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External GPUs


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Has VW been tested with external GPUs?  I know it can not take advantage of dual GPU, so I am wondering how it would Handel a system with a built in 1060max a that is then connected with an 1080ti external?

 

Does the laptop just know to turn off the internal when there is an external connected?

 

Thinking about that new cheaper razor core.

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Hi Tom , I'm not sure I am answering this as I am no techie but I do know I have an nvidea K2000 graphics card (not the original internal pc graphics card) and that it is possible to check which card is being used in the graphics card control panel. See attached. Hope this helps. David

Phys X.JPG

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

We have an eGPU unit in testing now. I can't give details yet as it is a test model we are under NDA regarding, but as soon as I can I will share our experiences.

However so that I don't leave you with nothing: The tech seems very promising, especially so on Windows and when using Nvidia GPUs as the eGPU since they allow easy switching like the example given above.

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Thanks @JimW I dont really know what I'm talking about tbh. Quite bizarre but for 4 months I was unable to view my Nvidea PhysX control panel due to a windows upgrade, but this morning for the first time in a while I was able to access it to ensure my pc is using the correct Graphics card! 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
2 minutes ago, David S said:

Thanks @JimW I dont really know what I'm talking about tbh. Quite bizarre but for 4 months I was unable to view my Nvidea PhysX control panel due to a windows upgrade, but this morning for the first time in a while I was able to access it to ensure my pc is using the correct Graphics card! 


You know more than you may think! The PhysX selection on it's own usually wont do it, but often setting both that AND under Manage 3D Settings, set the Global preferred graphics processor to the eGPU. Sometimes if I only set the preferred GPU it didnt work, but setting both did the trick. 

After we are out of NDA on the eGPU housing model we are currently testing, ill post a kbase article with what I've learned.

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  • 1 month later...
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
12 hours ago, Joshec said:

@JimW has there been any further development on this? thinking of getting an EGPU box for my MacBook pro but wanted to double check if it would assist in any way first.


Not on the official writeup, things have just been busy around here though, not a bad sign or anything related to using eGPUs.

Our core findings:

If you have the eGPU properly configured and the OS is able to recognize your external GPU and run the proper drivers for it, Vectorworks can use that card instead of your internal Intel or older GPU you intend to replace.

I found no issues whatsoever on the Windows side, I was able to specify the direct GPU to use in the OS settings and then Vectorworks treated it like it was natively installed internally. On the Mac side, there were only issues if I tried to use GPUs that weren't officially approved by Apple. If i used one of their approved eGPUs, then they worked exactly as expected and Vectorworks could take advantage of the eGPU over the integrated unit.

Basically, Vectorworks will see an eGPU and utilize it just fine, its only a matter of getting the eGPU properly installed and configured in the first place.

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@JimW Thanks for your feedback and quick response, one last question, do you think moving over to a dedicated EGPU will fix the current issues i have been having with VW2018 and its slowness and lagging in relation to Viewports and rendering in hidden line and open GL (something VW2017 seems to be fine with). i have made comments on previous threads in relation to this and it would appear others are having similar issues despite fairly spec'd out machines with VW2018 struggling on simple tasks processing simple geometry especially when it comes to Clip Cube and Section Viewports. As i am about to start needing to do more complex geometry and need VW's to start responding accordingly I am hoping a dedicated EGPU outside of the Radeon Pro 560 4096 MB that comes inbuilt in the Macbook Pro might do the trick. but it is an expensive path to go down to find it is in the software and not in the hardware.

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1 hour ago, Joshec said:

@JimW Thanks for your feedback and quick response, one last question, do you think moving over to a dedicated EGPU will fix the current issues i have been having with VW2018 and its slowness and lagging in relation to Viewports and rendering in hidden line and open GL (something VW2017 seems to be fine with). i have made comments on previous threads in relation to this and it would appear others are having similar issues despite fairly spec'd out machines with VW2018 struggling on simple tasks processing simple geometry especially when it comes to Clip Cube and Section Viewports. As i am about to start needing to do more complex geometry and need VW's to start responding accordingly I am hoping a dedicated EGPU outside of the Radeon Pro 560 4096 MB that comes inbuilt in the Macbook Pro might do the trick. but it is an expensive path to go down to find it is in the software and not in the hardware.

 

Given where the MacBook Pro you're describing should sit on this hardware chart I think you should investigate other causes with Tech Support. Your machine should be performing pretty well with VW. Maybe there's something about your setup (external displays? multiple view panes? corrupt preferences?) or your file geometry (sweeps with small segment angles? large meshes? corrupt objects?) causing the issues. I've also had slowdowns on my Mac from these items -

  1. SSD too full. It needs more free space than a traditional hard drive to perform properly.
  2. Wireless/bluetooth conflict. When I switched to a wired internet connection in my studio VW behaved a lot better.
  3. Time Machine. Often when VW slows I'll check Time Machine and find its preparing, backing up or cleaning up.
  4. Dropbox syncing. Try not to work on Dropbox or another cloud based drive.

I work with pretty complex files on a much older MacBook Pro (Late 2012) using VW2018 and I'm surprised how well it still performs.

 

An external GPU won't help with hidden line or rendering most Viewports. The bottleneck there is the math/geometry calculations.

 

Kevin

 

Edited by Kevin McAllister
Note about external GPU
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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
15 hours ago, Joshec said:

As i am about to start needing to do more complex geometry and need VW's to start responding accordingly I am hoping a dedicated EGPU outside of the Radeon Pro 560 4096 MB that comes inbuilt in the Macbook Pro might do the trick.


No, if you weren't having issues in 2017 but are in 2018, then most likely more GPU power wont do the trick. External GPUs are a fix for the lame Intel GPUs that are integrated in the lower end Apple products, you would be hard pressed to get a reasonably priced eGPU setup to improve your performance over that Radon 560 eGPU, and since you didn't have the issues in 2017, they likely arent hardware based, as 2017 and 2018 have similar reqs.

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