What is the optimum environment for Archicad 11

[Anonymous]

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

[henrypootel]

umm. i just sort of pick it up as i go along. http://www.tomshardware.com is good, as is the wikipedia and various magazines. Plus i have a vested interest in researching this stuff(games), so that helps.
If you are at all interested, this excellent guide is a great start:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-beginners,1288.html

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your advice.
OpenGL 3D speed is very important factor for AC since AC10.
The movement and presentation are similar to computer game.
I am not a expert, but I can imagine, for AC the game graphics card would be good for this purpose.
That means, workstation graphic card is nonsense for AC.
Is my idea right?

[henrypootel]

yes, except that if you encounter problems in 3D(ie weird lines across the screen or other strange graphical artifacts), then your chip manufacturer(nVidia or AMD) will actually help to find a solution for this if you are using a workstation card, whereas for a gaming card, they will just not care.
Also, Graphisoft actually test ArchiCAD on a range of workstation cards, and note whether they work well, and if so, in which driver version here:
http://www.archicadwiki.com/Video_Cards
So basically, a workstation card is a safer bet that it will work with archicad. Although there aren't many cards that do have issues with archicad, I like the idea that my card is one that Graphisoft have tested and can tell me which driver to use.