Workstations

[Anonymous]

Wow, what a great forum, i just realised this was here.

I have set up standards in our office for the last 5 years, 15 users and am now taking the time to seriously implement a very thorough template and procedural system so will let you know how it goes and hopefully get some advice.

My first port of call is the workstation configuration which could possible be posted in the hardware forum but i think cad managers generally have a big input into the configuration also. Has anyone spec'd new systems lately? Below is the spec i am looking at, any comments are welcome? Some of the spec has come about from peoples comments in the forums, particularly the video card.

Cpu : Pentium D Dual Core 930 3000 Mhz, 2 x 2048k l2 on-die cache,
800 Mhz fsb, socket 775, EM64T & XD (Intel)
Motherboard : Intel D945P chipset, 1s / 1p / 6usb2 port with
4 x SATA, udma & fdd controller on board (PSNLK Intel)
Memory : 2 x 1024m ddr2-533 PC-4200 (Kingston)
Video card : nVidia 512m 7900GTX PCIe video card
Monitor/s : 2 x 17" LG

Are people going with single cpu's or dual core?

[Anonymous]

Organicsabre - Cant say i know what the equivalent workstation card is to a 1024mb desktop card. But in AutoCAD i would think there is a dramatic difference in using an equivalent workstation card over the gaming card, otherwise why would the manufactureres make them?, why would they sell? They are not just some rare video card, there is alot of models around. It is just not advertised much in the mainstream market.

Aren't workstation cards also optimized for openGL? They just have different priorities, say as a guess, gaming would place more emphasis on process high loads of multiple lighting effects, while a workstation card would place it more on precise lighting effects?

Anyway, in a dream world archicad would take advantage of every technology. If there is hardware (and software) out their designed specifically for CAD, it would be good to see it implemented sooner rather than latter. And it do take the point it should only be implemented if it is going to be beneficial and weighs over other areas of development. If it is ever implemented it would be good to continue this debate then, as this is all speculation. On the other hand graphisoft may announce it will not prove beneficial to the software and so make the decision not to implement it. This is a possibility but i think surprising.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Organicsabre wrote:
The gaming graphics engines are getting so advanced and still use open gl. Archicad is still using open gl for rendering etc. so is it worth spending thousands of $ on a workstation card when you can these days get the same amount of performance using gaming cards for much less, thats my question.

Just one remark: ArchiCAD is using OpenGL in the 3D Window, not in Rendering.