Please tell me if this is an OK purchase, or what's wrong with it

[baneVader]

The size of the acad files is about 4 megs and then I overlay (reference external) about 2-dozen more but can't get that far so I only do halves.

I wonder if the graphic card in that HP is upgradable or if I can add another one to the spare PCI-E bay, I think the spec is 16-1 do graphic cards use more channels? I looked at WIKI about PCI-E a minute ago

 

[yh125d]

You can upgrade it yeah. Either to a better "gaming" card along the lines of a 4670 or 4770, or an entry level workstation card like a Quadro FX380 maybe? I don't know much about workstation cards...




I'm on 2009 at work, but the most intensive stuff I'm doing usually is ~2mb files with 10MB xrefs


You're working on a 4mb drawing with 2 dozen simultaneous xrefs? Possibly network lag a factor or are the refs locally stored?

 

[baneVader]

Good point, no they're local and I get a bunch loaded but then the regens are so slow, like when saving or moving back and forth to model/paper space.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

From my limited knowledge and working with AutoCAD a bit since R14 in 1997, workstation cards ARE NOT slower when rendering. They are more accurate and SOMETIMES (if the program takes advantage) faster with rendering. They are slower when gaming, however. gfx cards go on the x16 PCIe (and sometimes one or two on 8x in CrossFire/SLi systems), not any old PCIe. I am not sure how well CrossFire/SLi works for AutoCAD or other rendering programs - check out the AutoCAD forum link below.

The speed vs accuracy issue with the cards is analogous to workstation cards and OpenGL store and retrieve the graphical data while the gaming versions and Direct X are designed to stream and discard data.

Many quirky things can happen like this when you consider the type of adapter you use. When you say that your colleague uses a machine with integrated graphics, I can understand why he/she would have graphics issues (probably more of them than you mention here). Yours being a standalone graphics adapter doesn't mean that you won't have certain problems. It depends on what you are doing at the time and the specific adapter you use. Please don't say that you are trying to "get by" with a Radeon or GeForce. That would just be sad (and would further explain your dilemma).

taken from http://discussion.autodesk.com...d.jspa?threadID=655659 you should post on THAT forum for answers about workstation cards, not here.

some other shiz on the matter:
http://www.amd.com/us/products...ages/case-studies.aspx

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

forgot to include this: (they are pricey!)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814133218