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Hardware check


DanT

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Hi All,

 

Can I just get an idea of peoples opinions relating to the graphical ability of the Geforce GTX 1050Ti (4GB) (mobile version). We're a small team of landscape architects predominately working in top down plan, with a view to produce more site models going forward (we're all very new to VW). 

 

A more remote pattern of working has pushed us towards laptops and my IT refuse to move from Dell as a supplier. I'd read elsewhere that the 'professional' graphics cards (quadro/firepro) don't necessarily provide a great deal of benefit over the markedly cheaper 'gamer' options.

 

The other specs are roughly:  i7-8750H, 16GB RAM, SSD.

 

Is the 1050Ti a reasonable choice. I was hoping for a GTX 1070, but that just isn't an option. How future proofed am I?

 

Thanks,

Dan

Edited by DanT
typo
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I can tell you that getting a Quadro is not worth the money.  The gaming graphics cards are the way to go.  Also, with laptops be very sure that you are getting a true dedicated video card and not something "integrated."  And then make sure that your IT configures the laptop so that the video card is actually being used by Vectorworks.  Looking at the Dell website, it looks like you are going to be getting Alienware.  

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Thanks for the reply Grant.

 

It's a shame the Alienware designs are so ugly, with enormous screen bezels.  I was hoping to get an XPS, but they cap out the graphics with the 1050Ti (hence my query about how future proofed it would be). Would you recommend 32GB RAM, or should the 16GB suffice?

 

Dan

 

 

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I do see some xps laptops, it looks like they may have revamped their line a bit.  Last time I spoke with Dell, as soon as I wanted to get a truly discrete video card, the sales rep told me that only the Alienware line did that.  I would always get the most RAM I could afford, you'll never regret it.  

 

Maybe the G3 line?

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/g-series-15-3579-laptop/dncwgf423s?ref=1689_koa_title

 

If you are only doing top down stuff that might be sufficient.  

 

Yes, the Alienwares are a bit adolescent looking!  

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I have an XPS laptop purchased a couple of years ago with NVIDIA GeForce GT750M.  Works great.  I believe the XPS 13 will not accept the external video card, but the XPS 15 will.  It also has the integrated Intel card, you have to select the discrete (go to the Control Panel/Device Manager) adaptor to get VW to work well.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Hi.

 

Just to say that I bought a New XPS15 9570 (Core i9-8950HK Processor, 32GB Ram, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti) the other week, sadly it isn't living up to my expectations, Vectorworks is running very slowly, terrible re-draw times and generally slow graphics performance, I have now seen a couple of people mention the way in which the NVIDIA card works basically passing through the integrated intel card, It seems that this is either not a feature that Vectorworks supports or just doesn't work very well.

 

Any thoughts, I am on the cusp of returning it and getting the equivalent (if somewhat overpriced) Mac equivalent.

 

Keith

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25 minutes ago, Bas Vellekoop said:

@kduncan

 

You could check in the Nvidia control panel if VW is using the gti or the intergrated graphics card. I have a xps 9560 and so far no big problems with opengl or redraws.

Forcing VW to use the Nvidia card helped in my case allot.

 

Hi Bas.

 

i have got as far as I can make out (I am new to Windows from Mac) all the Nvida setting set for Vectorworks, but still having terrible performance, barely better than my 4 year old MacBook. What settings have you got? I am beginning to appreciate the apple strangle hold on hardware from a reliability point of view of not a cost one. 

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Is that a desktop dell system?  Check to see what you have plugged your monitor into.  I thought my new rig was pretty junky until I realized that I hadn't plugged the monitor into the actual video card, but some other hdmi port on the back of my computer.  Since the video card didn't have any hardware to detect, it was never running.  

Also, run your vectorworks as an administrator.

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Pete.

 

That is what my settings look like.

 

I have tried many combinations but still the performance is no better than my 4 year old MacBook, possibly worse, getting Black screens and spinning blue circles when creating or moving new viewports in sheet views. I am still running VW 2018 as I don't want to risk 2019 on the project I am working on currently.

 

 

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It doesn't make sense.  Bear in mind that I have not moved past 2017, even though I have licenses for 2018 and 2019, fearing the same kind of risk.  (NNA, are you listening to the level of distrust expressed by many?)  All the same, I would suspect some kind of anomaly.  Perhaps Jim or someone at NNA can take a look at your file and attempt to run it on one of their machines.  One thing I would look at based on your most recent comment:  updating Renderworks viewports can take significant time, and if your file settings or actions are triggering unwanted viewport updates, maybe that is the cause of your performance problem.

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Im Happy for someone to have a look. It could just be my lack of Windows knowledge, but I have been taking advice from colleagues who are windows veterans, All I am trying to do are some Spotlight 3D Viewports with 3D Lebel Legends, and some Top / Plan viewports. having use Vectorworks for around 10 years this performance is definitely below par.

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My XPS has a GT 750M, which is benchmarked way lower than your GTX1050ti.  And I have no noticeable performance problem.  It renders slower than my desktop because of the lower number of parallel processors, but otherwise is fine.  Bear in mind that I don't use Spotlight objects - but it doesn't sound right that you should have that level of performance issues with your setup.

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I always found it useful to check the 'GPU activity icon' to identify if the Nvidia card is actually kicking in when you launch. There should not be a problem with those specs.

You could try a clean install of the drivers, or even an older/known good one?

 

Others have suggested:

 

There's two things to do.(steps 4, and 5)

1. Open NVIDIA control panel.
2. Manage 3D settings
3. Global settings tab
4. Power Management Mode settings, select "Prefer Maximum Performance"
5. Preferred Graphic Processor settings, change from "Auto select" to "High Performance NVIDIA Processor"

These settings should use your NVIDIA GTX card for most, but not all programs
.

 

Hope that helps.

D

ss.png

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Yeah - I agree! I did in fact install the GTX1050ti as per a recommendation.

Its hard to explain the problem, just a general 'fluffyness' & slowness. I use other 3D modelling software with no issues.

The best illustration is if I place a locus point on a drawing, with the setting on 'best for performance' everything is good but the locus lines disappear if the locus itself is off the screen. With the setting on 'Good performance & compatibility' lines appear as they should, but it's a bit clunky. & set to 'best compatibility' its nice & quick, but lines are woolly.

Its all bearable really, but its no real improvement on previous setups on less capable machines. - And again I'm only talking 2D cad here!

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  • 4 weeks later...

I finally solved the issue, I bought an almost identical specification MacBook Pro and the problem went away. The dell after some intervention by their Tech Support team who couldn't figure out what the issue was has headed back to Dell land. I guess there is something to be said of the closed loop Mac environment, Developers can actually tune software to work within a know range of variables.

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