Revit Workflow Lagging – PC Slows Down, Need Better Specs?

[eriktoom]

Hello,

I need your advice. I work daily with electrical design in Revit. The projects are large, and we are linking in multiple Revit models. I use grouping extensively (to avoid repeating the same change on each floor or in every typical apartment) etc.

The problem? The computer becomes extremely slow at times. Only when I isolate certain elements (whether it's a model group, an architectural Revit link, etc.) does the model run smoothly. However, when I make a change inside a group and apply it, the system takes a long time to think and update that change across all other groups. The issue actually appears even with the simplest tasks, such as placing detail lines and dimensions (just take a look at the video I uploaded). This is just few examples. Yes, one could say "work in stages" (e.g., unload unnecessary links, etc.), but that's not a real solution — reloading links also takes time. And in reality, I need to see the models from other disciplines at the same time. Also, typical suggestions like "set graphics settings to TOP PERFORMANCE" have all been tried — they don’t help. That’s about as useful as saying:
"If you want to know what it feels like to drive a Ferrari, just set a Ferrari as your desktop background." 

What I expect from forum users here:
Please advise what specifications a computer should have to make the workflow smoother and faster. As far as I understand, not every graphics card guarantees better performance in Revit. My goal is to approach my employer with a specific and informed request — I don’t want this to end with just “buy a new computer” if that won’t actually solve the issue. A few years ago, I consulted with our IT department, and they told me my graphics card was very good and definitely not the problem… well, I’m not so sure. 

My current system specs are:

• CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz

• RAM: 32.0 GB

• SSD: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 250GB

• Graphics card: Nvidia Quadro P2000

Maybe it’s possible to simply replace the graphics card with a new one, and there wouldn’t be a need for a whole new desktop computer?

And just to prove my point, here’s a video – so you know I’m not just complaining for no reason.

[RSomppi]

Have you checked the recommended and minimum specs and compared them to yours?

I'm no expert but your specs look a bit on the low side.

[eriktoom]

Yes I have. Not that I am any expert myself but when looking minimum requirements which are:

1) CPU Type Intel® i-Series, Xeon®, AMD® Ryzen, Ryzen Threadripper PRO. 2.5 GHz or Higher

2) Memory 16-GB RAM

So from my point of view I am exceeding Revit's minimum requirements. There doesn’t seem to be much mention of the graphics card in those requirements either. But that’s exactly why I’m here. I can look at the requirements myself, but as I said, I don’t really know where the bottlenecks are. Maybe someone here has enough experience to say what actually works in practice.

[fabiosato]

Hello,

You can run the benchmark available in www.revitforum.org.

Then you will have a better idea about your hardware computing power.

[blank...]

Also don't forget that Revit is still largely a single core program. So if you have complex models and many of them linked, no matter how much CPU power you throw at it it'll still be of little help since today's CPUs are all about more cores.

[RSomppi]

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@eriktoom wrote:

Maybe someone here has enough experience to say what actually works in practice.

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I've got more than enough experience to know that poor model performance can happen on high end machines. I've also seen large models run well on low end machines. Your issue may not be hardware related. You should do you due diligence and test other unrelated projects and test your current project(s) on other machines.

[HVAC-Novice]

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@RSomppi wrote:

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I've got more than enough experience to know that poor model performance can happen on high end machines. I've also seen large models run well on low end machines. Your issue may not be hardware related. You should do you due diligence and test other unrelated projects and test your current project(s) on other machines.

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That is true, modeling efficiency plays a role. BUT at some point, old hardware is just not worth the hassle. and as a modeler, you also  don't want to disable features, like calculations. or you just need to model in more detail. 

That hardware is ancient and the Revit hardware recommendations are absolutely useless. A 10+ year old i3 would meet those requirements. A modern CPU (AM5 for example) will have much more cache, higher IPC etc. and faster RAM. All that isn't accounted for in the "official Autodesk hardware recommendations". 

I have the same P2000 and it is totally sh$t. I'm constantly maxing out the 5 GB RAM on 4K. You need at least 12GB. that GPU was released in 2017 and was sh$t back then. it didn't age well either. 

[eriktoom]

Sorry for replying so late and thanks for everyone who have answered so far. 

@RSomppi  To me it sounds like it's completely normal for Revit to be slow and take a long time to process things. It gives the impression that there's not much room for improvement when working with it. Not sure that's entirely sure though. If you watched the video I uploaded, you can see that even placing dimension lines is extremely slow.

@HVAC-Novice Absolutely agree that comparing your computer to Revit's minimum system requirements is pretty much pointless. 

@fabiosato I did the Full Standard benchmark test. 

Model creation benchmark TOTAL: 130.45

Render benchmark: 71.51

Graphics - Standard view TOTAL: 31.71

Export benchmark (create PDF all views as raster): 391.87

Of course, the test shows other numbers as well, but those seemed to be the most important summary figures. When I compare them to results on revitforum.org, mine are roughly twice as slow. But can these comparisons really be taken 1:1? I mean, if you look at the video I posted — where placing a single dimension line takes for example 10 seconds — would a comparable machine really do it in 5 seconds? That still seems suspiciously slow to me...

[RSomppi]

I'm not convinced that this is not at least partially related to content. Your video appears to show non-native Revit content, possibly linked into the project or imported. It's not clear if this is the only project that you are working on or if the behavior exists across multiple projects and/or Revit versions.

If this is entirely due to insufficient hardware, the issue is only going to get worse as the model develops.

[RSomppi]

We understand that it's slow.

I mentioned a couple things that can also cause poor model performance and a couple of tests that you can do. Focus on that or just buy a new computer and hope it fixes your issues.

[fabiosato]

Hello,

The value in the model creation of 130 is relatively high, which means a low processing power. I consider 100 or lower a nice range for large models.

You are right about your understanding, better processor means lower waiting time, but on large models the lag will still be noticeable.