Grafic card and SLI

[gbon]

Hi alls,



I'm wondering if there is any interest using 2 graphic cards instead of just
one.



For example, I've got an old Quadro Fx1700.

Would it be better to add a second one for Creo (Few dollars on Ebay) ?



Thanks,

GB

[bgruman]

GB,

This is a little bit of an assumption on my part because I haven't actually
tested it yet, but here is my take.
It depends on which version of Pro/E your running...

I did do an SLI test once on WF4, and there was no performance increase.
To my understanding this is because Pro/E still relies very heavily on the
CPU for much of its graphics calculation. I believe this is true clear
thru Creo1. There was rumor, and I think the OCUS numbers show that Creo2
is now relying more on the GPU rather than the CPU. So, the assumption
would be that with Creo2 and beyond, SLI may have a chance of showing
graphics performance increases with Pro/E. (But again, I haven't
actually tested it so I don't know for sure.)

If you try it, let me know how it turns out.
Good Luck,
Bernie

Bernie Gruman
Owner / Designer / Builder
www.GrumanCreations.com

[JonathanHodgson]

You could try running something like GPU-Z or nVidia Inspector (I'm assuming that works with Quadro cards) to keep a graph of GPU usage while you're working with Pro/E.

If the GPU graph often hits 100%, then I would assume there might be a benefit to either a second card in SLI, or upgrading to a faster graphics card. (Looking at

[dgallup]

Getting a little off topic, but has anyone used the new AMD FirePro cards? They supposedly worked closely with PTC developing new transparency shaders that are both faster and more realistic. I'm going to be getting a new workstation shortly and I'm considering the 4GB AMD FirePro W700, it's about the same price as a 2GB nVidia Quadro 4000. We have used nothing but nVidia in recent years but wondering if AMD might have turned the corner and worth considering again.

http://fireprographics.com/creo/

http://fireprographics.com/resources/creo/Creo_OIT...

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