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Installation & update
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Laptop Spec / Archicad Performance

griggadee
Contributor
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.
Paul Griggs BSc (Hons) MCIAT MCIOB
Chartered Architectural Technologist
AC23, i5 3570K Processor, 16gb RAM, NVidia 570GTX Graphics Card, 250gb SSD Drive
12 REPLIES 12
Anonymous
Not applicable
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
MSI for life! They have awesome warranty service too!
griggadee
Contributor
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.
Paul Griggs BSc (Hons) MCIAT MCIOB
Chartered Architectural Technologist
AC23, i5 3570K Processor, 16gb RAM, NVidia 570GTX Graphics Card, 250gb SSD Drive