Video Card upgrade for VW

[JHEarcht]

VW2008 on Windows XP

Katie

Since graphics cards and drivers are blamed for many of the lockups, crashes, and bizarre behaviors in VW, has NNA done any testing so they can recommend video card upgrades? AutoCAD has a list of "certified" cards on their website. Perhaps a list of cards to avoid would be helpful.

I currently have a four-year-old ATI FireGL card (+/- $500) which was designed specifically for AutoCAD. But my experience has been poor in situations that are very demanding for the graphics card. My research so far has found several posters who have also had problems with ATI cards. In any case, I'm ready for a change. I'd still like to have a card with Open GL capabilities, but as an individual, non-corporate purchaser, I'd rather not pay the excessive upcharge over ordinary game cards.

Does NNA or individual Techs have any recommendations?

[brudgers]

Nemetchek's position:

http://kbase.nemetschek.net/index.php?ToDo=view&questId=122&catId=23

The difference between a CAD card and a game card is explained here:

http://www.nvidia.com/attach/1006974?type=support&primitive=0

VW uses the GPU for printing opengl renderings so accuracy is important if you are presenting opengl renderings on paper.

The big difference between the cards is in the drivers. Part of the cost of a quadro fx is the driver customization that's done for specific applications.

[JHEarcht]

Thanks for the info. The NNA position is similar to the ACAD recommendations.

Buying a video card online is extremely frustrating! I found the same new-in-the-box nVIDIA Quadro FX3000 for sale at a high price of $1,500 and a low price of $257. What's the difference? I have been unable to determine why one seller wants six times as much money.

On the nVIDIA website I clicked on the FX3000 AGP product comparison and was taken to a page with FX3500 and 3700 PCI products. Cards for the PCI bus are much cheaper than the 8 times as fast AGP bus. Could the advertised FX3000 noted above actually be a mid-range PCI card instead of an "extreme workstation" AGP card???

[Ray Libby]

Depends on what flavor PCI. PCI express is much faster than AGP.

[G_Hannigan]

Couldn't find a listing for FireGL S500, the only reference to this number was for the driver. What bus type is in the computer (AGP, PCI, PCI Express)? The slots are physically different. There are also a number of users having problems with the VW/Nvidia combo.

Edited February 8, 2008 by G_Hannigan

[Ray Libby]

What problems are there with Nvidia?

[brudgers]

JHE,

You can probably find a deal on AGP graphics cards because AGP has been replaced by PCIe on most new machines.

Here's a list of models and basic specs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadro_FX

The newer quadro cards have flexible shaders rather than some dedicated to triangles and others dedicated to pixel textures.

[G_Hannigan]

What problems are there with Nvidia?

Ray,

I probably should have worded that differently. In the threads regarding screen flicker, I noticed that many of the posts were from users with various Nvidia cards. I have not had this problem with my ATI card & suggested checking Nvidia drivers as a possible cause.

George

Edited February 8, 2008 by G_Hannigan

[michael john williams]

The flicker was kind of resolved by removing older versions of VW which updating versions of VW did not delete or overirde.

Also the object info pallette has to kept fully open.

Do not think flicker was a card related problem.

[G_Hannigan]

mw,

I see you have an ATI card & have faced this problem for some time. So much for my theory! How did you ever narrow it down to the (partial?) solution you describe?

[Steve Z]

I wish I would have tried removing old versions of VW before purchasing a new video card.

One of our computers had a NVIDIA GeForce2 MX card which I replaced with a RADEON 9200 MAC EDITION because VW2008 was flickering. This did solve the problem but maybe it was not the right solution.

[michael john williams]

I am sure NNA considered me a bit of a pest, but for us this was a major problem, and it was resolved working with NNA over several months. They certainly put the time in to identify and resolve it.

Hopefully, in future, upgrades will over right or delete old versions completly and the OIP can be corrected to not cause the flicker.

To have the OIP fully open all the time is a pain as it takes up at least a third of your screen!