Hardware recommendations

[red44]

beau21

How did you go with the Imac? Any news? Just ordered one but worried now about the ATI reviews...

[red44]

Anyone else any ideas on the 4850 ATI card? In the the Imac preferably, but not necessarily...

[archtrot]

We have been dealing with 80MB models in my office lately.
I'm considering buying a couple of computers with the following spec:

Windows 7 64 bit
AMD Athlon 3.5Ghz dual core processor
8 Gb RAM
PNY Quadro 580 with 512 Mb RAM graphics card

I can get this package built for around $2000.
Can I do any better than this without doubling the cost?

[danbig]

Wow--this is a long topic. I made it through about six pages before I jumped here to ask my question:

What is more important for SketchUp: system RAM, or video RAM?

Does anyone have any suggestions for a notebook computer that will do well with larger sketchup files?

[Anssi]

Wow--this is a long topic. I made it through about six pages before I jumped here to ask my question:

What is more important for SketchUp: system RAM, or video RAM?

Does anyone have any suggestions for a notebook computer that will do well with larger sketchup files?

Vram only becomes critical if you use a lot of very large textures. Su is a 32-bit application, so system RAM is not so critical either.

What you should look for in a SU notebook is
- processor speed, number of processor cores is not so important, as SU uses only one
- SU benefits from the TurboBoost feature in the latest Intel multicore processors
- a real graphics card (Nvidia seems still to be more reliable)

[seanheadrick]

Hello,
My father, a long time CAD user was wanting to give SU a try and is having a problem downloading the software. He currently uses Auto Desk on the same laptop, so I found it hard to believe his suggestion that his computer was not capable of running SU was likely. I referenced below his laptop configuration. Could anyone tell me if it seems like he should or should not be able to run SU, and if not what the problem may be. I haven't been able to trouble shoot with him much so I don't know yet if he may just be doing something wrong when installing. I thought I would rule this out first.

Thank you,
Sean


Toshiba Laptop
2.3 GHz
4 GB RAM
235 GB remaining

AMD Turion™ II Dual-Core Mobile Processor M520
AMD M880G Chipset
ATI Radeon™ HD 4200 Graphics with dynamically
allocated shared graphics memory

[thomthom]

The problem is that he can't download it? That would not be due to the hardware.

What problem is it? Incomplete download? Errors?

[Dennis_n]

I'm about to buy a new notebook. I wanted to confirm that for SU productivity buying i-7 CPU vs i-5 is a waste of money. Sony Vaio F series carry i-7 but these laptops are about twice the price of the vaio E series. The principal difference between two laptops is the CPU.
Please, let me know what do you think about i-7 vs i-5 for SU.

[solo]

The i5 has 2 cores and they become 4 threads for rendering, the i7 has 4 cores and 8 threads for rendering. (8 better than 4)

For Sketchup you only need 1 core, a decent GPU and around 4gb ram (can get less), but if you intend rendering, get 8, ooodles of Ram and a new Gen video card.

[Dennis_n]

here is the Vaio E 1,027.01 USD

Intel® Core™ i5-460M Processor 2.53 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.80 GHz
4 GB (2 GB x 2) DDR3 SDRAM*2
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5650 Graphics 1 GB DDR3

here is the Vaio F 2,056.60 USD

Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Processor 1.73 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.93 GHz*1
8 GB (4 GB x 2) DDR3 SDRAM*2 (Max)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 425M GPU 1 GB DDR3

I'm a designer and don't really do renderings. SU is the most demanding application for me.

The added advantage to "F" is that the screen is not glossy and I like the design slightly better. However, forking out a whole grand is hard to justify for "slightly better looks".
So it seems I won't see a difference for the $1000. Also seems like the clock speed of i-7 is slower - does it mean that this particular i-5 would actually be faster?

[Brodie]

Well, you're right that a higher clock speed = better for SU even though it has less cores (since SU only uses 1). However, that TurboBoost should come into play with SU, as it's made for applications which only use 1 core - that puts the F in a slightly better position that the E in terms of processor. But it's so slight in terms of speed, I wouldn't even consider it a factor.

I suspect the quality of those graphics cards is about the same too (without really looking into them at all). The BIG question I'd have on my mind though, is with that ATI card. ATI cards have, traditionally, had a lot of issues with SU for some reason. I'd make sure and find someone using that card with SU before spending the money. PERSONALLY, I'd look for something with similar specs to the E, but with an nvidia card because I've had such poor luck with ATI's playing poorly with SU (you'll see a lot of posts in this thread about ATI). But my experiences and many of the posts are fairly old so it's entirely possible that many/all of those issues have been overcome.

-Brodie

[d12dozr]

Dennis, if you are not set on a Sony, you might like this Asus.

-17.3-inch LED-backlit Full HD display for immersive cinematic experience with resolution up to 1920 x 1080
-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M graphics with 1.5GB DDR5 VRAM for unprecedented DirectX 11 gaming
Intel Core i7-740QM processor with Intel Turbo Boost Technology to automatically boost speed to your task at hand
-SuperSpeed USB 3.0 for quicker device charging and up to 10x faster transfers than USB 2.0
-500GB 7200RPM hard drives and 8GB of DDR3 system memory for smooth computing and ample storage for all your games and media files
-Price: $1,499.99

[Dennis_n]

good specs on this baby.
However, I need it for business. the stealth like design won't fit well on a formal meeting.
there is HP Envy 17. that has
i5-580M (2.66GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.33GHz or pay $450 more for
i7-840QM (1.86GHz, 8MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz

[Gaieus]

i5-580M (2.66GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.33GHz

Now that is good for SU! And in case you eventually decide to do some rendering, too, the 4 threads are still better than 2 for instance on a "traditional" dual core.

(And of course, you would not want to pay more for a CPU that can turbo boost less!)

[dsarchs]

The i7 looks like the system to go with, turbo-boost will eliminate the slower speed when using a single core (which SU is) and more ram will be useful. I haven't kept up with mobile processors so I don't know which gen that i7 is, but the newest intel cpu version has JUST been released (goes on sale this Sunday) and (I've only read about the desktop line but I assume it carries over to the mobile selection as well) is about 20% faster and uses less power. Something to look into.

@ Brodie

I've always heard that SU doesn't like AMD/ATI cards, but I've never come across this, despite having a mobility 9700 (ATI) card in my laptop for the past 6 years. I've always had good performance and no problems. Do you know if this is only a problem with VERY low-end ATI cards or is it merely a thing of the past?

Has anyone had a problem with the last 2 generations of cards (5xxx/6xxx) and sketchup? I've always assumed this is just no longer an issue.

[Brodie]

My personal experience comes from 2 different cards a couple years back and further. They were mid-range ATI's that we used here at work for the CAD machines. Basically the issues were the usual, faces would appear selected that weren't, selections would select a face that was behind the one I selected, etc. The other bad experience was with an old dell I had with integrated graphics which had identical issues. Occasionally, I've heard of nvidia's with similar issues but those were always easily solved with a driver change, something that never seemed to completely solve the problem with the ATI's.

In the last year or so, I've seen very few comments regarding ATI's either negative or positive, at least insofar as SU is concerned. So the issues may be fixed. But, I personally, still wouldn't guy an ATI out of fear, and I'd recommend that others at least do some checking into the issue.

-Brodie

[Gaieus]

There used to be some problems with certain ATI cards.

Basically the issues were the usual, faces would appear selected that weren't, selections would select a face that was behind the one I selected, etc.

Yes, basucally this was the issue and even in SU 6, there was an OpenGL setting to correct this bug:

rpdb.png

But (at least since v 7.1 - I cannot remember v.7.0) it has been removed meaning that this seems to be no longer an issue.

nVidia's still have some advantages as some renderers tend to prefer them (think of CUDA support) but for SU modelling, there should not be a difference.

[thomthom]

I recently got an ATI card for my work computer - high-end quality ATI card, updated drivers. But I experienced glitches very often when using SketchUp and other OpenGL applications. I made the IT manager replace it with a nVidia card - then everything went back to normal.
So I'm not sure if ATI is still completely free of issues. Seems nVidia is more stable - least for OpenGL.

[Gaieus]

Fine, thanks for the info Thom. Whenever I am looking at different (possible new) comps, I am also trying to get an nVidia for them. Just in case.

[Brodie]

Good to know Thomthom.

Gaieus, ya, I recall that 'correct reverse picking driver bug' checkbox. I'm not sure what it did internally, but as I recall, it never really fixed the problem in my case, although it would make the problems different which is sometimes a nice change of pace . It is interesting that it was taken out, I'd forgotten all about it.

-Brodie

[dsarchs]

Thom, which card did you get? I'm just about to buy a new ATI card and now you have me reconsidering.

[thomthom]

nVidia Quadro 3800

[Brodie]

Thom, i think he may have meant which ati card did you get that gave you troubles

-Brodie

[Whaat]

Has anyone used a GTX 460M (Notebook) card with SU? How does it perform? I am considering getting this but I concerned about openGL performance. Would a quadro notebook be worth the money for SU?

[d12dozr]

Dale, I got this this machine a few weeks ago: viewtopic.php?p=298556#p298556 ...I use it with SU and Vue(even more demanding than SU on openGL) and no problems so far.

[Whaat]

Dale, I got this this machine a few weeks ago: viewtopic.php?p=298556#p298556 ...I use it with SU and Vue(even more demanding than SU on openGL) and no problems so far.

That's the exact notebook I'm thinking of getting. How is it for handling massive scenes in SketchUp? Have you tried any scenes in the 100MB range?

[d12dozr]

I haven't tried anything above 20MB yet. I did try the "How many Susans" challenge and got up to 100,000 Susans. SU broke a sweat at 10K copies, but was fine if I just added 10K at a time...from 90K to 100K took about 3 mins, the save took ~7 mins. I tried to go from 10K to 100K, but shut the program down after 30 mins of it cussing at me

[pep75]

Hi All!

...I'm using a I7 with a QuadroFX1800, but I'm not so happy with the fx1800 in programmes like Photoshop(it's glitchy). After I read this article http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/newsfeed.asp?nid=4960 , I'm really going to doubt If I should buy the GTX 480! Look at those scores for SU! Is this article wrong or what? Does someone has any experience between these two cards?

[Brodie]

There are 2 tests on there. I'm not sure what the numbers are referring to on the first test so I can't comment on that one. But on the second test the 480 seems to do pretty well. The comments at the end of the article are useful as well. He basically says that the results are really quite similar between all the cards and recommends not using SU as your primary benchmark when purchasing a graphics card.

I saw that same article some time ago and if it taught me anything it's that graphics cards are really unpredictable when it comes to viewports. You can buy a high end card that would run the best fps on the market or do great in a cinebench test, but lags behind a mid range card in viewports. Very weird.

-Brodie

[pep75]

It's strange and it's a bit confusing, but I think the Fermi architecture play a very important role in this. But nevertheless, the numbers, in the Sketchup test, are strange. I thought I've bought a high-end card that would blow away all those Geforce game rubbish....not....