Graphic Accelerator Chip vs Graphics Card

[kleenhippie]

Can anyone explain to me the difference between a Graphics Accelerator chip (Intel) and a Graphics Card such as a Nvidia Quattro FX 1400?
Our IT guy speced my new computer with a Accelerator chip that has 368Mb of memory, to replace my old computer that has the FX1400. I spend half of my time coming back from crashes, and I'm having a difficult time explaining to him and management that an accelerator is not a GPU per se. About 40% of my work nowadays is 3D and all of the other MEP trades that I xref in are 3D. I'm using Vanilla 2009 CAD.
Thanks,

[Ed Jobe]

The chip or gpu is what the card uses. Same relationship in cpu to motherboard. An accelerator is a gpu. Its used to accelerate graphics processing by offloading from the cpu. Most motherboards have onboard gpu's. For cad you can improve graphics processing by getting a gpu designed for vector graphics rather than raster graphics. There is a fundamental difference in the way they process 3D and blitting or regenerating a screen image. Raster gpu's repaints a whole screen at a time, whereas vector gpu's regenerates only the vectors that changed, or a single dialog, etc.

The ATI FireGL line and the Nvidia Quadro FX line are vector based gpu's as opposed to the popular Radeon and GeForce raster cards. The cards can come from many manufacturers using those chips. Your problem with the Quadro probably relates to not having the lates drivers.

Check out Autodesk's video card database for specifics on cards vs drivers tested by Autodesk. Under Services and Support, expand Data and Downloads, then select Supported Hardware.

BTW, its Quadro. Quattro is a spreadsheet program.

[kleenhippie]

OOpps... Quattro - I think of either Ferrari or Maserati.
I have no prob with the Quadro, I keep it updated. But the computer (Dell M70) that contains the Quadro only has a P4 1.86Ghz processor and 2Gbs of RAM. It was struggling with 2008 and we are upgrading to 2009.
It's the new computer that has the Accelerator chip, and I've been crashing CAD so often that I'm back on the M70 with 2008.

[jaberwok]

Intel graphics chips integral with the mobo are generally poor for cad IME.

[Davie 73]

Intel graphics chips integral with the mobo are generally poor for cad IME.

Very poor.

As are NVS280 Quadro Cards, one of which was in a PC given to me when I started this new job. (Quad core Xeon with an FX4600 on order).

I lasted until yesterday (2 weeks or so) and I brought in an old GeForce 6600LE that I used for testing PC's at home Works brilliant compared to the NVS card.

[Harold Pei Jr]

Our IT guy speced my new computer with a Accelerator chip that has 368Mb of memory, to replace my old computer that has the FX1400.

Kick your IT guy clear across the head to knock some sense into him. He's giving you the Intel integrated video chip, the x3100. It's good for low-res things, okay for slow games (fastest I've used on it was WoW, so not too taxing on any vid card) but horrible for 3D AutoCAD. I've tried running it in 3D, and even with all the boosted memory I gave my computer, it still tanked it.
Get an add-on card, or take out the FX1400, it would do better IMO.
Oh, and that 368 MB? That's the max it will use, not what it uses constantly. The constant memory it uses is 4 MB. Only if something is very taxing on it will it use anywhere close to that 368 MB.

[jmctamney]

If the new computer has a pci slot (it should) just take the video card out of your old one and install it in the new one.

[kleenhippie]

Sadly, it's a laptop. It's a pretty nice laptop... for spreadsheets, email and stuff...

[jaberwok]

Sadly, any old laptop is just not good enough for any serious 3d work. You need a "workstation" class machine - with a mobile version of a decent graphics card.

[jpaulsen]

Not sure if this will help but I would use the Autodesk Certified Hardware List to demonstrate to management that the laptop the IT guy bought is not compatible with the software you run. You need a computer with a certified, supported and recommended video card for your AutoCAD version and OS.

Maybe he can still return it if he got it from a good vendor or maybe the guy that approves purchases needs a new laptop =)