Hi All,
Please forgive my ignorance of graphics cards but the card recommended by Autodesk for running Inventor is
"MS Direct3D 11 capable or higher; 512 MB or equivalent"
...and the quotes I got for computers list
2 GB NVIDIA Quadro K2000 (2DP and 1DVI-I) (2DP-DVI and 1DVI-VGA adapter) in the desktops
and
AMD FirePro M5100 w/2GB GDDR5 in the laptops
The provider "assures" me that these meet the spec but I just don't know. Can someone please shed some light and pull me out of the dark?
TIA,
Sal
Solved! Go to Solution.
Solved by mcgyvr. Go to Solution.
Both are directX 11 and both are 2GB which is > 512mb
both "should" be just fine..
Either card will do just fine, but they're both really overkill in terms of price.
Get a mid-grade or high-end gaming card. It'll be a LOT cheaper than the Quadro or FirePro, and it will handle Inventor just as well.
nVidia gaming cards of the current numbering scheme tend to have 3-digit model numbers, with some letters afterwards. If you're looking at nVidia, look for a card with number XY0, where X is a number 6 or higher and Y is a number 5 or higher. (e.g., 650, 760, etc.)
ATI cards are named as Radeon HD with some numbers afterwards. Look for a card there with the number XYZ0, where X is a number that's 4 or higher, Y is a number 7 or higher, and Z is a number 5 or higher. (e.g., 4870, 6850, 7770, 7950, etc.)
I'm using almost 6-year-old Radeon HD 4870's in my workstation at home (current up to date CPU / RAM / SSD though) and they're keeping up just fine with Inventor 2014 and even most games that I feel like playing at 1080p.
Rusty
@Anonymous wrote:
I don't recommend the gaming cards, we went that way first and burned a few out, and the workstation cards hugely outperform them in CAD as far as I could tell. I've been really happy with the AMD Firepro V5900 (can be found for around $400). We've been running these for 2.5 years. I couldn't justify the extra dollars for the Quattro with the same specs for triple the price. Here's a great list of workstation cards and specs: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=95
Depends entirely on what you're doing with them.
Inventor uses Direct3D, not OpenGL. The gaming cards will give you better performance at a far lower price-point with Direct3D applications. If you're burning up a graphics card using Inventor, then you've got some sort of hardware issue other than simply having a gaming card.
Think about it: these things are made for nerds in their mom's basement to have marathon sessions pushing demanding games. Running Inventor for 8 or 10 hours at a time shouldn't push you very hard. I see core temperatures and fan speeds on my card go higher with even older games - Portal, Half Life 2, Empire: Total War, that sort of thing - than I do with Inventor.
Rusty
The workstation cards are more designed for the visualation crowds, with extra features that enable them to do things like GPU rendering and real-time on screen work. In order to do that they include more robust cooling systems. That means they perform better when dumped into an ordinary box system. You dump a high-end gaming card into an off-the-shelf box you may very well have cooling problems, as they aren't designed for the air flow required. Gaming boxes have much better air flow and usually come with an extra fan or two which dramatically improve heat removal. Both of those are necessary for the high-end hardware.
I used to work at a VFX shop and we used a LOT of different cards. This is my experience:
I've had better luck with Nvidia drivers than ATI/AMD.
Quadro cards are far too expensive for NO performance gain. They can burn out too. The only reason for them is that gaming cards are artificially hobbled in their OpenGL and CUDA performance so Nvidia can overcharge for "Pro" cards. Inventor doesn't as yet use either OpenGL or CUDA as far as I know.
Gaming cards have a very wide range of quality of manufacturing and power consumption/cooling.
Some gaming card do run very hot and or loud so look for something that doesn't. Look for something a bit more conservative and it'll still vastly outperform a Quadro of similar price. Look at the number of cores, and memory bandwidth of each card to compare. If it does fail, you can replace it about 6 times for the price of 1 Quadro.
However, some IT departments believe the Nvidia propoganda so they won't go with anything else so you're stuck. A good performing Quadro is a crazy price unfortunatetly for what you get. I currently have to use a Quadro K2000 and it's very quiet and low power consumption but performance is very lack luster.
Yep, exactly. I would however note that Inventor USED to use OpenGL, but moved to D3D sometime back pre-2008. Not sure exactly when, though.
My company bought me a really sweet Quadro ... 600. Because, y'know, it's workstation class. And I've got a workstation. So obviously that's better, right?
Too bad that it's really just a GeForce GT430 (available for <$30, if you shop around a little) with enhanced OpenGL performance that Inventor doesn't use.
Rusty
gaming cards, i.e. GEForce cards do NOT work with Inventor. Thye do not handle the metagraaphicss. CAD cards need to - gaming cards do not need to.
@Anonymous wrote:gaming cards, i.e. GEForce cards do NOT work with Inventor. Thye do not handle the metagraaphicss. CAD cards need to - gaming cards do not need to.
I've never had any issue with any GEForce cards running Inventor.
Everyone I've ever used has far outperformed any of the "Autodesk certified" cards.
Right now I'm running a GEForce GTX770 in my Alienware laptop and it easily outperforms any of the desktops we have in the office. (especially when rendering in Studio).
@Anonymous wrote:
gaming cards, i.e. GEForce cards do NOT work with Inventor. Thye do not handle the metagraaphicss. CAD cards need to - gaming cards do not need to.
Rubbish...
Geforce user here (on multiple computers).. Works just fine with Inventor.
@Anonymous wrote:
gaming cards, i.e. GEForce cards do NOT work with Inventor. Thye do not handle the metagraaphicss. CAD cards need to - gaming cards do not need to.
Sorry, you have no idea what you're talking about.
Rusty
Well thats nice for ytou, we have had a number of problems over timne with GE Force cardss and Invnetor but no problems with nVidia
I am already sorry for getting dragged into this but LT is right. Go for direct3D video cards.
Get one of the GeForce in the list starting from the top down.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
See this test in TomsHardware (never mind that it's testing AIP 2013)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-7.html
I've got a Quadro K5000 and it's rubbish but that's my own opinion, besides take a look at this forum and see what are the Expert Elite members using for day to day, this has been answered before.
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