Creo 1.0 issue with hybrid graphics?

[brendy]

Hi fellas, I wonder if I could tap into this wealth of
knowledge. I am the IT manager for several companies here
in the UK and one of these companies recently bought in
PTC creo (already using wildfire 5). Two of our guys were
given new Dell Vostro 3750 17" notebooks to replace old
desktops. They requested notebooks as they will be more
mobile in the future and I was charged with sourcing them
new hardware. I chose this model as it has discrete
graphics, fast cpu etc.

They were bought a few weeks apart, Dell Vostro 3750 with
W7 Pro 64bit, 4gb ram, Nvidia graphics and the initial
machine (core i3 from memory) went smoothly, everything
works fine having configured it to use the discrete
Nvidia chip.
The second machine iirc is a core i5 with the Nvidia
GT525M chip, I have configured the drivers to use the
Nvidia chip as best as I could see in the Nvidia control
panel and selected Creo to use this chip.
I got a call recently saying that some parts of drawings
under Creo were not showing correctly, lines missing etc.
This seems to be an intermittent problem on the second
laptop but does not affect the other machine at all. Has
anyone seen this problem before? I think it is the intel
chip isnt fully compatible and is causing this problem as
I cannot disable it totally to test the Nvidia chip
alone.
Help!! many thanks.
Edited by: brendy

 

[dr_gallup]

Probably a graphics driver issue. Check the exact driver used on each. Newer is not always better.Somehow I doubt these hybrid graphics are supported hardware for Creo (or any PTC product). I think only the Dell Precision laptops are supported.

 

[brendy]

Hi thanks for replying, I had seen that it is generally
latitudes and precisions that seem to be covered by most
cad companies. I also just checked the hardware specs, both
core i5 though one has a GT330m and the other has a GT525m
chip, perhaps the difference.
We have installed the latest incarnation of creo and it has
been grand so far fingers crossed, touch wood etc
Thanks again.

 

[dr_gallup]

From http://www.ptc.com/WCMS/files/127428/en/creo1_hw_notes.pdf:

Graphics Information
For 3D-hardware acceleration, an OpenGL graphics card must be used that has been tested in a PTC-certified configuration. To ensure the compatibility of a graphics driver with Creo 1.0, a PTC certified or supported hardware configuration is recommended. Graphics cards that support at least OpenGL 3.1 are recommended for Creo 1.0.

http://www.ptc.com/WCMS/files/127692/en/dell_creo1.pdf gives exact supported Dell platforms. Neither your laptops nor their graphics cards make the list. Doesn't mean they won't work, just that you are on your own if they don't work.

 

[brendy]

Thanks DR_Gallup, so far so good with this update. I
understand that there are certified configurations, these
laptops were bought as they were well specced "normal"
laptops with a graphics chip over the crud intel integrated
varieties. Got to love company budgets...
Thanks for the advice again.

 

[AragornPE]

Hi brendy, I had the same problem with a similar machine, in my case
a Vostro 3550 with ATI graphics. The only solution for it to work
properly was a bios update from Dell that allows the user to lock the
discrete graphics as the one to be used, and to ignore the integrated
graphics completely, through the software the card maker provides, in
my case the Catalyst. It may be your case, although nVidia tends to
have better solutions in hybrid systems. You could check it on the Dell
Ideastorm forum. If someone also noticed a problem like yours, and it's
systematic, it's going to be there