2012 Hardware Acc. (Revit Architecture 2012x64) vs PowerPlay (AMD Radeon HD 6770M) [Archive]

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So What

2011-12-11, 10:28 AM

HP Pavilion dv7-6b76eo
i7 2670QM 2.2 GH, 6MB L3 Cache
Chipset - Intel HM65 Express
1TB SATA 5400RPM
8GB RAM DDR3 1333Mhz

Switchable Graphics between:
The on-board Intel® HD Graphics 3000, which is just for power-saving purposes
and the discrete GPU, which is meant for things like Revit - AMD Radeon HD 6770M 2gb GDDR5

I am running Revit Architecture 2012 x64. The GPU has a feature called PowerPlay (hereinafter PP). It's a pretty annoying feature as it causes my notebook to experience Black Screen of Death and to freeze now and then while watching movies or while in a video call. So I just disabled the feature and the problems seemed to have gone away until I started up Revit and eventually found out it was unable to utilize Hardware Acceleration, thus it worked ******. Once I enabled PowerPlay again Revit worked smooth again cos it was obviously taking advantage of Hardware Acceleration (hereinafter HA). Up until that moment I hadn't changed anything in Revit and it was by default having HA turned on. So the possible combinations I got are as follows:

PP enabled + Revit HA enabled = Revit working smooth
PP enabled + Revit HA disabled = Revit working smooth (somehow? thought disabling HC would make it work bad)
PP disabled + Revit HA enabled = Revit working really bad (???)
PP disabled + Revit HA disabled = Revit working smooth (???)

So does this make any sense to anyone? Could anyone explain how enabling and disabling HA affects Revit, because what I expected was that disabling it would make Revit work bad, but apparently it didn't. How is Revit able to work smooth when I turned off HA? I though HA means that the hardware boosts up the performance of the software, What happens in the case when HA is disabled and why does it not have any negative effect in my case?

In the long run it seems that there's no big difference in Revit with or without using Hardware Acceleration. But I guess it matters a big deal for AutoCAD, though I couldn't find that out on my own by experimenting with my AutoCAD 2012 x64 software.

SamuelAB

2011-12-12, 09:59 PM

So What

2011-12-12, 10:31 PM

Hardware acceleration will make your lines smoother looking while you are going around in the model (anti-aliasing). It does not really do much and it makes most stations more prone to crashing and weird artifacts.

Your graphic card is obviously not supported for Revit, so I would just be safe and turn off the HA.

As for PP, you should do some reading on your own. I normally turn off power management utilities, especially if I'm doing power-users tasks (Revit, rendering...). Perhaps someone else has more specific answers regarding this feature,

What does Revit actually use - system RAM or GPU RAM?

I don't quite get it but are you saying HA and anti-aliasing are the same thing? Because they are clearly two separate options (to be checked or unchecked) in Revit's options. Don't know about anti-aliasing, but I thought HA helps the software take better advantage of the hardware, in my case the GPU, and hence make performance better, be it panning, orbiting, drawing walls etc...

As to PP, I don't quite understand why when it is ON, Revit works well both with and without HA. and when PP is OFF, Revit works well only with HA disabled. All this goes for when my computer is on AC power, none of the above-described cases go for when I'm on battery, although PP has something to do exactly with the AC power and battery. It determines how my GPU works when it's on AC and when it's on battery. But, again, that's why all this is strange, because all the scenarios I've described above go for when I am on AC, i.e. all errors I get are while on AC, so it's not like the battery has anything to do with all this.

SamuelAB

2011-12-13, 08:50 PM

Whether or not AA is useful, your graphic card does not support it. Only Quadro cards are certified for AA in Revit.

See the following documents for some more technical info regarding performance and hardware:
http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/revit_tech_note.pdf

I've done a basic Google search as to what AA does and the only topic that seems to come up is that it's problematic for everyone. Go figure what it actually does.

As for PP, I suggest you do some more research. I'm guessing it's comparable to NVIDIA Optimus technology.

vgonzales

2011-12-15, 10:30 PM

Never had Revit work with Hardware Acceleration turned on especially on notebook computers. I usually attribute a lot instability with Hardware Acceleration. I have given up trying to make Revit work with any graphics cards. evit works a lot better without it.

SamuelAB

2011-12-16, 06:33 PM

Autodesk seems to place no attention on informing us about what Hardware Acceleration DOES and instead puts a lot of focus on the fact that disabling it makes the software more stable.

We don't know what it does, but disabling it seems to be a premium feature, lol.

So What

2011-12-18, 12:38 AM

Yeah... so the bottom line is that Hardware Acceleration, though designed as a nice feature, is a weird thing for a lot of users, not just me. And the bottom line in my case is that after switching 3 notebooks I finally got a working one, where working means that AMD Radeon HD 6770M's PowerPlay feature still mingles with Hardware Acceleration in Revit, dunno if it does that with AutoCAD and other apps. HP Denmark are still trying to help me out with the whole issue, after HP United States were completely unable to help me solve it.

SamuelAB

2011-12-20, 04:59 PM

So What

2011-12-21, 01:58 AM

HP should not be able to help you with this since your graphic card is not certified by AutoCAD to work with the software.

Your card is not good enough to work with the software, you are wasting HP's resources.

I really do believe the GPU is really good and especially good enough for both Revit and AutoCAD, since now everything is working just fine. I also think I am not wasting anybody's time and resources. You obviously got it pretty wrong.

SamuelAB

2011-12-21, 02:50 PM

I beg to differ, have a look yourself.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/cert?siteID=123112&id=16391880

So What

2011-12-21, 03:16 PM

I beg to differ, have a look yourself.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/cert?siteID=123112&id=16391880

I am pretty aware of the fact that Autodesk have not yet tested their software with AMD Radeon HD 6770m. That doesn't mean the card won't perform well with their software. Besides that Autodesk are continually working and expanding the list of GPUs supported, so it's not like if your card is not on the list it's not good enough, or able to run Autodesk products.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=16318759

If we had to choose our PC according to the list of supported GPUs from Autodesk I think we'd all be pretty limited in a lot of ways. That's why you don't really need to have a GPU that Autodesk supports, in order to use their products.

Pardon me, but forums like this one are there to help people resolve their issues, and not to tell people they are wasting anybody's resource... Is it too much to ask for your hardware and software to just go hand in hand together?

Rick Moore

2011-12-21, 03:21 PM

This is a very long thread but it's got a lot of good info on video cards:
http://www.revitforum.org/hardware-infrastructure/72-revit-hardware-video-graphic-cards.html

So What

2011-12-21, 04:56 PM

Thanks! :-)

SamuelAB

2011-12-21, 06:26 PM

I would've just bought a good laptop with a certified graphic card. Lenovo and Dell have some good options. HP kind of does, but I worry about their laptops since they have a terrible reputation for quality and keep talking about selling their hardware division.

I really don't need to worry about crashes, BSODs and crashing drivers, there are enough headaches hidden within the Revit software.

Good luck with your card.