Which Graphic Board would you choose?

Jon,

IMHO, the best bang is going to be the FX500 (~$250)! And, if you have 8X AGP on your motherboard, all the better.

Although, the Fire GL X1 is very good, it's 2X more expensive.. but you're not going to get 2X more performance.

I'd strongly suggest that you wage for upgrading your CPU to at least a

If you can swing it, the better way to go is getting the two, a 2.8ghz cpu upgrade and the fx500.. or about $450 total and that should be less than the (1) fire gl x1?

Now, that's a winning combination (~50% overall performance increase) for you and your company and if your IT people can not recognize that, well, you're screwed.

Here's a reference link for graphic card and cpu prices..

Good luck.

J>

Thanks a bunch Paul. I think I'll go with the Nvidia.

I wish I could upgrade CPUs now, but we are all getting (supposedly in July) new dual Xeon IBM Intellistations (maybe 64 bit by then?).

If I can run Pro/e with the max open windows, and Mechanica without checkerboard shading, I will be a happy camper.

Again,

Thanks for the quick response.

Thanks David.

I've seen this list already. Those cards that I listed in my orginal post, are on the PTC approved graphics card list, unfortunately PTC lists them as part of a complete systems. PTC does not certify individual components anymore.

So I am "screwed" as for as support from PTC until July. On the plus side at least I will be able to work in shaded mode again and have more than 4 Pro/e windows open.

Ever seen checkerboard Mechanica stress result models? It hurts my eyes to look at them.

Again thanks.

I use 8800 and never had any problems. You might have some bad drivers or maybe a defective card. I have the bad taste from Nvidia re: drivers updates as they tend to just abandon you after buying a product. I would go for X1 as is a newer core than 8800 and also 8 pipelines architecture. The 256 MB version would be indicated if you use large assemblies. I just bought a Radeon 9700 for $150 (my other workstation) which can be easily hardware modded to a X1. I will do it this weekend and let you guys know.

Cheers.

I would request the Wildcat or Quadro FX500 and not worry about it. Regardless of PTC's support, these mfrs have a good history of supporting Pro/E compatibility.

Dave

No prob. Hey, I know you said your IT only gave you those options but I'd suggest two others...

Quadro 980XGL (~$520) Quadro FX1100 (~$620)

As for the 64 bit, if you have not read the article at PTC on 64 bit cpu's,... you should read it. They confirm what I've read over the years,.. that 64 bit will not make Pro/e faster, actually it will be slower in most cases. Where it will be faster is when the app accesses more memory. That is, currently most 32 bit OS's limit a app to 3 gig's of system memory, the newer 64 bit systems and OS's should allow 16 gigs or system memory per app? And, yes, there is a helluva lot more access to external memory.

Anyhow, the Xeons should help with their larger cache, and the duellies should be sweet!?

But.. I can not help note the mistake of your IT people here, the investment now on a 2.8ghz cpu upgrade should easily pay for it self well before July! It's a win-win, period! Or you loose $ by not upgrading. Sorry, as a independent designer, it's obvious to me. That is, I would take advantage of it, because I know it would pay for itself. Or putting it nicely, your company's IT or management is not being resourceful as they should be to keep you and them productive. Sorry.

later... 8^)

J>

I have found that IT departments are unable to grasp the difference between how engineers use their computers and everyone else. Where I work the "workstations" were mid-level gaming boxes with no certified parts in them. Fortunately, the worked OK for a few years but eventually were unable to keep up with Pro. There are other interesting issues too ... engineers using Pro tend to send e-mails with models attached which (surprise!) the e-mail servers are set to stop because they are too large ... I do analysis using Excel and a spreadsheet can take minutes to run on my 3.0GHz workstation but I can't send it to my boss to review because his pc is my old gaming one (it would take an hour to run on his) ... our file server is the same "server" (a converted workstation) as our Intralink server .... I could go on and on.

IT should get their act together ... engineers are not spending all day on their computers writing letters to mother.

I ordered the Nvidia Quadro FX 500.

Thanks for everyone's input.

I CAN'T get IT to even consider early CPU upgrades, they still write with chisel and stone here.

BTW. I exchanged my Fire GL8800 twice before this current one, and have tried almost every driver out there. IT actually re-installed the OS to make sure once, and I still have the orginal problems.

Will post when I get my new FX500!

If you really are losing time b/c of lack of RAM or CPU (as I once was:), and IT refuses to believe it is insufficient (heck, they did double the minimum system requirements from 128MB to 256MB), try this:

Take your boss or boss's boss - someone with enough clout to butt heads with IT if necessary. Open an assembly or draft of a product this person knows and can relate to (high priority project helps a lot). Make a change and regenerate - a change that you would make on a daily basis. Sit back in your chair and watch the screen while they wait. Maybe make a casual remark "I get a lot of this", or "you want a coffee?"

This person will quickly decide they can't have you waiting like that things will change. Worked for me - our Engg director spent not 30sec waiting for a big assembly to regenerate and he had ants in his pants.

They might not understand tech, but they will understand a person sitting and waiting.

Dave