INV 11 Hardware Req.

[dzivkovi]

Inventor 11 seems to run slower then previous version. Even more I have a new project I've been working with that has about 500 parts totaling about 100MB in space. Opening the IAM or IDW takes about 30min. Then when working with the files it take for ever to update.

My computer is as follows.
Dell 4550, 2.6GHz, 1M RAM, Nvidia 900xgl 128MB, 30 HLD.

I know increasing the RAM would help a little, but the load time
would still be the same. The graphics card would also be a good change, but the problem is I only can get an AP X card.

What I would like is to get a new computer with descent additions. Anyone have a suggestion. I would like to stick with Dell

Thanks,
Dave

[Anonymous]

30 mins doesnt sound hardware related...

[Anonymous]

Buy a dual core, get 2MB of ram that will be sufficient for 500 part
assemblies, buy a Quadro Fx1500 Graphic Card, and get a 10,000rpm 73GB
Raptor drive as your operating system drive then get a couple of 160GB
drives as your data drives, then you should be flying again:)

DZIVKOVIC wrote:
> Inventor 11 seems to run slower then previous version. Even more I have a new project I've been working with that has about 500 parts totaling about 100MB in space. Opening the IAM or IDW takes about 30min. Then when working with the files it take for ever to update.
>
> My computer is as follows.
> Dell 4550, 2.6GHz, 1M RAM, Nvidia 900xgl 128MB, 30 HLD.
>
> I know increasing the RAM would help a little, but the load time
> would still be the same. The graphics card would also be a good change, but the problem is I only can get an AP X card.
>
> What I would like is to get a new computer with descent additions. Anyone have a suggestion. I would like to stick with Dell
>
> Thanks,
> Dave

[dzivkovi]

Are you saying 30min is acceptable ?

[Josh_Petitt]

yeah, what Troy said. I'm using a dual core Pentium 3.2Ghz, 3GB of RAM, and a Quadro FX 4400. I have to wait sometimes for drawings with 15 or more sheets, but assemblies are pretty quick. If you figure in the dollars per hour for the operator (and internal stress levels), an extra 2 or 3 thousand doesn't seem like that much.

BTW - its a Dell Precision 380

Message was edited by: Josh_Petitt

currently working on a 1015 part assembly Message was edited by: Josh_Petitt

[dzivkovi]

Josh,
Does Inv real get a boost from the 64bit OS ?
Acad2k4 would probably not work on it ?

Thanks,
Dave

[Josh_Petitt]

Nope, no 64 bit OS for me, just XP Pro. There are some posts on this NG about 64 bit OS, from what I remember IV does not take advantage of this in the code, but your RAM access is increased so you can get more RAM in your computer.

[MechMan_]

Actually, increasing the RAM will help a LOT if you're running out of memory with both the load and computation times. Does the memory status bar in the bottom right of the IV window turn yellow or red when working with your assemblies and drawings?

Do you use adaptivity in your assembiles?

[dzivkovi]

The status bar stays green about mid way.
However, when looking at Task Manager
it showed the physical Ram free only 24K
out of the 1M

[MechMan_]

>The status bar stays green about mid way.<
But then turns yellow by the time it's loaded, right? You need more RAM. At that point you're using virtual memory from your HD and it's slowing you way down.

[Anonymous]

On Thu, 8 Jun 2006 15:55:34 +0000, DZIVKOVIC <> wrote:

>Inventor 11 seems to run slower then previous version. Even more I have a new project I've been working with that has about 500 parts totaling about 100MB in space. Opening the IAM or IDW takes about 30min. Then when working with the files it take for ever to update.
>
>My computer is as follows.
>Dell 4550, 2.6GHz, 1M RAM, Nvidia 900xgl 128MB, 30 HLD.
>
>I know increasing the RAM would help a little, but the load time
>would still be the same. The graphics card would also be a good change, but the problem is I only can get an AP X card.
>
>What I would like is to get a new computer with descent additions. Anyone have a suggestion. I would like to stick with Dell

Personally I dislike Dell or any equivalents. I have always had
problems with factory systems.

My Older System:

P4 3.0GHz
2GB Ram
~500 gigs storage, 7200 RPM SATA
MSI Motherboard
nVidia 6800 video card
400W PSU

My Newer System:

P4 3.2 GHz
2GB Ram
Somewhere between 800-900 gigs in storage. Terabyte, I am creeping up
on you. 7200 RPM SATA
MSI P4N Diamond Motherboard
2x nVidia 7800 GT in SLI
600W PSU

Inventor runs smooth on both systems, don't have any significant
performance problems.

System I currently have in planning:

AMD / P4....clock speed not yet decided. Still fighting the AMD /
Intel battle. Tempted to try out AMD for once.

4GB Ram
Gonna go beat 1 terabyte on this one...thinking of going with a solid
state disk for my operating system / software drive if the cost isn't
too exceedingly expensive.

Motherboard will be MSI but depend on what processor I go with.

2x SLI whatever latest nVidia has got to offer.

PSU sized accordingly to this whole mess, guessing at a minimum 600W
again maybe more.

Oh and both CPU and GPUs watercooled. I am tired of having an F-16
running underneath my desk.

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi
nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

[Anonymous]

On Thu, 8 Jun 2006 20:55:46 +0000, MechMan <> wrote:

>>The status bar stays green about mid way.<
>But then turns yellow by the time it's loaded, right? You need more RAM. At that point you're using virtual memory from your HD and it's slowing you way down.

Agreed, virtual memory is really really bad and an absolute
performance annihilator. What happens is that say you need 2 gigs of
memory, windows allocates 2 gigs of memory space via the MMU. But you
only have 1 gig of physical memory!! So what happens? When the app
tries to access a page that is not mapped to physical space, a page
fault occurs. That page fault is slowdown number one. Next slow down
is that windows needs to check if it has this page mapped to virtual
memory (else General Protection Fault ie...crash). If it's mapped to
virtual memory, that page is now loaded into physical memory. Wait a
second, you don't have enough pyhsical memory. So now, a page already
in pyhsical memory needs to be mapped to virtual memory to make space
for the page in virtual memory that needs to go to physical memory
(confused yet?). And finally after the virtual page is read from the
hard drive (which takes milliseconds, not nanoseconds like RAM
does)...can the app finally access that memory!!!

So yea...virtual memory = really bad.

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi
nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

[Anonymous]

How long does it take to load IV, to were it is asking you to enter a file
name? Other than more memory for working on your models, the biggest kicker
is a slow hard driver and poor transfer rates. Good chance that the HD you
have is only spinning at 5400 rpm. If you can afford SCSI320 go for it, if
not then at least dual SATA in RAID will help you out. I will load IV11 cold
start including logging into CC in 20 seconds, if I don't log in to CC, the
load time is 14 seconds. It has nothing to do with processor speed, its all
about read and data transfer. After 3GHz on the processor you really don't
notice any performace difference, hold off on X64 for at least a year, as
much ram and Nvidia card as you wallet permits. At least now with IV11
supporting 3D, there won't be as much pressure to use OpenGL Nvidia cards
(we think) although OpenGL is still faster.
"Stephan Rose" wrote in message
news:5200493@discussion.autodesk.com...
On Thu, 8 Jun 2006 15:55:34 +0000, DZIVKOVIC <> wrote:

>Inventor 11 seems to run slower then previous version. Even more I have a
>new project I've been working with that has about 500 parts totaling about
>100MB in space. Opening the IAM or IDW takes about 30min. Then when working
>with the files it take for ever to update.
>
>My computer is as follows.
>Dell 4550, 2.6GHz, 1M RAM, Nvidia 900xgl 128MB, 30 HLD.
>
>I know increasing the RAM would help a little, but the load time
>would still be the same. The graphics card would also be a good change, but
>the problem is I only can get an AP X card.
>
>What I would like is to get a new computer with descent additions. Anyone
>have a suggestion. I would like to stick with Dell

Personally I dislike Dell or any equivalents. I have always had
problems with factory systems.

My Older System:

P4 3.0GHz
2GB Ram
~500 gigs storage, 7200 RPM SATA
MSI Motherboard
nVidia 6800 video card
400W PSU

My Newer System:

P4 3.2 GHz
2GB Ram
Somewhere between 800-900 gigs in storage. Terabyte, I am creeping up
on you. 7200 RPM SATA
MSI P4N Diamond Motherboard
2x nVidia 7800 GT in SLI
600W PSU

Inventor runs smooth on both systems, don't have any significant
performance problems.

System I currently have in planning:

AMD / P4....clock speed not yet decided. Still fighting the AMD /
Intel battle. Tempted to try out AMD for once.

4GB Ram
Gonna go beat 1 terabyte on this one...thinking of going with a solid
state disk for my operating system / software drive if the cost isn't
too exceedingly expensive.

Motherboard will be MSI but depend on what processor I go with.

2x SLI whatever latest nVidia has got to offer.

PSU sized accordingly to this whole mess, guessing at a minimum 600W
again maybe more.

Oh and both CPU and GPUs watercooled. I am tired of having an F-16
running underneath my desk.

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi
nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

[Anonymous]

On Sat, 10 Jun 2006 18:02:13 +0000, Blair Stunder
wrote:

>How long does it take to load IV, to were it is asking you to enter a file
>name? Other than more memory for working on your models, the biggest kicker
>is a slow hard driver and poor transfer rates. Good chance that the HD you
>have is only spinning at 5400 rpm. If you can afford SCSI320 go for it, if
>not then at least dual SATA in RAID will help you out. I will load IV11 cold
>start including logging into CC in 20 seconds, if I don't log in to CC, the
>load time is 14 seconds. It has nothing to do with processor speed, its all
>about read and data transfer. After 3GHz on the processor you really don't
>notice any performace difference, hold off on X64 for at least a year, as
>much ram and Nvidia card as you wallet permits. At least now with IV11
>supporting 3D, there won't be as much pressure to use OpenGL Nvidia cards
>(we think) although OpenGL is still faster.

Any reason why a 7200 RPM HD would only be spinning at 5400? Just
curious, this is the first I have ever heard about this.

But you are right, my primary bottleneck at the moment is hard drive
access. That is the reason I am potentially looking into a solid state
disk as my primary drive on the next system and failing that I was
thinking dual SATA RAID. SCSI is an option I haven't thought of yet
but not a bad idea, thanks.

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi
nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

[Anonymous]

I never saw the RPM spec, but some many machines sold at the big box stores
will have good sales spec's, fast processor, and a HD with decent storage
capacity, but poor transfer rates and no caches. The SATA will transfer
about 100mb and in a RAID configuration about 170mb, the SCSI320 will run
320mb as well as have a longer rated life. You will find them in 10k as well
as 15k rpm models for faster seek times.
"Stephan Rose" wrote in message
news:5202258@discussion.autodesk.com...
On Sat, 10 Jun 2006 18:02:13 +0000, Blair Stunder
wrote:

>How long does it take to load IV, to were it is asking you to enter a file
>name? Other than more memory for working on your models, the biggest kicker
>is a slow hard driver and poor transfer rates. Good chance that the HD you
>have is only spinning at 5400 rpm. If you can afford SCSI320 go for it, if
>not then at least dual SATA in RAID will help you out. I will load IV11
>cold
>start including logging into CC in 20 seconds, if I don't log in to CC, the
>load time is 14 seconds. It has nothing to do with processor speed, its all
>about read and data transfer. After 3GHz on the processor you really don't
>notice any performace difference, hold off on X64 for at least a year, as
>much ram and Nvidia card as you wallet permits. At least now with IV11
>supporting 3D, there won't be as much pressure to use OpenGL Nvidia cards
>(we think) although OpenGL is still faster.

Any reason why a 7200 RPM HD would only be spinning at 5400? Just
curious, this is the first I have ever heard about this.

But you are right, my primary bottleneck at the moment is hard drive
access. That is the reason I am potentially looking into a solid state
disk as my primary drive on the next system and failing that I was
thinking dual SATA RAID. SCSI is an option I haven't thought of yet
but not a bad idea, thanks.

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi
nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

[Anonymous]

On Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:20:38 +0000, Blair Stunder
wrote:

>I never saw the RPM spec, but some many machines sold at the big box stores
>will have good sales spec's, fast processor, and a HD with decent storage
>capacity, but poor transfer rates and no caches. The SATA will transfer
>about 100mb and in a RAID configuration about 170mb, the SCSI320 will run
>320mb as well as have a longer rated life. You will find them in 10k as well
>as 15k rpm models for faster seek times.

Luckily for me I don't ever buy prebuilt machines at any big box
stores for exactly those kind of reasons.

Thanks very much for the info on the SCSI, definitely worth looking
into.

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi
nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara