Back to the Graphics Cards...Again

[Eltron]

Recently I've been having a problem that essentially makes SW not usable, which (as you might suspect) is not a good thing. The problem that I am having is that the viewport in SW freezes whenever I attempt to work on or even open anything. The program doesn't frag itself. All of the menus, shortcut keys, feature manager selections still work. I can even save what I'm working on. If I didn't need to see what I was designing then the software would be just fine. I guess I should just quit whining, right? Anyway, if I select the "Use Software OpenGL" option, I don't have the issue, but then I loose the graphics acceleration that I need. If I dial the acceleration on my card all the way to nil I'm OK, too.

Before we go too much further, here are some relevant specs:
nVidia Quadro FX 560
SW '09 sp 3.0
Win XP 32bit

SW shows the graphics card is certified. I've tried all of the recommended drivers, plus some that aren't recommended. Did a repair install on SW. Upgraded to the new SP. No dice. Looks like all fingers are pointing to the graphics card for some reason. I'm thinking that either it shat the bed or it just doesn't cut the mustard for '09 with high-res. So far the VAR hasn't offered me a eureka moment.

Anyway, I was looking through this thread:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=226087,

and it seems like a new nVidia Quadro is going to be the way to go. However, when I checked the benchmark here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/FireGL-Quadro-Workstation,1995-12.html

it seems like anything over a 570 would be a waster for SW '07.

So the question is, has that changed for SW '09? Is there a more-current benchmark? As it is I'm leaning towards the 1700 for no other reason than it's a little better than my 560.

Any advise would be 'preciated.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

To do it correctly, you must hunt down an obscure piece of freeware to properly uninstall the old driver, perform the long installation (hope you don't have many icons on your desktop), restart, reinstall, restart, etc.

That is the 'foolproof' method, but it doesn't necessarily have to be used. I have successfully simply updated nVidia drivers without any uninstalls or reboots. Caveat ... that is for my 'ancient' FX500/600 card.

 

[Eltron]

OK. So I'm looking around the ATI website, and I stumble across a comparison between an ATI FirePro and an nVidia Quadro 570. Check the attached pic. What does this chart mean? There are no units and no explanation. Am I to believe that a higher number is better? What gives?

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[AnnaWood]

Eltron,

Yes, bigger numbers are better.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
Anna Built Workstation, Core i7 EE965, FirePro V8700, 12 gigs of RAM, OCZ Vertex 120 Gig SSD
SW2009 SP3.0, Windows 7 RC1

http://www.solidmuse.com

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Considering ATI is comparing their 'new-generation' Fire Pro card using GDDR3 to an 'older' nVidia FX card using GDDR2, I think the 570 did pretty damn good.

 

[Eltron]

Quick update: SW finally got back to me two weeks after they were notified of the "critical" problem. Anyway, they suggested a reg patch which I ran this morning. All seems to be going fine so far. I'll keep you posted.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[Theophilus]

Two weeks isn't fast enough for you, Dan? Geez.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

A people governed by fear cannot value freedom.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

What was the reg' patch?

 

[Eltron]

Theo, I had literally already put in the PO for my new card when the email came in. Caught it in time to cancel it, though. Agitating.

After I'm sure the patch worked I'll upload it, Limey.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[Eltron]

Alright, I have been using SW all day without incident, so I'm calling it fixed. Here is that reg patch. I have no idea what it does.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[twinsemi]

Thanks to AnnaWood and Ron Bates for the post about switching to the Vista Theme. It worked for my chronic problem of a stuck model display. This has been a problem (unsolved by the people at my vendor support) ever since I got the new computer with Vista last year.

Here is what it did. Whenever any pop-up window (when you click on a face or edge and the icons appear, or when the Command Manager is floating and set to auto-disappear) goes away, the only part of the window that is active is where the pop-up used to be. To prevent this from occuring, I have to click on some part of the window off the model before rotating or zooming with the mouse. Otherwise, the rotation or zoom will only occur in the small region vacated by the pop-up.

Thank you again, people. This should be told to every SWX user as they go to Vista.

Tom Winsemius
Oxigraf, Inc.

 

[007bondy]

Something to think about guys is that a number of nvidea chips are actually defective and die after a period of time .
Going solely from memory nvidea has had quite a bit of chip manufacturing probs over the last year or 2 so you may have gotten a chip that although it passed qcing was not up to par .
I think the manufacturing issue is related to TSMC in Taiwan and the probs they have been having.
Just my 2cents worth

 

[twinsemi]

Here is another thing that I have found on the Theme issue.

If you update the graphics driver, (at least for my FX 1500 nVidia) you have to reset the theme to Vista after doing so. This means changing to a different theme and then back to the Vista theme.

I found this after going from the latest nVidia driver back to the latest SWX approved driver. After doing this my problem returned. Rolling back to the newer driver didn't help until I forced the theme from Vista to Classic and back to Vista.

This would seem to indicate that the driver is not behaving properly until a theme setting straightens it out. (way past my level of intimate details - total conjecture)

Tom Winsemius
Oxigraf, Inc.

 

[SBaugh]

Here is a blog I posted and my companies site on "When looking to buy a new video card"

I hope this helps anyone that views this thread further.

Best regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

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