My IT guy got me a new computer. We're not an engineering firm and I'm the only one using Inventor. I let him know that I had unique requirements and gave him Autodesk's recommendations:
He told me the computer he would supply meets these requirements and I get this computer:
Intel(R) HD Graphics 2500
Report Date: 12/17/2013
Report Time[hh:mm:ss]: 10:28:08
Driver Version: 8.15.10.2639
Operating System: Windows 7 Service Pack 1(6.1.7601)
Default Language: English (United States)
DirectX* Version: 11.0
Physical Memory: 6062 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 64 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory: 1696 MB
Graphics Memory in Use: 391 MB
Processor: Intel64 Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Speed: 3292 MHz
Vendor ID: 8086
Device ID: 0152
Device Revision: 09
I don't know a whole lot about hardware, but it seems that this computer nears or meets the Autodesk recommendations.
So I'm using the computer and have come across some minor performance issues when working in asssembliy files but the real issues have come when creating IDW's. Creating or moving views takes forever. So much so that I'm posting here for help. The size of the assembly is not huge, at least in relation to others I have made (359 occurances, 85 files, 162 KB.) Any suggestions?
My first thoughts are:
1. Make sure you are using hardware rendering, not software rendering. See the Application Options: Hardware tab. You might try Compatibility Mode here too.
2. Make sure you have enough RAM for your drawings. Next time you see a slowdown, start Task Manager and check the Performance tab. If your Available Physical Memory amount is small ( less than a few hundred MB) you need more RAM.
3. Don't shade any views in the drawing until you are ready to print/release the drawing. Shading views in the drawing makes Inventor work harder. Even on my Dell t3500 with a Quadro FX 1800, shaded views of large (40k component) assemblies are slow. I have drawings that will not open if I have less than 10 GB of RAM in my machine.
4. Get a mid-range gaming card,if your desktop will support it.
5. Lots of folks like Solid-State Drives. Not sure if your system is IO bound, but it might help.
6. Make sure your anti-virus does not scan your Inventor files during open/close operations. Its ok to scan them during a scheduled check, but real-time scanning will eat processor cycles that could be used to run Inventor.
Steve Walton
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That looks close to minimum recommended specs. Minimum recommended means it will run the software but not necessarily very good. Using the integrated video may be a big part of the problem. The Intel card only has 64 mb of onboard memory the rest it gets by sharing your ram taking away ram that could be better used for other things.
@Blair wrote:
Nice machine for the secretary to answer e-mails and do some MS Word and Excel with.
ha ha ha...
Is the case pink?
See where it says this: Microsoft® Direct3D 9® or compatible graphics card (Microsoft® Direct3D 11® or higher recommended) ? That means a dedicated graphics card is recommended; most mid-range gaming cards will do the trick. You are running off the graphics hardware built in to the processor, which is designed for watching movies and app-style games. Also, the recommendation is for 8 GB RAM, rather than your spec'd 6 GB. Both of those should make things more tolerable for a very reasonable cost.
As noted by the others, minimum requirements are suitable for teaching rather than actual money-making business work. Have a look around at the more frequent posters with hardware specs in their signatures, and the type of work they do. That should give you a respectable guideline as to recommended specs.
My company thought they'd be okay a couple years back buying i3's for the engineering department. They upgraded the RAM to 12 GB (yes - they used 3 sticks of 4 GB each!) and threw a Quadro 600 in, and turned us loose on them.
We usually have a 4-year lifespan for our workstations.
All of the i3's were gone within 6 months, replaced with the machine listed as "work" in my sig line.
Rusty