Hardware Upgrade

[CRang72]

Hello,


I am trying to justify hardware upgrades for our CAD department, which is not easily done in my company. I'm trying to decide whether I want to shoot for new video cards, which may be easier to get,or for all new systems. Currently, we're using old ATI FireGL V3100 cards, (128 MB), and we have 32 bit Windows XP with the 4 GB max memory. We're using Wildfire 3.


I'm wondering, if I upgrade video cards, how much of a difference does that make? Has anyone upgraded similar hardware who can provide an approximate time savings?


Also, how much of a difference does upgrading to a 64-bit system with more memory make? How much memory can Pro/E utilize?


Any informationyou may have would begreatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[wamarler]

Regarding graphics hardware:
How much of a difference you'll see depends on the size and complexities
of the models you're using. Your question is very difficult, if not impossible, to answer. Perhaps you can benchmark on another system somewhere? Changing the graphics card only handles 1/4 of the hardware involved (video card, motherboard, CPU, memory are all important), and you might go from one bottleneck -- the video card -- to another -- the speed at which the system can write to-from the video card. So you'd see an improvement, but not as much as if you replaced the whole thing. So it depends on the other components that you have (and haven't listed), as well as what you're actually working on.

Regarding memory:
Pro/E can use all of the memory the OS will give it. On a 32-bit system that's 2 or 3GB (you have to enable the boot.ini switch to get Windows to allot 3GB to a single process). The per-process memory limit is set by Windows, not Pro/E.

If xtop.exe is using too much memory, the difference between 64-bit and 32-bit is "all" or "nothing." If xtop.exe needs more memory than the 2GB or 3GB Windows will allot it, it will crash. If that is happening to you, then going to 64-bit systems is a must.

It would be good to know where you stand with your memory usage. Take a look in the Task Manager at how much memory is the "xtop.exe" process using when you're working in your most complicated assembly. If it's near 1.2-1.4GB, then you're in imminent danger of needing the 3GB switch. With the 3GB switch set, you should see sizes up to around 1.8GB before xtop.exe crashes. (The Windows Task Manager is not a perfect utility for analyzing memory usage, there are better ones out there, but this is usually good enough).

 

[dr_gallup]

In general, the current nVidia graphics cards have been a lot more stable than the ATI cards so if you have been experiencing a lot of crashes you might be able to justify based on that alone. However, upgrading just one part of an old system is rarely cost justifiable. Most people just replace the entire system (except maybe the monitor if you have a good one) after 3 or 4 years.

 

[CRang72]

Thanks for the replies. We were having problems with crashes in more complex assemblies, but we have set the 3 GB switch, and since then we have only very rarely experienced crashes. I will keep an eye on the memory usage.


The bigger problem is the time it takes to do things like load drawing views, switch from shaded view to hidden view in models of large assemblies, etc., and we also do some exporting of drawings to AutoCAD files which takesa significant amount of time, depending on the complexity of the views.


It turns out that while working in one of our larger assemblies, xtop.exe is in fact using just over 1.8 GB. Maybe I'll mess around with it a bit and see if I can get it to crash. Sounds like a reason for new hardware to me...
Edited by: CRang72

 

[dr_gallup]

Keep in mind that most parts of Pro/E are single threaded and thus it takes very little advantage of multiple cores. You want to maximize CPU clock speed which has not really gone up much recently. The new gen CPU's do have better memory management which helps.

 

[moriarty]

We've just built up a new machine with Core i7 Win7 64bit
FX580 GA-EX58A-UD3. Add as much DD3 as you need/afford.

Runs WF5 M020 - its a dream to use.


Edited by: moriarty

 

[TshepoM]

There are no predefined hardware configurations, Your best chance at getting to the solution is benchmarking, After much trials we also ended up with moriarty's configuration and it works like a charm. Also have a look at some of your config options for working with large drawings. PTC has some TANs on the issue.
Edited by: TshepoM