Nvidia card

[Jon Dieterlen]

What's the difference in the geforce series and the quadro cards. A guy at the electronics store said the ge force was a better card.

I think it is a matter of what you are processing. Right?

Is version 6 going to get faster, or do I need to get a new laptop?

Thanks, Jon

[Nick M Singer]

Yippee this topic AGAIN!!!! Time to raise a few hackles and irritate those die hard Quadro folk. I run my main system on an NVidia GTX 260 and it is just as fast as my notebook with same base spec (processor, RAM etc) and has a Quadro 3500. The only difference is the price and of course the GTX is way cheaper especially here in South Africa. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE IN PERFORMANCE so say what you like it is a fact and dont waste your money!!

[DanEpps]

Yippee this topic AGAIN!!!! Time to raise a few hackles and irritate those die hard Quadro folk. I run my main system on an NVidia GTX 260 and it is just as fast as my notebook with same base spec (processor, RAM etc) and has a Quadro 3500. The only difference is the price and of course the GTX is way cheaper especially here in South Africa. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE IN PERFORMANCE so say what you like it is a fact and dont waste your money!!

Absoutely NOT TRUE!!! If you were to run a true performance test using benchmarking software you would find a great difference in performance. You might not be able to see some of the differences using "eye tests" but they exist.

The Quadro series cards are designed for OpenGL proecssing (technical applications like CAD, eCabinets, etc) and the GeForce series cards are designed for Direct3D processing (games). It is not a matter of being a diehard Quadro user, it is a matter of how the cards are designed (both hardware and drivers). eCabinets does NOT use Direct3D, only OpenGL.

[Jon Dieterlen]

I guess a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. A system may be limited by something other than the graphics card.

My laptop specs are AMD 64 4000+ clock speed 1.53 ghz, 1 gb ram (my limiting factor), ATI radeon x600.

This machine ran v5 pretty well, but v6 seems much more demanding. My v6 job files are 22-30 MB, compared to 15-20 mb for the job files created w/v5. I think the new LDE makes the files larger.

I guess ecab cannot utilize duo or quad core processors. Correct? Do the quad core processors have a slower single core clock speed than a single or duo core processor?

Will a duo core processor run this software faster than a quad core?


Jon

[DanEpps]

You actually have several factors affecting performance--CPU speed, RAM and video card. Your video card uses system RAM so that lowers it from the 1GB for applications.

For the best eCabinets performance, you need a workstation-class desktop computer with 4GB RAM. A laptop, even a mobile workstation, will never provide the same performance as a desktop.

Don't let the goons at Best Buy, Office Depot, Wal-Mart, etc try to sell you a home or gaming PC--they just aren't the same as a technical workstation. They will try to tell you it will handle anything because that is what they have to sell (plus, they don't have a clue what a technical application is).

You are correct in that the current (and previous) version of eCabinets will not directly benefit from a multi-core processor. A multi-core processor will, however, allow you to run eCabinets and other applications at the same time provided you have enough RAM.

Think of your eCabinets system as you would any other shop tool--get the very best you can afford and you won't be disappointed. Use it only for eCabinets and design work, not to play on the internet. Keep non-eCabinets users away from it just like you would keep any non-operators away from any other shop tool.

Look at the recommended systems (http://www.ecabinetsystems.com/ecabinet ... system.htm) and try to stay within those recommendations.

[Tom Nienow]

So, if I bump up to a better graphics card (I'm going by the recomendations) and you folks change the program again, is it going to be good enough in the long haul? I upgraded the cpu a year ago to run the program, V5 ran great, V6 B1,B2,B3............not so much, so I want to make sure I don't under purchase on the video card, I like a saw blade to last a while. Will the recommendations last, I can't justify $400 on a vid card, not to mention how my wife would fell about spending the cash on something like that.

[Nick M Singer]

Uhhh Dan if you cant see the difference then what is the point? It either works better in your experience or it does not. This is not an academic exercise this is real life!

[George Davidson]

First How are you doing Dan
I have updated to the recommended system
I have not yet got Window-7 P
One thing recommended system needs is 2-Monitors my Desktop Systems works great now
Here are some of the CAD program I run on it now. They are a lot faster