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.

[peter.ensing]

@Anonymous I'm not an expert in this but for what I know dont mind the graphics card to much considering a CAD workstation for Inventor.

You really need to focus on a fast cored CPU (min. 4GHz core speed or boosted core speed), enough RAM (min 32gb), SSD, very fast and stable network if you use a license server. And for a graphics cards most quadro cards will do fine... At home I've got an old GTX 770 and it still runs inventor very well because my CPU runs on 4.2GHz boosted core speed.

[peter.ensing]

@Anonymous can you post a screenshot of the Benchmark score? Your current setup does look like a solid one...

[Anonymous]

Hello!

I think CPU is fine :

Clockspeed: 2.6 GHz
Turbo Speed: 4.3 GHz

Here are the screenshot. And also some CPU mark scores

As shown, it only shows integrated chip for GPU. 

[peter.ensing]

You could try use a standard resolution 1920x1080 and see what it does to the score?

I'm also curious what Inventor 2018 or 2019 would score with your setup. 

[Neil_Cross]

Is that the HP Zbook G5?

I have the exact same laptop here with the same GPU, the score on this test with that laptop should be 11.5 or there abouts and you need to run the test at 1920x1080 as 4K isn't comparable to the other tests done here.

You need to go into the BIOS and disable the on-board Intel HD graphics, you can also do it using the HP Performance Advisor software.  

---

[Anonymous]

---

@Neil_Cross wrote:

Is that the HP Zbook G5?

I have the exact same laptop here with the same GPU, the score on this test with that laptop should be 11.5 or there abouts and you need to run the test at 1920x1080 as 4K isn't comparable to the other tests done here.

You need to go into the BIOS and disable the on-board Intel HD graphics, you can also do it using the HP Performance Advisor software.  

---

---

Yeah, HP Zbook G5. I assumed something like that score too. 

Well thank you! at least the resolution change affected a lot. Now points about 9.5! Still searching how to get rid of the intel HD graphics and check if that affects to points. Windows disable isnt enough? 

[Neil_Cross]

If you can wait an hour or so, I'm currently editing a video together showing how to do it.

Hold tight, I'll put the link here when it's up on the Tube.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help! I already found the way to do it. 
At least it is now showing correct card.
Although, it didn´t improve the results much. 
Best score I got is 9.93. 

We have naviate add-on with inventor, which might slow down - at least as it cant automatically log in (log in screen is on top of inventor when opened) 

[Neil_Cross]

[Neil_Cross]

Close Inventor down, go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion23.0\System\Preferences\GraphicsUtil

Create a Dword 32 key called UseMultiThreading 

Leave the value at 0

Start up Inventor, your graphics score will be nearer 200Hz

If you use Bitdefender, or any anti-virus/security tool, you need to exclude Inventor from being malware/threat scanned.  That can have a huge impact on its performance.

Edit: I just noticed you're running Inventor 2016, our scores will never be comparable as they've made engine enhancements since then which improve performance.  But try that reg setting anyway, I think it was already there in 2016 so change it to 0 from 1.  Your RegistryVersion number will be different, possible 20?

[Anonymous]

---

@Neil_Cross wrote:

Close Inventor down, go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion23.0\System\Preferences\GraphicsUtil

Create a Dword 32 key called UseMultiThreading 

Leave the value at 0

Start up Inventor, your graphics score will be nearer 200Hz

If you use Bitdefender, or any anti-virus/security tool, you need to exclude Inventor from being malware/threat scanned.  That can have a huge impact on its performance.

Edit: I just noticed you're running Inventor 2016, our scores will never be comparable as they've made engine enhancements since then which improve performance.  But try that reg setting anyway, I think it was already there in 2016 so change it to 0 from 1.  Your RegistryVersion number will be different, possible 20?

---

Wow, you really know what to do! Yea, it was registry version 20 and I only changed it to 0. 

Graphics intensive test really went up to 200+. And now scored 10.33. 

I don´t know if it is possible to get out of virus scanners, I mailed to our technical support a question about that. 
We´ll see. 

[Neil_Cross]

Yea I've spent more time than I would even want to admit playing around with computers and testing Inventor, there's currently 8 PC's in my tiny office here all for testing purposes. Mental.
The video is up, I know you've done it already but it's something I was planning on doing already as I found this out a couple of days ago.
https://youtu.be/HE6WA2l-14w

[Mario-Villada]

Neil, that registry tweak is just for the purpose of a better score? or it does increase the performance of Inventor.

Is it ok to leave it like that? shall we delete it after the test?

Thank you so much for all your assistance and collaboration.

[nutral]

I wouldn't recommend turning off the integrated cpu, unless you area always connected to a power supply. Because it has a large negative effect on the battery life.

One of the things that helped me with performance, is using throttlestop to optimize it.

1. You can always undervolt it, especially a new pc, i have set my laptop on -75mv which is conservative .but a lot of people can set it to -125 or 150, this lowers the power consumption and allows the turbo to go higher/longer and lowers the temperatures.
2. Speedshift is often turned off in favor of speedstep. Both are ways the cpu clocks up and down for when it's needed, but speedshift is a lot faster in this. There are also settings for speedshift on the reaction (0-255). I've set it up in throttlestop to 30 on AC and 128 on battery power. This makes the computer also feel faster.
3. In some laptops (looking at the P51 i had). the cpu gets throttled when the gpu is used. So for those it is neccesary to turn of BD PROCHOT.
4. In my case because the cpu is overclockable (8850H) i've set it that the max cpu clock is 4,4ghz and for all 6 cores is 4,2ghz

I would not recommend overclocking or undervolting if you don't know what you are doing.

Changing the BD PROCHOT setting or tweaking the speedshift is a lot more fault proof (because of you make a mistake, the pc just gets slower or louder.)

[Neil_Cross]

---

@nutral wrote:

I wouldn't recommend turning off the integrated cpu, unless you area always connected to a power supply. Because it has a large negative effect on the battery life.

One of the things that helped me with performance, is using throttlestop to optimize it.

1. You can always undervolt it, especially a new pc, i have set my laptop on -75mv which is conservative .but a lot of people can set it to -125 or 150, this lowers the power consumption and allows the turbo to go higher/longer and lowers the temperatures.
2. Speedshift is often turned off in favor of speedstep. Both are ways the cpu clocks up and down for when it's needed, but speedshift is a lot faster in this. There are also settings for speedshift on the reaction (0-255). I've set it up in throttlestop to 30 on AC and 128 on battery power. This makes the computer also feel faster.
3. In some laptops (looking at the P51 i had). the cpu gets throttled when the gpu is used. So for those it is neccesary to turn of BD PROCHOT.
4. In my case because the cpu is overclockable (8850H) i've set it that the max cpu clock is 4,4ghz and for all 6 cores is 4,2ghz

I would not recommend overclocking or undervolting if you don't know what you are doing.

Changing the BD PROCHOT setting or tweaking the speedshift is a lot more fault proof (because of you make a mistake, the pc just gets slower or louder.)

---

I might be on my own here, but buying a $4000+ mobile workstation and holding it back to save on battery is like buying a McLaren P1 and running it in comfort/limp mode 100% of the time to save on petrol.  I didn't get a laptop like that to be concerned about battery life so personally I'm turning off HD graphics every chance I can.

[nutral]

If i want to just drive according to the speed limits in my Mclaren P1, i wouldn't want the gas tank to empty as quick.

By the way, what is the reason you turn it off? If you start inventor it's supposed to switch to the discrete gpu and the integrated gpu is partly turned off. but the display is connected to the integrated gpu, so it will always be a little active.

A lot of engineers do have to use laptops in meetings etc, for that it would be nice to have some battery life.

[Neil_Cross]

Did you see my video? Completely disabling off the onboard CPU graphics boosted Inventors rendering output by nearly 40% even with the system set to use the high performance GPU.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE6WA2l-14w

Granted it was a light synthetic test, but as I said in that video, a massive percentage of the $4000 cost of this laptop is the Quadro P5200, I want to ensure it's used at all times.  I was still getting 2-3 hours of battery life which with a system as powerful as this, I'm not unreasonable, I expect nothing more than that.  Power plan adjustments and screen brightness etc would probably boost that slightly .

On a separate note, I haven't checked but I imagine throttlestop disabling thermal throttling will void a warranty immediately.  I have zero experience with it so I'm not qualified to pass an opinion on how it works but by nature disabling throttling will force a CPU close to or beyond TJ Max, which will seriously damage the internal parts especially in a laptop with everything being so confined.  If you're needing to undervolt the CPU to control that, that's introducing potential instability under load which in my mind is something we buy OEM machines for to avoid in the first place?

Don't get me wrong I'm all for tinkering, I've delidded and used Thermal Grizzly liquid metal on my own custom built desktop but I wouldn't ever entertain messing with a OEM system.  That's just me though.

[nutral]

The BD prochot throttling is not the cpu throttling. It's the motherboard saying to the cpu that it needs to go slower. so the gpu can use more cooling/power.

The problem i had with the Lenovo P51 is that when running in inventor with the gpu, it would immediately throttle the cpu. So the cpu was running at 800mhz even while the temperatures of both the cpu and gpu where very low.

Undervolting is as i said as well, more of a tinkering thing. The voltage the cpu is run at, is determined by the worst case scenario, so with an old pc with the worst VRM setup you can think of. It's only useful in laptops because no one generally minds a little more power use with a desktop.

The new workstations like the lenovo P52 and the hp zbook 15 g5 have some terrible cooling setups, the P52 even has only 1 of the 2 fans connected to the cpu by heatpipes. So for those, it could seriously help (on your own risk!)

[Neil_Cross]

---

@nutral wrote:

The BD prochot throttling is not the cpu throttling. It's the motherboard saying to the cpu that it needs to go slower. so the gpu can use more cooling/power.

The problem i had with the Lenovo P51 is that when running in inventor with the gpu, it would immediately throttle the cpu. So the cpu was running at 800mhz even while the temperatures of both the cpu and gpu where very low.

Undervolting is as i said as well, more of a tinkering thing. The voltage the cpu is run at, is determined by the worst case scenario, so with an old pc with the worst VRM setup you can think of. It's only useful in laptops because no one generally minds a little more power use with a desktop.

The new workstations like the lenovo P52 and the hp zbook 15 g5 have some terrible cooling setups, the P52 even has only 1 of the 2 fans connected to the cpu by heatpipes. So for those, it could seriously help (on your own risk!)

---

Ah OK - I must have found a thread with people talking about it who didn't know what it did.  My mistake.

Still though it sounds very anti-Inventor, why would you want to throttle down the CPU to allow the GPU to breath better when the GPU is usually hugely under-utilised with Inventor? Everything from graphics performance through to load times scales with CPU clock speed so why would you want to lower that for the GPU?

The purpose of disabling the onboard CPU graphics was just to remove that bottleneck and actually use the Quadro, but Inventor still isn't really using much of the Quadro!

[Anonymous]

My opinion this is good now. I will keep integrated disabled, as I think I still can use couple of hours computer on battery. I dont think there will be so long meetings or something that would need more battery life. 
I still mainly use this laptop as plugged in. 

And this is my work computer, so I wouldn´t try to overclock or change voltages. I think that wouldn´t make so much difference and might cause troubles. If this was my own computer, I might try. 

Thank you very much all of your comments! Special thanks to Neil!