Video card D3D compatibility - Revit 2010 on Vista / Win7

[Wes Macaulay]

Please describe what hardware you're using with Revit 2010. Include:

• video card model and manufacturer (e.g. Asus Geforce 9600 GT)
• driver version and provider (i.e. manufacturer's driver or nVidia reference)
• operating system and 32-bit or 64-bit (we're only interested in Vista or Win7 in this thread)
  

A summary of working and non working cards will be shown in this post based on input into this forum. "Working" means enabling D3D acceleration in Revit does not cause any problems and improves performance. There is no guarantee that these cards may or may not work for you; it just improves the chances of users choosing a model that works. To check if your card works, open up a non-shadowed 3D view, zoom in close to your model and orbit. Disappearing or flashing objects while orbiting means D3D acceleration is not working properly.

Working Cards

• ATI Mobility Radeon 4650 under Vista 32
• ATI FireGL V5600 under Win7 64
• ATI FireGL V7600
• nVidia Quadro FX580 under Win7 64
• nVidia Quadro FX1800
• nVidia Quadro FX370M (Dell) under Win7 64
• nVidia Quadro FX3800 under Win7 64 (186.30 driver)
• nVidia GeForce 9600 GT / 512MB (Asus EN9600GT Silent), nVidia Driver Version: 195.62 WHQL under Win7 64
• nVidia Quadro NVS 295 (note that this is NOT a CAD card -- it's designed for 2D)

Non-Working Cards

• ATI Mobility Radeon 4670 under Win7 64
• ATI Radeon 4670 under Vista
• ATI FireGL V3400
• ATI FireGL V5600 under Vista
• ATI FireGL V5100 under Win7 64

My experience with Vista and Windows 7 has just begun -- I've been on XP till now and I've heard little from users as to their experiences with their video hardware and driver combinations on Vista and Win7.

For instance, I bought this new Dell laptop because it came with Radeon video, which has been golden for me on XP for years. But with DX enabled in Revit, video performance worsens and objects flicker and disappear in any given view as you zoom in/out (it happens particularly at close range). I'm on Win7 x64 and using Catalyst 9.11. Autodesk provides a recommended driver for the 4600 series Radeons which is Catalyst 9.8, but there is no difference between that and the driver Dell supplies. The 9.11 driver doesn't improve things much.

Are other people seeing this with Geforce and Radeon models -- i.e. DX doesn't work, and it's faster to work with it off? I'll be sorely amused if Geforce hardware works better