revit does not utilize video card memory yet?!!

[crullier]

hi guys,

I am new here and I am learning about revit, and I was curious if this statement I read on this forum is true. I am thinking of purchasing a new computer laptop or workstation I am still deciding.

So far I know Revit as well as the "competitor" are much faster with a single CPU rig, and to my understanding, the more the ram is always the best.

I consider lag and redraw speed very unpleasing and rather discouraging when I am working on a project - I want a machine to reach as fast as I think / or want to draw.

So could you please tell me what is up with the GFX card statement above? does revit then only rely on CPU and ram ,and then HD speed ?

Thanks,

PS, my ideal config would be , 2.8 - 3.0 Ghz with 1GB of ram DDR400 (or would upgrade to 1GB eventually) and 7200rpm with 8MB cache HD,

I can get this config either on a laptop or desktop, which make it hard for me to choose, but then there is the GFX card that i need to consider.

[Steve_Stafford]

So could you please tell me what is up with the GFX card statement above? does revit then only rely on CPU and ram ,and then HD speed?
Revit does not take advantage of high end video cards in the same way other software has been optimized to or that the video cards themselves have been enhanced to support cadd. It will still benefit from a quality video card much as any other application will suffer from an inexpensive card. You won't get the resolution you might like, screen refresh rate etc.

Two processors will help your overall performance but won't be used directly by Revit. The operating system and other applications will benefit and thus Revit indirectly. Rendering in Revit will take advantage of the extra processor.

If I were spending your money and not going to do serious rendering...I'd get the fastest processor available, 2 gb ram ecc, 2 hard drives SATA (fastest seek time you can afford, OS goes on one, pagefile the other) and an Nvidea chipset graphics card with as much on board RAM as I could get. Rendering, I'd try hard to get the 2 processors.

If you saw the Rendering benchmark thread, you saw that MLGatzke's classroom pc's were at the very top or second place in performance from a Rendering perspective? You might take a look at his specs and decide whether you want to "unseat" him??

Spending my money you ask? Since I have none...I might get a P90 with 64mb ram...:-(

Good luck!

[crullier]

Thank you for you help =)

[DaveP]

1 Gig is NOT going to be enough once you get into a sizable project.
We bought IBM R40s (2.4GHz) with 768Meg of RAM. After a few months, we stole the 512 card out of the non-Revit machines, and put it in the Revit machines, so they would have 1 Gig. We're in the last couple weeks of CDs now, and we're bumping up against that 1Gig every day. I really wish we had gone with 2Gig in the first place.

Our model is 68 Meg at the moment. It's a 2-story Hospital/MOB about 120,000 sq ft.

When we were PC shopping, I read these forums & read all the recommendations to get 2 Gig. I thought, Oh, they're just talking about rendering, and we've got Viz for that, we don't need to spend another grand or 2. Now I wish we had spent the money. Next batch we buy will definitely have 2 Gig RAM.

[brentcarlson892079]

Another option is to buy a computer that can add a second processor later.

I bought a Dell 650 workstation w/ 1 HT Xeon 2.66 and 2.5 gigs of memory.
I didn't buy all the memory from Dell and got it for half price (Do you homework if you do this to get the correct memory)
I will get the second processor and I'm sure it will be much less than from Dell.

Now I only need a faster network switch :smile:
If you work on the file from your hard drive, then try as hard as you can to get the serial HD's

[crullier]

my Dell Dimension 8400 works great with Revit so far. I will like to upgrade the video card later to something with an better performing chip. I have 1big of DDR2, and I will add another 1GB in the next few months depending on if I really need it or not. What i know I will be doing as a first upgrade is a second screen, I love to work on 2 screens ! hopefully Revit will support this in the future.

I didn't think of the Xeon and to just buy one CPU.. urrgh. but lets see how things workout - so far so good. I do have a SATA HD, I made sure of that haha.

Thanks !

[D_Driver]

before you buy a mother board that will accomodate 2 chips with the thought of adding one in later... have you guys heard of the problem with mismatched chips? This was a while ago (couple years) - so I don't have more details, but getting processors from the same batch was an issue on some mother boards. before you buy, check out the mother board websites for FAQs...just a throught

[crullier]

before you buy a mother board that will accomodate 2 chips with the thought of adding one in later... have you guys heard of the problem with mismatched chips? This was a while ago (couple years) - so I don't have more details, but getting processors from the same batch was an issue on some mother boards. before you buy, check out the mother board websites for FAQs...just a throught


yep, I remember that two, but I think it was more of a "safety" thing