I Need To Build A New PC

[gcode]

1 hour ago, mwearne said:

This is a good video explaining the difference between Quadro and GeForce in CAD/CAM. He's using Inventor but this should directly relate to Mastercam as well. Anyone on a budget for their build should watch.

 

 

There is a top programmer on this forum who shall remain nameless

He bagged on me mercilessly for years over my preference for Quardo cards

One day I noticed that his siggy had changed.

His GeForce card was now a Quadro

I asked him about it and he said his level of work had reached a point where GeForce was not doing the job.

He tried a Quadro and now they are his go to card.

Long story short .. Mastercam needs OpenGL for best performance, Quadro supports it, GeForce does not

If you are doing small simple mill and lathe parts a GeForce will be perfectly OK and there is no point in paying big $$$ for a Quadro.

When you get into big parts, big solid models,  600 meg stock models and complex machine sim you're going to need a Quadro

 

[neurosis]

Might be a worth while read.  

I've been down this road before.  I'm using a GeForce card right now because we were building on a budget.  If I'm working on something simple, it's perfectly fine.  If I get in to a large assembly and need to turn on translucency to be able to see through things, it's almost impossible to rotate the model smoothly.  This is in Mastercam.

I also use TopSolid at work which seems to be a LOT smoother with the GeForce card than MC.  That's not a knock on MC. I'm just pointing out that my experience varies application to application.

https://www.engineering.com/story/whats-the-difference-between-geforce-and-quadro-graphics-cards

Quote

More importantly, the ISVs can tune their applications for optimum use with Quadro cards. This tuning can result in significant performance improvements. Take SOLIDWORKS, for example. In benchmark tests of application performance, SOLIDWORKS performs roughly two times better when using a Quadro RTX 4000 graphics card over a GeForce RTX 2070. Some applications see even more dramatic performance gains: Siemens NX performs about 25 times better on the Quadro RTX 4000 than the GeForce RTX 2070. Not all applications see this level of improvement—it really depends on how much the application utilizes the GPU—but where there are improvements, they’re significant.

[MWearne]

Not trying to start a mud flinging argument about video cards but I think there are some misunderstandings here, maybe on my part so if this is the case let me know.

-OpenGL is software (driver) related not so much hardware and both new Quadro and GeForce support OpenGL 4.6, no difference. Unless I'm missing something? Same for OpenCL.

-From other convos here I'm at the understanding that Mastercam does minimal off loading to the GPU for any calculations, so there should be minimal difference in any number crunching? This leaves the video card for mainly display purposes, correct? Is the ability to display complex assemblies controlled more by the driver or by VRAM? 

If possible, please share a file that should bring a GeForce to its knees. I am curious to see the difference. Not looking to be proved right or wrong, the Quadro should perform better as this is what it is specifically designed for. I really would like to see what the difference is and associate a price tag to that difference (I've not used a Quadro in  over 5 years). By the sounds of things, many of you are running top end Quadros, we could do screen captures and compare. 

If we are talking Quadros simply for reliability, does that mean Quadro users never have Mastercam crash? I think we all know video cards and drivers are the route of most software issues and this definitely is a selling point if it is the case. Personally, I don't have crashing issues but I don't run files with 100 solids in an assembly with 1000 toolpaths so maybe I'm not a great example. 

[cncappsjames]

5 hours ago, mwearne said:

This is a good video explaining the difference between Quadro and GeForce in CAD/CAM. He's using Inventor but this should directly relate to Mastercam as well.

Yeah.... ummmm. No. Inventor and Mastercam behave COMPLETELY differently. I have both. I use both regularly. They are night and day different in graphics behavior.

Unfortunately I don't have any projects I can show that bring to light the differences but they exist.

What exactly are the differences? You'd have to ask the respective motherships for the specifics.

 

Digging my RTX4000 though. I contemplated the RTX5000 but with the work I do, the cost difference didn't justify the added cost. If I did G-Code's or Crazy's work more than 1-2x per year, I would have went with it.

 

I may try to load in a ton of McMaster-Carr capscrews WITH the threads and see at what point it gets bad.

[#Rekd™]

3 hours ago, mwearne said:

 

Not trying to start a mud flinging argument about video cards but I think there are some misunderstandings here, maybe on my part so if this is the case let me know.

 

 

Mike my thoughts are this is a great respectful thread with various opinions. 
 

Possibly it will lead to further research or metrics on what and why.

 

 

[MWearne]

Per cncappsJames' suggestion I edited an old script to create a ton of entities and then see where things fell apart. This file is only wireframe geometry, no solids, no toolaths so not a 100% great test of Mastercam but maybe it's enough to see if there is a difference. 

Video...

https://bit.ly/3ovBvvz

2021 File for those interested...
https://bit.ly/3407Xgc

 

If anyone wants the script I could attach but I don't think its of much use. 

 

[BillyECarroll]

Yes, I will recommend you to just go for Desktop buy all the CPU gears then assemble it because it will be less expensive than a laptop.  ANd would be powerful than a laptop.

[neurosis]

13 hours ago, mwearne said:

Not trying to start a mud flinging argument about video cards but I think there are some misunderstandings here, maybe on my part so if this is the case let me know. 

No mud slinging here.  I can only give anecdotal experiences and cite information that I've read.

I would be curious to see how the newer higher end Quadro cards perform on your sample file.

[crazy^millman]

2 hours ago, BillyECarroll said:

Yes, I will recommend you to just go for Desktop buy all the CPU gears then assemble it because it will be less expensive than a laptop.  ANd would be powerful than a laptop.

Maybe so, but I programs I make on my Laptop that bring most Towers to their knees. If I was in a shop and never went to different places then agree 100% go with a tower, but for what I and others do that requires in and out of different customers a Laptop is the only viable option.

i9-99800HK that clocks to 5ghz, RTX5000 16 GB card with 128gb None ECC memory, Samsung 980 m2 Pro 2TB SSD, 970 m2 Pro 1TB SSD, 960 m2 Pro 1TB SSD and 256gb Class 40 drive. I program files with 300 to 1600 operations in Mastercam with worries about having enough power to program them. Difference is I invested in the Correct Laptop to do so. 

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

My home rig, about two months old now, has a GeForce RTX3070, and in large files it blows the doors off the 5 year old Quadro M4000 at work.  Admittedly the latter is rather long in the tooth, but it also cost quite a bit more.  Both get the job done for everything I need to do.