GPU Update to GTX 970 Worth It?

[Anonymous]

Built my workstation at the end of 2012 and it's been pretty solid.  I am doing more work recently with large (automotive OEM) models and am getting pretty annoyed at the lack of performance in the modeling environment.  If I keep the cursor off the screen I can tumble and move around no problem, but when the cursor is in the window and it's trying to highlight something, it chugs down pretty bad.

My current card is a GTX 670 4GB (Passmark score 5,388).  I'm considering upgrading to a GTX 970 (Passmark score 8,635) for about $350.  I'm fine to spend the money if it will help, but I was curious if any of you have had similar issues and solved with a hardware upgrade, or?

[mcgyvr]

IMO.. Not going to be worth it.. (and I bet you wouldn't notice the difference at all)

IMO.. There is only so much hardware can do to improve Inventor modeling at this point.. 

IMO.. The biggest "issue" is the lack of multi-core/processor functionality in Inventor. 

Have you looked at task manager performance tab during these slow situations you are having?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I have looked at Resource Manager alongside the ASUS GPU Tweak app that shows GPU usage.  CPU usage seems to bump up as a transient, but GPU usage stays high as long as I'm moving around.  I can't really tell which is getting over-taxed as neither ever gets to 100% but the movement of the parts in the model window gets herky-jerky and it becomes challenging to maneuver precisely (I use a 3D mouse like many others).

Appreciate the input, would feel sad if I spent money and time upgrading hardware only to have the same issues.

EDIT: Screenshot attached showing CPU/GPU usage while tumbling/selecting/etc.  During this period, there were 3 or 4 times it "froze" for a second or two - can't see any real trace of that on the charts (at least I can't).

[blair]

You will see an improvement in the Panning/Rotating of the model but as in the other post I doubt if it's worth it for the increase listed. Possibly if you are getting a result that 2X of what you have.

Screen display is a result of the GPU, so possibly this 50% increase may get you over the hump for the price listed. I would be holding out for a faster GPU.

If you are waiting for Constraints to complete, then this is a function of the CPU.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, to get legitimately double the performance (at least benchmark score) you have to step up to the $700+ cards and that seems excessive to wipe out some stutters.

Guess I'll chug along cursing under my breath and wait for the next generation of video cards to come out that will resolve my issue.

[lkrenzler · Accepted solution]

When it bumps and jerks Inventor seems to be re-teslating the geometry (adding or removing detail).  That probably involves transfering data to and from main memory to GPU memory which won't show up on the activity graphs of either.

The highlighting really annoys me too.  It seems to use some kind of overlay that really hits performance.  Just bad programming in that case I think.  I really wish they'd update that.  I get slightly better performance by unchecking "Enable Enhanced Highlighting" in the applications options/Colors menu.  It really is bad though.  Same for any wireframe display.

I don't know of anything that will really help at this point as it probably depends on motherboard bandwidth to the pci slot holding the GPU and the way it's written for the overlays.

That's my guess anyway.

[Anonymous]

Thanks - had not caught the Advanced Highlighting setting.  I unchecked that and it helped a little, but then un-checked "Enable Prehighlight" just above it and that actually seems to have made a more substantial gain.

So, not good but better for now and I can spend the $350 on good Scotch instead!

[lkrenzler]

Haha.  The Scotch might help the most.