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Management is considering buying us new graphics cards. We've been running OpenGL cards (I have a FirePro V5900 currently). I remember reading that these are no longer recommended for Inventor users, that we should be using Direct X based gaming cards now. I've been asked my opinion on a GeForce GTX 1050. I haven't kept up on graphics hardware lately, does anybody care to share their opinion/experience on this card with me? Do you have another card that you would recommend?
Thanks!
Mike (not Matt) Rattray
Tagging @Neil_Cross on this one.
I can't really comment other than saying that we've been using gaming cards for many years now without issues.
Currently using a GeForce GTX 670, so that's a bit older. my laptop has a geforce 900 something mobile series which also works fine.
I guess for people to give a better indication if it will suffice, you'll need to give a bit more detail on what you'll be doing with it.
If it's only for inventor, or do you use other software that might still benefit from OpenGL, that sort of stuff.
At the moment, for example, there seem to be some issues with the newest geforce cards not being fully supported in 3DS Max for GPU rendering...
Hope you can get the info you need. 
I've been dealing with time ..
I have the Asus GTX1070 Strix ..and LOVE IT!
I haven't had any issues, crashes etc with it. I've been doing AutoCAD, ACAD LT, Revit, Fusion and Inventor 2015-17 on it. Rendering, etc
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Mike Davis
The 1050 will function but it's the cheapest and most weak card on the market. Inventor doesn't scale in visual performance with graphics card power but I still wouldn't be buying the cheapest card on the market to run 3D CAD in a business. The 2GB video RAM is probably what will get you first so look at the 1050Ti or the 1060 3GB if price is a factor to consider. But honestly, I haven't tested a V5900 but looking at the specs I wouldn't expect to see much of a gain at all in going from that to a entry level gaming card in Inventor. If you're currently experiencing performance issues I would reckon the issue lies elsewhere in the system
Just bear in mind those are charts based on synthetic benchmarks and bears no resemblance to how Inventor will use a GPU
I also built a system with the GTX1060 Strix too ..and that's been great so far too
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Mike Davis
How many do you need to get? If its in the dozens, even a little savings on the entry-level card can add up. If the budget can handle it, I second the recommendation of a mid-range card. Gives you a little more capability to handle any more advanced features that may come out in the next couple of years.
The term "gaming card" should probably be dropped at this point. Aside from negative connotations with management (and bean counters), its really not an accurate description. They are as capable with the most commonly used features, and even some of the less commonly used ones.
Quadro/Tesla cards are making a bit of a comeback - Mental Ray rendering, and ReMake local construction, are both examples of where serious comparisons are required.
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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.
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.
@dgorsman wrote:
How many do you need to get? If its in the dozens, even a little savings on the entry-level card can add up. If the budget can handle it, I second the recommendation of a mid-range card. Gives you a little more capability to handle any more advanced features that may come out in the next couple of years.
The term "gaming card" should probably be dropped at this point. Aside from negative connotations with management (and bean counters), its really not an accurate description. They are as capable with the most commonly used features, and even some of the less commonly used ones.
Quadro/Tesla cards are making a bit of a comeback - Mental Ray rendering, and ReMake local construction, are both examples of where serious comparisons are required.
+1
Thank you to everybody for your comments, they're all very helpful.
@dgorsman I think we're really only looking for 2 at this time. We have more users, but the rest of them do pretty basic work and are fine with the hardware they have.
We usually only have issues if we're trying to work with complex geometries or moderate to large assemblies.
Here's a quick example that gives me some lag and chop when I try to rotate or zoom (I would consider this moderately large for what we typically do):
Here's my system specs:
Inventor 2016.2.2 build 236
Windows 10
Dell Precision T5600
Intel Xeon: 3.3GHz x 4 Cores
32 GB RAM
The other user that we're shopping for a card for is using a comparatively lower powered system and complains a lot (and I've seen it myself) about poor performance. He's using the same version Inventor/Windows as me but on a Dell Optiplex 990 w/ 8GB ram (I'm not sure what processor he has, but I want to say it's an i5). I suppose I'm not entirely convinced that it's a graphics issue, but I can't imagine the weak link being elsewhere in our systems.
Mike (not Matt) Rattray
Our controller (who doubles as IT) came by to talk to me about. Apparently, he has a GT 610 (1GB). Also, I learned he still has HDD's (I thought he had been upgraded to SSD's). So, we agreed to order him some more RAM, SSD's, and GTX 1050Ti. Depending on how that works out for him we'll see whether to order a second 1050Ti for me or if we need something more.
Thank you, everybody, for your help.
Thank you, everybody, for your help.
Mike (not Matt) Rattray
Exactly which Xeon is it? The T5600 has the Intel C600 chipset which means I think you'll have the E5-2670v0 Xeon? That's really old now, so regardless of the 3.3GHz you'll probably be bottlenecked by that more than anything else as it's an old architecture. I honestly don't think you'll see much of a performance improvement from a newer GPU but it can't help to rule it out. But pan/zoom/orbit is CPU load not GPU, there's almost no load on the GPU at any point during the use of Inventor.
@Neil_Cross wrote:
But pan/zoom/orbit is CPU load not GPU, there's almost no load on the GPU at any point during the use of Inventor.
I would have never guessed that, but I did just verify it by watching task manager while spinning a model. Are there any activity in Inventor that does load the GPU?
Device manager confirms the C600 chip set, but lists an E5-2643.
Mike (not Matt) Rattray
Ah OK, that's the one that turbos to 3.5GHz I was thinking of the one that boosts to 3.3GHz.
Don't get me wrong they're absolutely not terrible by any stretch, it's a fine system for most jobs but that CPU is now 5 years old and is likely where the bottleneck is at. It's still a hyperthreaded 4 core Xeon running at 3.5GHz, I just don't think you're going to get any kind of meaningful gain on what you're working on by buying in a new GPU.
A good low level test to compare against others would be to run the Inventor Bench on your PC, see where you're at with that. I would suspect your system would come in somewhere between 5-7 range. Not sure if you've seen the thread on here, it's a canny big one, the download for the benchmark tool is here http://www.mgfx.co.za/software/tools-for-inventor/
Hi! This is Inventor forum so I am not entirely sure if the discussion here would be relevant to AutoCAD LT 2018. Graphics behaviors can be confusing and hard to debug. Sometimes it is the graphics card related but sometimes it can be the setting related. It is hard to tell what is causing the problem without seeing it and trying it.
Just from a logical standpoint, it may be better if the two monitors are running on the same resolution. Try changing your laptop resolution to the same as the secondary monitor. Does it work better? I am not advocating you to buy a 4K monitor. You might want to do some testing in a hardware store. Bring your laptop to a local store and try hooking up with a 4K monitor and set the same resolution as your laptop. I am just curious if the problem would go away if the two monitors are on the same resolution.
Many thanks!
Johnson Shiue (johnson.shiue@autodesk.com)
Software Test Engineer
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