PCI Express video

[D_Driver]

Anyone out there have a system with the new PCI express graphics pipeline?

[adegnan]

I am looking at it for my new system. Havn't got it yet. Based on the Cadalyst article I am looking at the XI or Dell systems although looking at a price point of more in the $2000-$2500 price rnage for my specs.

I am looking at a 64 meg NVidia card 64MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro NVS 280, Dual DVI or Dual VGA Capable.

Does anyone know how much the amount of video ram will affect performance? For instance the Cadalyst article had 256 meg cards, but that is about a $900 upgrade from what I see on Dell and XI websites. Is 64 adequate? Of should I go up to 128?

I'm also looking at switching from dual 19" CRT's to a single 20" wide aspect LCD. Right now I have 2 screens at 1280 x 1024. My new one would run at 1680 x 1050. Since I run Revit one one 1280x1024, and then pull the menus off to the 2nd monitor this should work great for me! That will continue to allow 1280 pixel width for the main screen with another 400 pixels for the menu to the side.

I've priced similar Dell and XI systems and come up with the price point I want including RAID mirroring on a SATA 160 gig drive.

Any comment? Particularly on the video ram issue? THANKS!

[FK]

Authoritative answer on the video RAM: go for 64.

[FK]

And about the monitor - good idea overall, but make sure (by visiting a computer store) the DPI is not too tiny for you. 20" wide is not as tall as 20" regular.

If you do go wide, drag the taskbar to the side of the screen to regain some vertical estate.

[adegnan]

Great answers, FK! You truly "da man".

[jsbrunt]

I just set up a Dual Monitor arrangement for my Revit work-station and have problems with display. Revit Support tells me that dual monitors are not supported and that this is a typical problem.

I got stacking "Option Bars" that makes the screen jump and over writes some options making the program unusable. Also drop down menus within dialog boxes such as "underlay" do not work.

John

[Scott Hopkins]

Authoritative answer on the video RAM: go for 64.
Just out of curiosity - why is 64 megs of video RAM all you need for Revit?

[FK]

Actually, 64 is more than enough. ;-) The huge RAM is necessary for applications that heavily use textures (a. k. a. games). Revit's graphics are mostly untextured, and all its bitmaps comfortably fit in even 32 megs (a 1024x1024 image at 32 bpp is 4 MB).

[Wes Macaulay]

Really? That is very good to know... thank you very much for that very piece of information... it's something we can pass on to people when they're spec'ing workstations. And my new laptop only has 64Mb of video RAM so it's good to know I'll at least have enough for Revit ;)

[adegnan]

OK, one more questions on this as I'm shopping. Is a simple video card like the NVidia 64MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro NVS 280, Dual DVI or Dual VGA Capable going to be adequate? While this has 64 meg ram, it sounds like it does not have OpenGL. So this is not an acceptable card, then, right?

[Wes Macaulay]

OK, one more questions on this as I'm shopping. Is a simple video card like the NVidia 64MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro NVS 280, Dual DVI or Dual VGA Capable going to be adequate? While this has 64 meg ram, it sounds like it does not have OpenGL. So this is not an acceptable card, then, right?No. It will take forever for shadows to generate... though performance isn't that much different in other view types with OpenGL on or off, at least in my experience.

[FK]

The 280 card seems to handle shadows well, but I didn't study it too much.

[adegnan]

Quick--Anyone-- single Xeon 3.4 ghz vs single P4 3.8 ghz? Does it make a difference that Xeon ram is at 400 mhz and P4 is at 533 mhz?

[Wes Macaulay]

Quick--Anyone-- single Xeon 3.4 ghz vs single P4 3.8 ghz? Does it make a difference that Xeon ram is at 400 mhz and P4 is at 533 mhz?I would say the 533 Mhz spec is faster in general...

[adegnan]

Good. YOu confirmed my instinct and what Dell ultimately recommended. I ordered the 3.8 ghz. Should be here within 2 weeks. Here are the specs:

221-7187] Precision Workstation 370 MiniTower, Pentium 4 processor 3.80GHz,Intel EM64T, 1M L2 Cache, 800FSB
[310-5302] 1GB, 533MHz, DDR2 ECC SDRAM Memory, 2X512, Dell Precision 370
[310-0042] No Keyboard Option,Factory Install
[320-4108] Dell UltraSharp 2005FP,Wide Flat Panel w/Height AdjustableStand,20.0 Inch VIS,OptiPlex Precision and Latitude
[312-0294] nVidia,Quadro NVS 280 PCI-E, 64MB, dual VGA or DVI, GraphicCard, Dell Precision 370
[341-1749] 160GB SATA 7200RPM Native Command Queing Hard Drive with DataBurst Cache for RAID Precision 370
[341-1261] C3 -All SATA Hard Drives, RAID1 for 2 Hard Drives, Dell Precision 370
[341-0497] 3.5inch,1.44MB,Floppy Drive Dell Precision 370/470/670 Factory Install
[420-4860] WINDOWS XP PRO SP2, with MediaDell Precision,English Factory Install
[310-1247] No Mouse for Workstation Model
[420-3699] NTFS File System,Factory Install
[313-3030] 16XDVD and 16XDVD+/-RW with Sonic RecordNow! Deluxe,Sonic DVDit! SE,Power DVD,Precision 370MT
[313-1439] Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (D),PCIw/Dolby Digital 5.1/IEEE1394 a/DVD-Audio/114dB SNR/6.1,DellPrecision
[313-2663] No Speaker option
[310-5419] Resource CD for Precision Workstations
[341-1750] 160GB SATA, 7200RPM Native Command Queing Additional HardDrive with 8MB DataBurst CachePrecision 370
[420-3904] Open Manage Client Instrumentation 7.1,Dell Precision,Factory Install
[310-5428] Quick Reference Guide for DellPrecision 370, Factory Install
[460-7163] Hyper-Threading feature presetto ON.Can be disabled/enabled in BIOS.XP/Linux only,Dell Precision
[980-7002] Type 3 Contract - Next Business Day Parts and Labor On-Site Response, 2 Year Extended
[980-7000] Type 3 Contract - Next Business Day Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year
[461-3749] GTS,Personal Systems,TechnicalSupport Letter
[902-4902] Gold Technical Support ServicePrecision, 3 Years, 1-866-876-3355 (DELL)
[463-2532] Tracking SKU Precision Standard Service Plan 3yr
[900-9987] Standard On-Site Installation Declined
[310-4821] Energy Star Labeling for Dell Precision Workstation
[463-1832] System not eligible for hardware mail-in rebate
[463-6365] $199 Instant Savings!
[463-0742] Special Pricing Applied

I also ordered a Back-UPS system and Dell 5466 5-channel speakers. Oh, and note the 20" wide format LCD! I'm very satisfied with the price (NAHB discount) of $3410 for the entire package including tax & shipping! I decided to put my money into a more expensive processor rather than video card, as FK noted that Tamas has the inexpensive video card that I have on his workstation.

[FK]

Just 1 gig RAM? But then, I guess you are not modeling skyscrapers. ;-)

[adegnan]

That's right. Even with Revit, QBP, Customer Manager, and Explorer running I rarely max out my 764 megs. So upgrade to 1 gig is good for me. Plus, I can still expand further!

[adegnan]

I got the new computer. SCREAMING FAST as least by my standards. Lots of fun getting it set up and files transferred etc. I'm very happy:: :)

[Mr Spot]

My current PC utilises PCI-E video and DDR2 Ram. Personally i found my older computer faster but that is probably due to my lack of ram currently (1gig DDR2 sticks are extremely hard to come by, we've been waiting 6 weeks now).

P4 3.4GHz
2*512 DDR2 Corsair RAM
256MB ATI x850 PCI-E
SATA hard drives and my favourite, is my Antec case, super quite and ultra sexy...

But really i don't notice much difference at all to my previous system.

[Scott Hopkins]

I got the new computer. SCREAMING FAST as least by my standards. Lots of fun getting it set up and files transferred etc. I'm very happy:: :)
Nice! I have been looking at the exact same system. I decided to wait for the new Intel 600 series processors to come out next month. By the way, what resolution are you running your new 20" monitor at?

[adegnan]

Nice! I have been looking at the exact same system. I decided to wait for the new Intel 600 series processors to come out next month. By the way, what resolution are you running your new 20" monitor at?
Monitor at 1680 x 1050. It gives me the same pixel size as my 2- 19" at 1200x1024, actually. Gives me room for my Revit toools & stuff to the side!

[dg]

That's interesting about the 64mb video RAM.
I have a Nvidia FX5200 with 128mb ram and Open GL enabled and 1gig system ram with P4 2.8cpu and I can only open about 5 views in v7 before I get error messages or display corruption, and have to close some views.

I was considering a new graphic card as I thought it was a display related problem. I only work on small domestic work too - about 6mb file size.

From what I have read, the new PCI express bus will be good for games with high numbers of moving textures/polygons but by how much CAD model rendering will improve I'm not sure