topic Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance in Installation & update

Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

griggadee — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 10:12:35 GMT

Morning Folks,

I use my desktop PC for most of my drawing work and although the performance can always be improved, it generally does the business very well. The main spec for my desktop PC is in my signature below.

However, I have recently purchased this laptop to use whilst travelling:

http://www.johnlewis.com/dell-xps-15-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-ram-1tb-hdd-32gb-ssd-15-6-/p2507320

The main spec is as follows:

Intel Core i5-6300HQ Processor
NVIDIA GeForce GTX960M (2GB DDR5) Graphics Card
8gb RAM
1TB Hard Drive + 32GB Solid State Drive
1920 x 1080 Full HD Screen
Windows 10 (64 bit)
ArchiCAD 18

The laptop works well and is fast and responsive for most tasks. However, I have noticed the following issues when I use Archicad:

1) There is a slight millisecond delay when using the wall tool and the beam tool in the 2d window. This occurs when I click my first point for placing the start of the wall/beam and then again when I click the second point to finish it. All other tools seem fine.
2) When using the orbit tool in the 3d window, there appears to be some graphics distortion coming and going randomly. The overall image quality is excellent and it's smooth and sharp to move in orbit, but even if only slightly, should it be distorting at all? The distortion comes in the form of lines across the moving 3d model.
3) Although this seems to vary slightly, just opening a 'new' drawing file from scratch can take up to 2 minutes! This seems crazy long to me, but maybe this is the case on laptops or when using normal hard drives. By comparison, my desktop PC takes approx 15 seconds.

Maybe I am expecting too much (I am a perfectionist by nature), but as a daily professional user, I do not want even a millisecond delay. There is no delay whatsoever when using my desktop PC.

Any feedback or even advice on optimising my graphics card or Archicad would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 23:40:59 GMT

fyi -
my mbp, takes about 30 seconds on average to open a file. Your 2 mins seems excessive.

with my mbp 3d modeling is atrocious, slow and painful, and i'm soon to upgrade to something new.

do you have any more details on that SSD your using ?

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

ci-JoshOs — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 21:05:16 GMT

I have a very similarly specced machine and don't have problems, but I have heard of some people reporting issues caused by the nVidia Gamestream tech.
You could try disabling the gamestream service and see if that makes any difference?

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

Laszlo Nagy — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 09:46:13 GMT

It is probably best to just uninstall the GeForce Experience application as that has been known to cause issues with ARCHICAD (maybe that service is part of the GeForce Experience installation).

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

griggadee — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 08:07:59 GMT

Thanks for the input guys.

Funny enough, my brand new laptop has just died on me and is now unable to even boot! Seems to be a BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO issue which is going to require either a complete reinstall of the operating system, or a new laptop! I would think that maybe the issues with performance were related to a far bigger problem than initially thought.

Having just lost days of work, someone at John Lewis / Dell is about to get a serious ear bashing!

I'll give a performance update again once I get a new machine and put Archicad through its paces a little more.

Cheers.

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 14:06:12 GMT

I'm looking at new laptop to run arhcicad so this is a very helpful thread! What brand of laptop should I get? What are you guys using?

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

griggadee — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 15:45:04 GMT

Good question!

You can check the spec stated on my earlier post for the i5 Dell that I am about to return and use it as a benchmark. Unfortunately, due to it dying on me, I have no real way of telling if the performance issues were down to a hardware fault as opposed to too low a specification. People on here have actually implied that they run ArchiCAD well on lower spec machines, which I find remarkable.

Once I return my current laptop, I intend to buy this one, which has an all-round improved spec:

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?oc=cnx5512&model_id=xps-15-9550-laptop

After paying the extra money, I hope it performs brilliantly without further issues with lagging and graphics glitches etc. Thing is, it still features an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960m 2GB GDDR5 card instead of the Nvidia Quadro M1000M w/2GB GDDR5 which I can get on a slightly more expensive workstation model, but I really don't know if it's worth it considering the 960m seems to outperform it in almost all categories.

If anyone can tell me whether ArchiCAD performs better on the Quadro over the Geforce then that would also be great!

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 01:41:55 GMT

I just bought a METABOX p750DM last week.
it's the bomb. They feature a full DESKTOP CPU. Battery life is not great, they're also heavy, but still portable and powerful.
specs are:
15.6" FHD 1920x1080 IPS WVA Matte 60Hz LED
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M with 8GB GDDR5 VRAM
Intel Core i7-6700K Processor (8M Cache up to 4.0 GHz)
24GB DDR4 2133MHZ (3 x 8GB)
Samsung 950 Pro 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD
Crucial 250GB MX200 SATA 3 M.2 SSD
No Hard Drive - Optional Upgrade
No Secondary Hard Drive - Optional Upgrade
Intel 8260 AC Dual Band WIFI/BT
No Optical Disc Drive - Optional Upgrade
Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit
2 Year Metabox Platinum Care Onsite Pickup Protection
Standard Metabox Design

2 other IMPORTANT devices ive bought are a razer naga chroma (gaming mouse) these have 19 programmable buttons.
ALSO
a 3D connection- wireless space mouse - THESE ARE FREAKING AMAZING.

http://www.metabox.com.au/store/professional-mobile-workstations

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

griggadee — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 07:07:25 GMT

My god, sounds like a beast! I didn't even think that was possible to have a desktop CPU in a laptop! Shame I can't buy Metabox laptops in the UK or I'd definitely consider one. Don't think I'd be able to afford one though to be honest, considering this is a secondary (travelling) PC for me.

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 09:55:25 GMT

They do ship internationally.
I'm very happy with it. Ive been planning a new system for months, contemplated a mid range desktop together with a lower spec mbp. But i think the metabox has the best of both worlds. The down side is battery life, there's nothing better than a mbp for battery life.
But the metabox is just so customizable, espically the drives, dual hdd or ssd or pcie or a combo of both. My only regret is not getting the 17inch model and possibly 4k, as i'm so used to the mbp retina display ratio.

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 19:29:49 GMT

Metabox didnt impress me
That's why I have chosen MSI
https://www.msi.com/Notebook/GT72S-6QE-DOMINATOR-PRO-G-tobii.html#hero-overview

Why? High performance for a reasonable price and good assembly quality.
Also MSI laptops are developed for gamers = durable and convenient keyboard, good network card.

If someone tells me about professional video card for ArchiCAD, I will send him straight to hell
Just trust me, I have both, gaming and almost top FirePRO

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

SenecaDesignLLC — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 10:49:31 GMT

MSI for life! They have awesome warranty service too!

Re: Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

griggadee — Mon, 23 May 2016 19:28:23 GMT

UPDATE:

After returning the first Dell XPS 15 that I bought, which featured an i5 processor, I bought the same machine but with the improved specification (i7 processor, 16gb RAM, 512gb SSD):

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?oc=cnx5512&model_id=xps-15-9550-laptop

First impressions using ArchiCAD are that it works very well. It seems responsive and sharp. There are still a few minor distortions when using the fly through navigation in the 3d window, but these are no big deal. Files open quickly and there is no lag when using the wall and beam tool in the 2d window as there was with the previous machine.

All-in-all I am very happy and would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a top-of-the-range multimedia laptop to run ArchiCAD on. It's certainly fine for high-end professional use.

One thing though, Laszlo Nagy is right, it’s probably best to just uninstall the GeForce Experience application as that has been known to cause issues with ARCHICAD (his words). I did and I haven't had any problems like I did before.