topic Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11 in Installation & update

What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:28:07 GMT

Hi all,

Sometimes my computer is excruciatingly slow when performing operations with archicad 11. I'm wondering if my computer and/or graphics card need to be upgraded. (I know nothing about this kind of thing, so please bare with my ignorance:-)

This is my set up:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional 2002
AMD Athlon (tm) 64 x 2 Dual
Core Processor 3800+
2.01 GHz, 1.00GB of RAM
Adapter: NVIDIA Ge force 6200 Turbo Cache (TM)

Is there anything I can do to make my computer work faster?
Cheers

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Dwight — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:45:58 GMT

Double up that RAM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hard Drive space? How much is unused?

Location of temporary files makes sense? Using the default locations?

How current is the video card?

Exactly what operations are slow and how complex are your models?

A few 3D trees slow you right down in perspectives.

Somewhere you'll find a thread about TRACE reference updating that slows the plan view regeneration - i think....

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Anonymous — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:06:14 GMT

I doubled up the sheep as suggested, unfortunately it doesn't seem to have changed things much.

I've got 82.8 GB left on my hard drive.

i'm not sure where the temp files go...where should they go?

My graphics card is NVIDIA Ge force 6200 Turbo Cache (TM). Our IT guy says it's a few years old. How much difference does the graphics card make?

Operations are slow mainly during section generation and working in the 3d window. The trace reference slows things up as well.

Could it be my CPU? I've attached and image on the readings during an operation that was taking a while (generating a section). It looks like my rams ok, but the CPU is fully used. How much of a difference would it make with an upgraded CPU?
Cheers

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Dwight — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:21:26 GMT

You don't have a buzzillion trees or anything like that in the model?

You want all of the CPU to be used when it does a task. Otherwise it is goofing off. If your CPU is not working very hard, fire it and get a new one.

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Anonymous — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:36:33 GMT

No trees, but I have modelled a twisted roof form with the mesh 3d tool by Petri, and then used SEO to trim my walls...hmmm perhaps that's what it is.

Good advice about the CPU, looks like it doing the right thing then? thanks.

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Dwight — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:42:10 GMT

Turn it off and see.

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Anonymous — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:36:19 GMT

How about with dual processor?

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Dwight — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:44:24 GMT

Dwight wrote:
Turn it off and see.

What i meant was turn off the fancy roof and see.

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Anonymous — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:09:19 GMT

Turning off the roof made operations faster. So I guess I'll have to put up with the slow speed until I've generated all of my elevations and sections, and then unlink them to work on them further?
Otherwise this project might take me forever

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

ci-JoshOs — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:22:16 GMT

It's not really going to affect you section generation performance, but that video card is rubbish. It was the bottom of the heap about 2 or 3 years ago, so it's not looking so good now. Also, 'Turbo Cache' is fancy marketing speak for 'i will steal your RAM whenever i feel like it and there's nothing you can do about it', which is not so great.

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Anonymous — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:02:16 GMT

well I never...
Thanks for the advice on my loser graphics card. Can anyone recommend a good one?
Thanks

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Dwight — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:06:02 GMT

Olivia wrote:
well I never...

i know. makes a person think they are drawing with the blunt end of the crayon.

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Anonymous — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:04:13 GMT

Olivia wrote:
well I never...
Thanks for the advice on my loser graphics card. Can anyone recommend a good one?
Thanks

I'm using the Nvidia GeForce 8800GT (512MB) quite happily. There have been numerous reports of problems with ATI cards so I avoid them (at least for now - these things change)

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Dwight — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:07:42 GMT

And me, too, despite grumbling from some quarters about its performance with Motion and some other Apple applications.

Whatever you do,don't ask it to drive a second display sideways. Great gobs of color flashes!!!

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

ci-JoshOs — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:18:02 GMT

the quadro 570 is a good 'un. nice and quick, stable, and cheap(for a Quadro). or the gf8800, if you want to play some games as well.

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Anonymous — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:58:56 GMT

Any suggestions for AGP and PCI graphic card for my old workstation?

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

ci-JoshOs — Sun, 18 May 2008 23:27:05 GMT

Depends on the spec of the machine of course. For AGP, you shouls be able to get one of the GeForce 7xxx range. 7800 or 7900 for high-end, 7600Gt for mid-range. Of course, if you have a P4-1.6 or something, then the Graphics card is not going to make much difference.
If by PCI you mean the original(ie PCI 1), then forget it. You might be able to find a second hand GeForce 2 or something, but it will be terrible for archicad, as would any machine that only has a PCI slot in it(5 years old+).
If you mean PCIx16, then get anything you want, as that is the current standard.

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Anonymous — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:42:32 GMT

Thanks Hnerypootel
It is always big advantage to have hardware freak in forum.
They can advice right things specially for AC.
Just one more question.
Is this one ok for Workstation need, regarding rendering and OpenGL and so on?
I informed, the fastest AGP graphiccard is Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800GS+, (512 MB) AGP.
In a moment I have Ati FireGL X2 256t, but I was very disapointed. I had to listen to the advice from this forum. This one is very loud, and bad OpenGL move.

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

ci-JoshOs — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:01:30 GMT

well the 7800 is not a workstation card like your X2, but as a gaming card it will perform roughly twice as fast as a Radeon 9800, on which your X2 is based. Should be a bit quieter though. So in other words, yes, it will be much faster in ArchiCAD, but no guarantees can be made as to whether it will works without weird screen artifacts.
I have not heard of any problems with the 7800, so i would say it will be fine, but make sure you give it a good run-through in ArchiCAD before your 'right-of-return' expires.
BTW, the Graphics card will not effect your rendering performance, only your OpenGL 3D speed.

Re: What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

Dwight — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:06:31 GMT

Where would a fellow learn more about the cryptic world of graphics cards?