it.

Another part that will greatly increase your AutoCAD speed is the hard drive. If you can afford it, a solid state drive will be a significant improvement. Harder part to swap, but from what I've heard there is a  Windows 7 utility to copy your current HD to a new one.

I'm not that up to speed on which video cards are the best, but I'm sure someone else can fill you in.

Try posting in the Hardware Forum for even better answers.

~ Mary

[ntellery]

Unless you are running 64bit you won't get anythinig out of any more RAM. 3.5 to 4 is about as much as it will make use of.

ACA is mostly pure grunt so the CPU is the big item if you can upgrade it but I would imagine you are not going to get too much faster with your current mobo unless it can jump to the next generation of cpu.  Acad is not fully multithreaded so only regen, display stuff....  rendering can take advantage of it but it does also mean that other things running in the background are not sharing iwth Acad.  I have an 8 core and they are all busy when I render (a lot)!  For e.g. some said you should get a faster single core than a slower multi for that reason but that's a bit old advice now.

I'd agree on the solid state but be aware they are expensive so you are likely to get a smaller size. That brings it's own issues as Win7 for me started around 40gb and with installed programs climbed to 105gb on my 107gb harddrive so I had to find out how to shift my user folders to my 2nd drive and also reinstall many progs (NOT ACA) onto the 2nd drive.

My work machine really started to chug and not just network issues.  I went thru the solutions in the attached doc and it sped up very noticably. I can now see the network issues very separate from the machine itself.  Screen looks ugly but you can choose what you try and I intend to unpick gradually to see what is actually making the difference.

[disbanded]

Sounds like a need to upgrade pretty much everything.  Thanks for your help.

[ntellery]

I should quality, my home office machine is Win7 64bit on solid state 107gb drive with intel Core i7=2600 o/c @3.4ghz 16gb RAM.  It flies with 12 and when rendering if I want to do something else intensive I have to stop one cpu from working on ACA (thru the task manager) and then it will have no issue working on something else.

My Work machine is XP32bit IDE HD Intel Quadl Core I think about 3ghz (but older tech so clock speed is not comparable) with 3.5gb ram and for 12 it's being really slow. (I just realised it wasn't defragging so I wonder if that will help). 

Couple of other things I notice really slow things down.  Using too many of those settings

DYN is really slow. LWT does have some effect, DUCS is also really slow. and prob things like QP.

Having your layer dialogue open slows things up considerably.

12 had more developed rendering but apart from corner windows (and grid enhancements) there is very little difference between the two except perhaps some acad stuff.

[markr]

ntellery,

You mentioned that you Stop a CPU Core from working on autocad thru Task Manager.  How do you do that?  I have a Dual Six Core Processor and it would be very useful if I could work in other programs while I wait for my renders to finish.  Right now, I have to just walk away and twiddle my thumbs when I hit render. 

[angel]

Sometimes its not a computer hardware problem,  i had this problem and what was causing it was the the printer that i had set as my default printer, caused minor problems.  what i did to resolve this, was to make another printer my default (even if it meant a PDF print driver).  Hope this works for you. 

[ntellery]

it's the same with xp-win7

press all at once control-alt-delete and select Task Manager

Go to the Processes tab and (various ways to do it) sort columns to find acad.exe or any

Right click on it and choose set affiniity

You now get a box showing all the cpu's working on the problem and you can untick one (or two) and you will free up cpu's to work on other things.

Unlike much of ACAD, rendering will take up all cores you allow it to.

[markr]

Great , Thanks,  I see how this works.  I'll give it a try today.  I told my "IT" guys and they said "ol' yeah,  we had to do that on your old computer for some other program"   The problem they say is that the switch is not "Sticky"  I'll have to do it every day when I need to run another program.  But if it will let me do something other than twiddle my thumbs, I can live with it.  

Now if I can get AutoCad to fun faster I'll be set.  You also said yours flyes with 2012.  I may need to ask you about that later. 

Thanks again,  Mark

[ntellery]

New computer!

There is some speed tips around.  Trying google.