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Inventor 2012 GPU utilization less than 30%

11 REPLIES 11
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Message 1 of 12
JoseLuisCam
2056 Views, 11 Replies

Inventor 2012 GPU utilization less than 30%

Hi guys!

 

We use Inventor 2012 on a workstation with these components:
OS: Windows 7 x64
CPU: Xeon 2.80 1333MHz 12M X5660
RAM: 8 GB
HDD: 250 GB 10000 rpm
Grafic Card: Nvidia Quadro 4000 (2 GB)

 

When we use a large inventor assembly and we rotate these assembly, some or many components dissapear then when we not execute any moviment on assembly, all parts are visible.

 

We use last Inventor certified driver for this grafic card and we re-install all autodesk suite but no works better.

 

Moreover, via an external software to Autodesk, we verified the performance of the GPU and never exceeds 30% usage.

 

Do you have any idea how I can configure Inventor to improve performance and that Inventor use over 30% of the GPU?

 

 

Thanks and regards!

11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
SBix26
in reply to: JoseLuisCam

What options are selected in this box (see attached screenshot)?

Message 3 of 12
JoseLuisCam
in reply to: SBix26

Hi sbixler,

 

First, we try with option "Performance". We applied and then restart inventor.

 

Then we did same process with option "Quality".

 

Both got the same problem

 

Thanks for your help!

Message 4 of 12
SBix26
in reply to: JoseLuisCam

Software Graphics unchecked?

Message 5 of 12
JoseLuisCam
in reply to: SBix26

Yes, it's unchecked

Message 6 of 12
SBix26
in reply to: JoseLuisCam

Then I have no idea-- sorry.  You've got a good card and it ought to work.  Sounds as if my dinosaur of a system works better than your nice shiny new one!  I can open an 800-part assembly, the memory indicator immediately goes yellow (and soon into red if I do anything beyond look at it), but it rolls smoothly and easily, and no parts disappear-- and I'm driving a 2560 x 1600 monitor, too.

Message 7 of 12
dgorsman
in reply to: SBix26

The bottleneck may not be in the GPU.  Typically hardware uses as much as it needs and can get, so if its only running at 30% telling it to use "more" wouldn't improve much of anything.  That value may also be an artifact of the means used to calculate the value (its not a direct measurement); for example, it could be running full out in short spurts as the screen refreshes the image at designated intervals.

 

You may be bumping up against another problem, as not everything goes on inside the video card even for displaying.  What does the RAM usage look like when doing this?  Processor activity?

----------------------------------
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 8 of 12
sam_m
in reply to: dgorsman

yeah, bottleneck could well be elsewhere...

 

Things that spring to mind:

 

memory:

8gb ram isn't that massive in this day and age with cad - if it's using a virtual page file at all it can kill performance.

 

Try running MemProbe that's in Inventor's bin folder (default location: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2012\Bin ) - see how much physical and virtual memory Inventor is using (if it's over a gig of virtual then could well be crying out for more ram).

 

processor:

Xeon chips are good for multi-threaded apps, Inventor isn't a mult-threaded app...   Looking at single-threaded benchmark: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html there isn't a X5660 listed but there is the quicker X5690 which is quite far down the table.  the X5660 is going to be even slower with its 2.8GHz clock compared to the 3.5Ghz of the X5690.  So, despite the mental cost of the X5660, it could well be struggling too...

 

If you're running big assemblies then I would imagine either (or both) of these being the bottleneck before the Quadro.



Sam M.
Inventor and Showcase monkey

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Message 9 of 12
streharg
in reply to: JoseLuisCam

If it's hardware issue, then my vote for bottleneck goes to: hdd  and cpu.

8Gb of ram is enough for assemblies up to 10000 parts IMO.

 

Anyway, how big assembly do we speak about?

PDSU 2016
4790K, 32 Gb ram, GTX 960 ...
Fancy HP LCD
🙂
Message 10 of 12
JoseLuisCam
in reply to: streharg

CPU does not exceed 20-23%
Uses 4.3 GB of RAM 8 GB

 

Assembled pieces 9024/563. Can be problem of restrictions?

 

We run MemProbe and always have the first value to 0, does not change. I ran MemProbe on multiple computers and the result is the same. Maybe I do something wrong. 

I attached a screenshot screen.

Message 11 of 12
sam_m
in reply to: JoseLuisCam

CPU will never get to 100% as it's a multi-core cpu and Inventor will only ever use 1 core (except for things like FEA, Moldflow and Rendering).  So a quad-core chip at 25% is running at full pelt for Inventor.  If your 6-core chip registers a 17% load with Inventor then it's at full capacity and being the bottleneck.

 

basically, unless you're doing lots of rendering or FEA then an expensive Xeon chip isn't needed and you'll get the same (if not better) performance out of a sandy/ivy-bridge i5.

 

What other applications are running if you're seeing over 17% load?

 

 

MemProbe - goto Process and choose Inventor to monitor (instead of all applications).  It will now show how much physical and virtual memory Inventor is using:

 

mem1.jpg

 

 

don't forget to keep all drivers up to date - not just gpu but also chipset (motherboard).  The chipset is like the backbone of the system, if it's not running as quickly/well as it should then everything isn't going to work at their capacity.  Sounds crazy, but old mouse drivers have caused problems in the past...

 

 

Finally - make sure your virus-scanner is setup to NOT scan Inventor files (add .ipt/.iam/etc to the exclusion list) - if it's scanning every single part when you load and access an assembly it can slow it all down...



Sam M.
Inventor and Showcase monkey

Please mark this response as "Accept as Solution" if it answers your question...
If you have found any post to be helpful, even if it's not a direct solution, then please provide that author kudos - spread that love 😄

Message 12 of 12
dwweekly
in reply to: sam_m

its the multi-core processors in new pc's, Inventor is single threaded for modeling, only when you are doing drawing updates does it use another core.

Look at your task manger under the performance tab, if you have 4, 6, or 8 windows . that is the count of your cores, you only use 1 in modeling. Multicores are of benefit if you have multiple sessions of inventor open. But if you only have 1 session open and you are opening/working your model , it uses only 1 in modeling so for 4 you will only be at 25% , 6 at 16% , 8 at 12%. If you want more horsepower for inventor its NOT in multiprocessors its the single threading , see passmark for the single threaded processor ratings , the top dog right now is the i7-4790k. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

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