How fast is your Inventor PC really?

[Raider_71]

Hi guys,

We have had to do some testing on a bunch of Inventor PC's recently to determine which of the PC's needs to be replaced. Obviously we needed to find out which of the PC's are the worst eprformers as there was only budget to replace 50% of the design PC's. So we thought the Darwin theory will come in handy right... 🙂

Anyways I started searching on the net for toppics on how to benchmark an Inventor PC. Then I thought whats the point of using gaming benchmark tools because Inventor is not a game and there are more aspects than just graphics performance when it comes to percieved performance on an Inventor PC right.

So we decided to create our own Inventor benchmark tool which tests various aspects of an Inventor PC to give us an overview of our PC's performance. This then helped us make a decision as to whcih pc's to replace.

We have made the tool available free of charge to anyone interested in checking how their PC stacks up to their peers or friends. 🙂

Please download it here and post your results here as well if you want. Would be interesting to see what beast workstations are out there.

I would like to say thanks to Kirk #karthur1, for helping in testing the app.

Please feel free to send any suggestions our way. There is an email link in the app.

Download and Install

The application will work with Inventor 2014 to 2016 only.

IMPORTANT: After installation there will be an Inventor Bench icon on your desktop that looks like this: 

My resluts:

HP Elitebook 8560w with an SSD upgrade.

[Neil_Cross]

@Anonymous Your results are fascinating, asides from the 4k resolution you're running a similar system to me and although your CPU scores are in the same ballpark when I OC to 4.8GHz, I wouldn't have expected to see 60fps on your visual scores.  When I ran my resolution at 3440x1440 which is close to 4k but obviously not, I only noticed a few FPS drop, nowhere near a 75% drop! Are your graphics drivers old or...? I've no idea what AMD drivers should be used without going and looking.

Another thing to remember is @Anonymous is running a Socket 1151 board which will come with a newer chipset to what we use with the devils canyon 4790K on socket 1150, he'll have faster bus speeds across the board and although the gains will be marginal, the scores are quite marginal 

[Anonymous]

@blackmarket_riot I don't know what it's overy clocked too I just picked the parts for my budget and ordered it from scan. I don't know enough about computer yet to be building one. Next time I switch it on ill have a look

[salariua]

Hi Pieter,

I am running 1.2.1.0 and I still have a Microsoft .NET Framework error:

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentException: The parameter is incorrect. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070057 (E_INVALIDARG))
at System.RuntimeType.ForwardCallToInvokeMember(String memberName, BindingFlags flags, Object target, Int32[] aWrapperTypes, MessageData& msgData)
at Inventor.DisplayOptions.set_MinimumFrameRate(Double Param)
at Inventor_Bench.frmMain.subDoGraphicsTest()
at Inventor_Bench.frmMain.barRunBenchmarks_ItemClick(Object sender, ItemClickEventArgs e)
at DevExpress.XtraBars.BarItem.OnClick(BarItemLink link)
at DevExpress.XtraBars.BarItemLink.OnLinkClick()
at DevExpress.XtraBars.BarButtonItemLink.OnLinkAction(BarLinkAction action, Object actionArgs)
at DevExpress.XtraBars.ViewInfo.BarSelectionInfo.UnPressLink(BarItemLink link)
at DevExpress.XtraBars.Ribbon.Handler.BaseRibbonHandler.OnUnPressItem(DXMouseEventArgs e, RibbonHitInfo hitInfo)
at DevExpress.XtraBars.Ribbon.Handler.BaseRibbonHandler.OnMouseUp(DXMouseEventArgs e)
at DevExpress.XtraBars.Ribbon.Handler.RibbonHandler.OnMouseUp(DXMouseEventArgs e)
at DevExpress.XtraBars.Ribbon.RibbonControl.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at DevExpress.Utils.Controls.ControlBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at DevExpress.XtraBars.Ribbon.RibbonControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

[salariua]

We have disabled Hyper Threading in BIOS but my HP Z620 Workstation with disabled Graphic Test (get the .Net error) looks like this:

I have noticed that the video driver is not detected correctly. The DameWare Development Mirror Driver is got to do with the IT security corporate policy I think?!?

A list of enabled add-ins should be included as well as if the computer needs to login into Vault for that increases the start up time.

Not sure if windows appearance will affect this, for example aero them vs classic theme and what version of directx we are using.

Edit:

Just noticed that the hardware settings are: Conservative / Compatible !!!!!

[Anonymous]

So I had a little time yesterday to play around with overclocking.  I don't like to do this because this isn't my personal PC and I'm not too comfortable with it.  But I did get slightly better results.  So I only went to 3.8 because I got scared.  

My monitor currently runs at 2560x1440 so I tested on this resolution as well as 1920x1080.

My original results:

3.8ghz @ 2560x1440

3.8ghz @ 1920x1080

I just noticed that the App Window Res reports an incorrect value on my 1080 test.  I don't know why that is, my resolution was changed...

[Anonymous]

Hi 

So I just tried this one. Very nice of you sharing it, thanks!

I'm using a Dell Precision M4800 computer. I have an onboard graphic card "Intel HD Graphics 4600" and a second one "Nvidia Quadro K2100M"

From this test it says my "Graphic Card Information" is the Onboard Intel card. Does this mean that my Inventor is running on that card or does it just display it? 

Cause I think I've configuerated so Inventor should use the second card. Someone that can help me? 

[salariua]

I think we should run the test 3 tims or so because there seems to be discrepancies between tests.

FYI: Pieter,  I have disabled DameWare in Device Manager and it still shows up as the graphics card Name.

Restarted the system and started fresh.

Chainging to Performance from Conservative/Compatibility increased my CPY intensive test results by 2 seconds.

Model save time increased ~5 seconds from 13.3 to 18.

Are you guys using Vault Login beacuse you seem to have 3-5 seconds for warm start and i have 41 !!!.

 @Raider_71 I think it woud be useful have a send results button and for someone to collect and process this , even if it's on a simple cloud drive shared spreadsheet.

[Neil_Cross]

@Anonymous I think the program caches and reports the state of the system when it was opened, if you change the resolution or even Inventors hardware tab settings, it'll still show the old value until you close the bench tool and reopen.  

[Anonymous]

We have Vault here, but I disabled the auto-login so it doesn't pop up on start up...

[Anonymous]

Thanks @Neil_Cross, that does explain it.  I just changed the resolution without closing any windows down...

[salariua]

Having 2 monitors must affect the video ram available and especially if you have a high resolution wallpaper instead of solid color.

We should recommend testing this on single monitor, on a common resolution that will allow tests on old computers or small screen laptops.

[Neil_Cross]

@salariua My tests had been done on a PC with Vault installed but the auto-login wasn't enabled, I would suspect that Pieter has factored this into the test, strictly speaking Inventor has already 'opened' before the Vault login appears so the test should have time stamped that result before the Vault login.  Regarding the dual monitors, I could be wrong but I can't imagine that an idle desktop being sent to a second display device would consume enough GPU power to handicap this test in any way.  That's something I can easily test as I run three screens but I can't see it making any significant difference.

@Anonymous The Intel HD Graphics is the graphics processor built into the i7 CPU that you have, the laptop can only run off one GPU so that one should be idle.

[Raider_71]

Hi Guys,

Yes the app populates the info you see on app startup as @Neil_Cross suggests. I will look at updating that value on running the bench instead of starting up only.

I will look into the crash issue for @salariua. I am also not sure how Damware works but it may have reconfigured your graphics system and even though you stop the service its already done what it needs to do to work duringthe install. Dont really know the software and also not sure what the effect of having it installed would be. 

One of the things I am going to build in soon as well is to do an extensive test ( maybe run all tests three or four times) and only represent the best values. e.i. the values where the tests performed the best and with the least interference from external services and processes. I have found a small bug which could effect graphics performance. I do suggest, when running the bench, that you close all other running apps and also to move your mouse off the screen and to not use your mouse or keyboard during the testing. What I have picked up is that if by accident you have your mouse on the model before the graphics test starts, that Inventor might prehighlight some geometry just before the test starts and then spin the model with the geometry highlighted. This effects the results. Anyway I have disabled input prior to the test starting so this should not happen anylonger. Will upload a new build later.

[salariua]

Pieter, the error cleared out once I've restarted the system. I had 1.1 installed, then removed it installed 1.2 and only when I restarted the computer the graphics test worked.

Vault is definitely kicking in because I can see the login window while the part is being created in the background.

[salariua]

BTW: Forgot to mention that antivirus here it's been setup to ignore Inventor and AutoCAD file extensions. Not sure if Inventor and AutoCAD have been added to trusted applications. antivirus is password protected so can't verify.

[karthur1]

---

@salariua wrote:

Hi Pieter,

I am running 1.2.1.0 and I still have a Microsoft .NET Framework error:

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentException: The parameter is incorrect. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070057 (E_INVALIDARG))
at System.RuntimeType.ForwardCallToInvokeMember(String memberName, BindingFlags flags, Object target, Int32[] aWrapperTypes, MessageData& msgData)
at Inventor.DisplayOptions.set_MinimumFrameRate(Double Param)
at Inventor_Bench.frmMain.subDoGraphicsTest()
at Inventor_Bench.frmMain.barRunBenchmarks_ItemClick(Object sender, ItemClickEventArgs e)
....

---

Adrian,

I see this same error when I change the Minimum Frame Rate in Tools>App options, Display tab.  The error comes up when it starts to do the idw tests (I think).   If I have this set to 0.00 then I dont get this error.

Try changing it to 0.0 and see if it works.

Kirk

[Raider_71]

Hi @karthur1

I will look into that and sort out. I think I know what the issue is. Will fix and upload new version later.

[Neil_Cross]

Just as a side note, that minimum frame rate option being set to 0 *could* massively distort the results for the visual frame rate test, just in case anyone else decides to try it.  Setting that to 0 forces Inventor to draw all objects on screen at all times even when their system can't handle the load, so people with lower spec systems could see their FPS drop not only on the test but on their real work if they leave it at 0.

[Raider_71]

Hi @Neil_Cross

The app sets the value back to the original value after doing the graphics testing.

[Neil_Cross]

@Raider_71