ATI Video Card Help

[BigPrizz]

I just built a brand new monster machine with a 2.4GHz core 2 duo processor and a ATI x1950 512mb PCI-E video card. After reinstalling V5 when I start up the program the actual area where the part shows up is a blank gray color, I can't see anything but if I randomly click I can still choose the main planes in a new part.

anyone have any fixes or any experience with this issue?

 

[solid7]

2 questions:

1) Where did you get the information for the components used to build your workstation?

2) Where did you purchase your Catia software from?

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Catia Design|Catia Design News|Catia V5 blog

 

[BigPrizz]

I use this machine at my office to help with my job, I got the specs by combining a few workstation ideas with a few gaming rigs.

I use a floating license at my work to access Catia.

 

[looslib]

That's your problem. CATIA is not a game.

Switch the graphics card for a Nvidia Quadro FX3450 and see your work area.

"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications

 

[kenwozniak]

I have been able to get a consumer-grade nVidia GeForce 6800GT to work with CATIA v5, but I wouldn't do any real heavy work with it. I was only using mine during v5 training.

The Quadro series cards have more hardware capabilities than the GeForce cards, and they are certified to work with CATIA.

The ATI workstation cards are the FireGL series.

You have to spend more for the Quadro or FireGL cards, but you get what you pay for...if stability and performance are important to you, that is.

 

[Albigger]

Yep, I pretty much concur with the above responses.

BUT, when we built a new system, I used a 7950 Geforce card for about 2 months before getting the quadro. It worked 99.9% of the time, just had an occasional display problem with fillets.

You SHOULD be able to get the ATI card working at least to some degree, but I would plan on getting a FireGL or Quadro card in the long run.

Have you tried un-installing / reinstalling the video card drivers? Have you tried different driver version? I'm not sure about the ATI cards, but the quadro/geforce cards were similar enough to where I could run the quadro drivers with the geforce card, so it might be worth it to try the FireGL drivers.

 

[solid7]

I'm not sure about the ATI cards, but the quadro/geforce cards were similar enough to where I could run the quadro drivers with the geforce card, so it might be worth it to try the FireGL drivers.

This USED to be true, but I'm not so sure anymore.

In fact, at one point, I believe that the Nvidia GeForce and Quadro cards were EXACTLY the same functional hardware, but marketed as different cards. (utilizing different drivers only)

I know that the GeForce 7950's are similar to the Quadro FX4500. (they look the same on both the single and dual versions) However, not sure about drivers. I have a feeling that this trick doesn't work like it used to.

Someone really should post the results of this, using modern hardware on CAD (or preferrably Catia) specific operations.

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Catia Design|Catia Design News|Catia V5 blog

 

[Albigger]

Which results are you looking for? I got rid of the 7950 card so I can't do any more comparisons.

I should've saved data, but I remember running Specviewperf 9 with both cards, and the 7950 actually came out ahead in every category (sometimes doubling the quadro score).

But just loading parts / rotating them etc... I couldn't really tell a difference, other than that one anomaly (I should've taken a screen shot).

Other than that the 7950 worked pretty well. I was expecting a big increase in performance when I purchased the fx3500, but didn't see a noticeable one.

You are right that more recently, the hardware is diverging. I did try 3 to 4 driver versions to get one that worked well with the 7950.

All my info is regarding CATIA v5, we had R16 during my testing. Rest of my pertinent hardware is Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.67 GHz) 4gb RAM, Windows XP Pro SP2.

 

[solid7]

Which results are you looking for?

I was just asking which drivers work for which cards. I'm not so interested in benchmarking, because the honest truth is, most people who set up their own workstations don't seem to do their homework before they make a purchase - they go straight to whatever consumer grade hardware seems like the "biggest, baddest thing" at the time. So, they end up getting stuck with uncertified hardware.

The purpose of my pointing this out and asking, was just so we could come up with a matrix of sorts as to which drivers work to make graphics cards functionally equivalent. I do know that once in a while you get lucky with an Nvidia driver...

This comes up so often that it is worth mentioning.

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Catia Design|Catia Design News|Catia V5 blog

 

[Albigger]

Well, currently I'm running the FX 3500 (although the software reports it as 3400/4400) with the NVidia forcware drivers version 81.72 and I like the results. Its a 256mb PCIe card. I'm also running and Intel motherboard.


With the Geforce 7950 I believe I tried 91.36 and 93.71 geforce drivers. I'm pretty sure the newest ones didn't work that well (they aren't certified by Dassault). I also tried the 77.56 ones and I think they were OK, but so are the ones I'm using now and they are newer.

 

[catiajim]

The big difference is that the gaming cards (and their drivers) are have hardware acceleration for DirectX, because that is what the majority of the games use. The QuadraFX and the FireGL cards have hardware support for OpenGL, because that is what CAD systems such as CATIA use. I doubt that the acceleration engines can be changed simply by loading different drivers.

 

[Hora]

Play with the antialiasing features of the card. This should solve your problems.

-Hora