How many of you would like to take a dip in a pool of GPU’s? No? Something about pain? No worries. Greg Corke from Devlop3D takes a look at How to Buy a Graphics Card for SolidWorks in the next issue of Develop3D.
Instead of feeling like your jumping into deep, unknown waters, he lays out specifics that affect 3D performance and highlights what to look when considering a graphics card for your workstation. Here are some highlights…
Choosing a graphics card for SolidWorks is not a straightforward process. It depends entirely on the types of models you work with and how you wish to view them. In all scenarios, start off with the fastest GHz CPU you can afford.
Some points he discusses about what affects 3D performance:
- Realview
- Large Assembly Mode
- Vertex Buffer Objects
- Frame Rates
- CPU Speed
When displaying a model, geometry data doesn’t have to be moved back and forth over the PCI Express bus, as has traditionally been the case. This helps minimise the instances when the GPU has to wait for the CPU (as it is often tied up with other tasks) and as a result can boost realtime 3D performance.
There’s also a pleasant comparison of 8 different cards with frame-rate data and GPU info.
I need a quick guide like this. As many of you may be, I’m considering the next hardware upgrade. While I typically stay with one vendor, it’s nice to see what else is available, not to mention learning about what’s important when looking at a GPU for a very specific use.
Disclosure: I write a monthly column in Develop 3D and occasionally have drinks with the editor, Al Dean. I’ve never meet Greg, although I hear he has amazing balance.
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Does SolidWorks take advantage of multiple GPUs? Would the Tesla do well for SolidWorks?
SolidWorks won't benefit from Tesla (Cuda) yet, and it might never, but if it does it is likely to be in simulation or rendering. To date virtually all Cuda developments are in specialist software applications for finance, science, medical and CAE. For fear of some shameless promotion for Develop3D, and I apologise if this is poor form, but there's also an article about this very subject (Cuda (Tesla), OpenCL and its relevance to CAD/CAM/CAE) in the July/August edition.
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Thank you Greg. I have been looking for an article on this subject. Luckily, I already read Develop3D.
For a low end user could a NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M be used? I wll be in school and the laptop i have has this one installed, As i understand it i might have problems with rendering and having multiple windows open but it should work fine. Any comments to back up my assumption? I will be a light user.
For a low end user could a NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M be used? I wll be in school and the laptop i have has this one installed, As i understand it i might have problems with rendering and having multiple windows open but it should work fine. Any comments to back up my assumption? I will be a light user.
Hi, first it strikes me as funny that you note someone's balance during drinks, is this because you like to drink a bit on the heavy side, however all is forgiven if you're a drunkard 3-D CAD Engineer or user, this is definitely forgivable because we all could have been other things but chose this.
I am also building a new CAD system and looking at answers for the most cost effective ways of doing this and not just to be pumping in a bunch high-cost hardware so as to boast about the quark-speed-of-light of my computer and the astronomical expense
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