Twin 2.6ghz 64 Bit Opteron Slow Regen

[Formwerx]

We are currently trialing a HP XW9300. The machine is certified by PTC for running PRO-E and we have 2 x 2.6ghz 64bit Opteron processors, 1GHZ Front side bus and 8 Gig of Ram. It's got an NVIDIA FX3400.


It all sounds very impressive but we have found the performance to be a little dissapointing.


We have one particular file that has 600 features includinga large proportion ofradius fillets and drafts. When we make a change to a feature near the beginning, it takesover 10 minutes to regenerate the part and there are no failures. This is not a great improvement over ther laptop that we have been using for the past 3 years.


We currently use the M120 Update, and have also tried usign wildfire3 Pre-production.


Has anyone experienced and or successfuly addressed the problem or really slow regeneration times? and was it by upgrading hardware?

 

[puppet]

hey there fellow aussie



90% of this type of problem is a result of bad graphics card drivers.

try updating or possibly reverting back to a older revision of them.



also since you have gone for such a high end pc, why didnt you go for the nvidia quadro series?



you also might want to include which os your using and service packs.

 

[james.lynch]

Hi Formwerx & Puppet.. I believe the FX3400 is in fact part of the quadra series or cards - however, while it's a high end card, the 4400 is by FAR a superior card

 

[Formwerx]

Hi James and Puppet, The Nvidia 3400 is part of the Quadro range of cards. The Version of driver is the same that PTC certified the setup with (71.84). I don't understand why this is a graphics problem. To me it isa number crunching/memory problem involved with regenerating all the features. The final model spins nicely on screen but whenI go back to redefine a feature half way through the feature tree it all grinds to a halt then slowly regenerates at about the rate of 1 feature every 5 seconds


Regards

 

[puppet]

hey Formwerx, your working late for a aussie

My bad didnt recognise that card. Just from what ive
read on this forum and other places that this is normally caused by the
video card. Wish you luck resolving that.

 

[james.lynch]

have you voiced your concerns to the vendor/supplier of the machine? maybe there is something a little messed up with it?


one thing that I would suggest is perhaps getting your hands on the WF2.0 benchmark test (I can't remember where to get it bu do a search on google - I found it there before) and runthat and do a bit of a comparison - the results are there for many machines..


I'm not too familiar with 64bit technology but do you need a 64bit version of Pro running? may be a dumb question, sorry if it is.


also, I've read before that PRO isn;t optimized to run with Dual processors, I run a dual 3.0GHz Xeon myself and (granted I'm running windows) I had to do a fair bit of tweaking before I noticed much of a difference..


hope this helps, and that you eventually get sorted!


James

 

[rschnarr]

This is the site we use for benchmarking


http://www.proesite.com/

 

[Formwerx]

Thanks Rschnarr, I tried the benchmark application and the machine perfomed quiet well. Total score 667 seconds. So I am thinking maybe there is something wrong with the original part file we have been using. I will run a model check on it and see what uit comes up with.


James, I have downloaded a 64 bit version of ProE. You can download from PTC and it is license free for about 6 months I believe so people can trial it. Comparing our results I don't think the dual processor setup is doing anything as you suggested.


Scott

 

[james.lynch]

6 moths license free? I like it allready!


My Processors are actually 64 bit enabled (E7525 chipset), I wouldn;t mind doing a bit of a benchmark myself.. I havent seen it on the available downloads, have you got a link?


cheers,


James

 

[puppet]

free you said? really? share the link

wouldnt mind doing some tinkering @ home for free

 

[dr_gallup]

Note that dual processors won't speed up a Pro/E regen since it is not a multi-threaded application. Dual processors will let you run multiple applications faster. They are really good if you want to run a large batch process like an FEA solver and still be able to use the machine for other work.

 

[Formwerx]

Your are right. We ran the benchmark test before and after we removed one of the processors and it had absolutely no affect on the results.


Below is a link for the XP 64 Bit Version of ProE. There are two 500Mb files that need to be burnt to a CD and then loaded as Disk 1 and 2 of the normal ProE install. No license required. Unfortunately you will need an active maintenance login for the PTC website.


[url]ftp://50471:[email protected]/MED-100I64-CD-340_M1 20/MED-100I64-CD-340_M120_1OF2.zip [/url]


[url]ftp://50471:[email protected]/MED-100I64-CD-340_M1 20/MED-100I64-CD-340_M120_2OF2.zip [/url]


This is the blurb from the PTC website posted in May 05 -


Description
-----------------
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 M120 is supported on Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 M120 is the initial release supported on Microsoft XP Professional x64 Edition, it is considered Preproduction and does not require a license to run (no FLEXlm server installation required).

PTC is offering this Preproduction version with integrated Flex3C capabilities for a period of six months.

Note:This version will only be available from the Download Software Updates page on ptc.com and will not be distributed on CDs.

Alternate Technique
-----------------
See Resolution Below.

Resolution
-----------------
Refer to PTC website [url]http://www.ptc.com/partners/hardware/current/64bit_computing .htm[/url] for further information on Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 M120 supported on Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.