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Installation & update
About program installation and update, hardware, operating systems, setup, etc.

Nvidia Quadro FX 2500M with ArchiCAD

Anonymous
Not applicable
Just purchased a new Dell Precision M90 Laptop with a Nvidia Quadro FX 2500M with 512 MB. The laptop has 4G Ram.
My previous system had had 1G Ram and a ATI Radeon with 128 MB.

This new system is not as good in 3D using the OpenGL. Specifically, meshes flicker on and of, and the windows and doors openings often show empty when orbiting.

I found a "Partner Certified Driver" on the Nvidia site here. the driver says that the card does not support it.

ALso the Nvidia Control panel has many options and profiles, so far I have not found the "magic" profile. Can anyone help configure this card to work with ArchiCAD. I am also using a Dual Monitors and AC10.
4 REPLIES 4
Anonymous
Not applicable
The "missing" objects and details in orbit/explore is simply a setting that can be helpful (or not). =

3D Window Settings\Options\OpenGL Options:
The bottom slider ("Always display all elements located within the following radius") simply means that when you MOVE (orbit/explore) until you stop or pause a brief instant, the movement information won't be calculated for the GPU within this radius (vs. outside it- strange but...).
-So when you MOVE the 3D view, these things within this radius are NOT drawn until you pause/stop. To speed the movement up and take some of the load off the GPU, turn it way down: when you move the view only the basic elements will be displayed while moving, and won't be rendered till you pause an instant (hence the see-through objects and missing doors-windows, stairs, GDL stuff, etc...
To make everything never disappear, turn it the slider all the way up to the right, and it will render everything constantly. Make sure you've got a fast GPU!!!!

....Experiment with moving the slider and then exploring or orbiting the model in 3d- try it at 100 and 5000 for reference...I think the default is 2000? My 7900 GS can handle it all the way up on very complex models, your model ought to be similar or identical; you've got a fast enough GPU that you could set it up quite high- and it will ALWAYS calculate everything within the view up to whatever number you set (5000 no problem unless you're really making some hefty models)....

If you want things to ALWAYS be drawn turn it up all the way.

For jerky movement, the FPS might be too low... turn them up. This is the slider above- default is 10 or 25 (max?)

You can also remove/check/uncheck the boxes like so...

[ ]Highlights
[ ]Emission
[ ]Smooth Surfaces
Textures


That can help speed things up, or take a little load off the GPU and CPU for faster 3D movements.



... I think you can customize this max fps in the registry- I'll post if I find it. The Nvidia 7800+ and nice memory on it ought to be able to handle the MAXIMUM settings no problem, at 60 fps unless one has like 1000 GDL objects, wot?


Anonymous
Not applicable
OH yeah, and if you install anything but the correct driver, you're ok but I recommend you DL a driver REMOVER to completely remove the old driver and then install the new correct one- this is ESPECIALLY TRUE (for anyone stumbling here to this thread out of curiosity) with ATI video cards!!!

Honestly though, if you do the above and it still isn't incredibly smooth and perfect, either you're rebuilding a city in too much detail (and no machine on earth will render it short of the server farms in Carolina, USA) or you've got the wrong drivers installed.

MajorGeeks has some driver removing apps you can read a little about and choose. Some are free, some shareware or pay. Most have been used by people who have tried a few (star ratings). It is a nice rig and absolutely capable of perfect 3D window movements orbits/exploring without a single glitch.
Dwight
Newcomer
JP-Design wrote:
the server farms in Carolina, USA
I hear the soil there is especially rich in transistors.
Dwight Atkinson
Anonymous
Not applicable

Well they put a whole new twist on "INBRED to the core" that's for sure (try that one on for a slogan, Intel!).


(I'm just kidding, just kidding- but it sure is fun to rank on dem good 'ol ap'l'ashun folks in 'Merika)

The carolinas t's where the big government agencies run some of their giant data acquisition and processing centers (vs. the processing farms for "America's Finest" and the wanting to become the REAL finest in the land-of-opportunity, so to speak). But mums the word and you didn't hear it from the forums or me.