topic new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations) in Installation & update

new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Wed, 04 May 2016 06:58:02 GMT

I would like to buy a new PC my old one works ok but is slow with shadows even on small projects. And slow regenerating in elevation views.

OLD PC
i5@3,2Ghz (quad-core)
240GB SSD
8GB RAM
Nivdia quadro K620

New PC
i7@4,0Ghz (quad-core)
256GB SSD M.2
32GB RAM
Nvidia quadro K620 (I would like to wait for the new PASCAL microarchitecture or maybe a game video card??)

Regenerating elevation views will this be faster with the new PC? And 3D shadows?

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Laszlo Nagy — Wed, 04 May 2016 15:00:10 GMT

Would it be possible for you to ask the sales guys to let you install ARCHICAD on it and try it? Based on the specs, it is not possible to tell without knowing the exact type of your old and new CPU. What is the type behind i5 and i7? i5-2000 (such as i5-2600) series, 3000 series, 6000 series (e.g. i7-6700). These are different generations of Intel CPUs.

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 08:47:41 GMT

I already ordered the New PC. If the PC has still slow updates on elevations I post in this topic.

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Sun, 08 May 2016 06:45:59 GMT

tjibbe wrote:
I already ordered the New PC. If the PC has still slow updates on elevations I post in this topic.

The most likely you will not see any performance changes.

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

shtarkel — Sun, 08 May 2016 07:35:58 GMT

tjibbe wrote:
Regenerating elevation views will this be faster with the new PC? And 3D shadows?

Yes! The CPU is used for generating views and shadows, so buy the best possible CPU with 4-6-8 cores!

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Sun, 08 May 2016 19:58:23 GMT

I found the price between 4x4.0Ghz i7 and 6x3.5 Ghz Xeon to large. (€350 vs €600 and more expensive motherboard for the Xeon)

Two 4-core 3.6Ghz Xeon on a dual CPU motherboard was the best option in my opinion but still €700 more then 4-core at 4.0Ghz, This because the high price of dual CPU motherboards.

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2016 09:43:45 GMT

it is not easy to predict what will AC20 demand. But current picture tells me: "go for cores, not frequency".

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2016 11:56:03 GMT

Just having a new hardware discussion with the bosses. and i'm trying to figure out whether to push for a high end graphics card or not. What processes are these used for?

This could mean the difference between 2 or 3 new PCs which is a big deal for a creaking system.

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

DGSketcher — Mon, 09 May 2016 14:03:38 GMT

There is some firm guidance from Graphisoft on the selection of graphics cards to work with AC. I can't remember where it is just now but search these forums and you will see graphics cards are a popular topic. You can pay a lot of money and not see any benefit!!!

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

shtarkel — Mon, 09 May 2016 14:59:33 GMT

Here it is - http://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/technotes/video-cards/recommended-video-cards-for-archicad-19/

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2016 19:14:19 GMT

it is not easy to predict what will AC20 demand. But current picture tells me: "go for cores, not frequency".

I thought that if the CPU are from the same generation (14nm) the CPU underneath are equal speed.

4 core @ 3.6ghz (4x3,6=14,4ghz)
6 core @ 2.4ghz. (6x2,4=14,4ghz)

But for AC the 6-core will be faster? If so, is this because other processes don't need the full 3.6ghz. But only need a little part and the rest of the ghz can not be shared with AC?

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2016 19:57:41 GMT

tjibbe wrote:
it is not easy to predict what will AC20 demand. But current picture tells me: "go for cores, not frequency".
I thought that if the CPU are from the same generation (14nm) the CPU underneath are equal speed.

4 core @ 3.6ghz (4x3,6=14,4ghz)
6 core @ 2.4ghz. (6x2,4=14,4ghz)

But for AC the 6-core will be faster? If so, is this because other processes don't need the full 3.6ghz. But only need a little part and the rest of the ghz can not be shared with AC?

This is not corect math 4x3.6 not equal to 6x2.4 in computer world.
Basically yes, AC do not use cores at full load, so more threads - higher performance in theory. I see some proofs of this in real work.

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

shtarkel — Mon, 09 May 2016 21:46:14 GMT

When ARCHICAD renders it uses all the cores at 100%! Also the cores are used intense in section/elevation.
So more cores and overclocked is the best solution, that's why I use the Intel 3930k.

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Wed, 11 May 2016 10:58:16 GMT

shtarkel wrote:
When ARCHICAD renders it uses all the cores at 100%! Also the cores are used intense in section/elevation.
So more cores and overclocked is the best solution, that's why I use the Intel 3930k.

100% CPU load i see only during the photorendering. While working with plan/section/elevations/3D window CPU utilization is ~ 20%

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

shtarkel — Wed, 11 May 2016 12:11:13 GMT

Thats exactly what I said! Try making a complex section and see your CPU? Make a screenshhot again

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Wed, 11 May 2016 13:06:36 GMT

shtarkel wrote:
Thats exactly what I said! Try making a complex section and see your CPU? Make a screenshhot again

I think that section, which is taking more than a minute to regenerate, is complex enough. There are 15 sections, 4 elevations

none of the cores is utilized more than 20%

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

shtarkel — Wed, 11 May 2016 14:25:35 GMT

20% is because the engine behind ARCHICAD don't utilize all the CPU power but 20% is not small, also when I update drawings, make complex sections...etc. The CPU utilization has spikes!

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Thu, 12 May 2016 18:28:59 GMT

shtarkel wrote:
20% is because the engine behind ARCHICAD don't utilize all the CPU power but 20% is not small, also when I update drawings, make complex sections...etc. The CPU utilization has spikes!

20% is not enough for me. It is quite annoying to wait 5-10 minutes just to change some property for all stud walls in the plan.

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Jacques Toerien — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 20:22:49 GMT

I know it's one month later, but rather than looking at the graph showing the 'average' CPU usage, open the Resource Meter and look at the graph for each CPU core / virtual core. You should be able to see how the cores are used (or not) when updating sections / elevations / shadows etc. as you can see all the cores in one view.

Re: new PC advice (old pc: slow updates on elevations)

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 19:18:34 GMT

Jacques wrote:
I know it's one month later, but rather than looking at the graph showing the 'average' CPU usage, open the Resource Meter and look at the graph for each CPU core / virtual core. You should be able to see how the cores are used (or not) when updating sections / elevations / shadows etc. as you can see all the cores in one view.

I did it as well. Every core is utilised 0-20%