New to Mastercam and 3d apps

[LawyerRon]

Please, someone educate me on video cards for Mastercam!! I'm a newbie to mastercam but I have extensive experience in building pc's. I'm building a few new pc's for friend that uses Mastercam 9. I'm considering a P4 2.26, 1ghz of ram. I'm not sure which way to go with the video card. At first I was considering the Matrox G550 at about $100. I've been told it's very fast for 2D work, but is slow with 3D. A friend of mine recommended the Quadro4 700XGL for 3D use. My friend does about 15% of the design in 3D and the rest in 2D. Should I go with the with the Quadro4 700XGL at about $500?

[cadcam]

Ron for bang for buck and a great new card to the arena I would try one of the Gforce Ti cards you can get a G4 Ti 4200 with 128ddr for under $200.00

Or even cheaper would be the same card with 64ddr this as loas as $129.00

 

Now for even better in the same arena would be the G4 TI 4600 with 128ddr ram.

Still under $400.00.

 

I have found these cards great for MC and other apps.

[Jack Mitchell]

Jayson & LawyerRon,

 

PCGGRX570 Sony VAIO® GRX-Series Notebook with MobileIntel® Pentium® 4 processor 1.6 GHz-M and a GIGANTIC 16.1” UXGA ultra high display screen.

 

As listed above, I am considering this notebook as a portable solution for Mastercam, mechanical desktop, and possibly Catia in the near future.

 

I know how it’s a shame to buy a notebook when you can readily buy two desktops for essentially the same price. I also assume that Jayson is likely out and about using something like this , given the business that he is in.

 

Does anybody have thoughts or suggestions regarding this? and, is the graphics card in this notebook an acceptable solution?

 

Regards, Jack

[LawyerRon]

Cadcam,

Thanks for the reply; Would the GForce card be adequate for 3d work? We don't mind spending the extra money, we just want a card that will get the job done.

[Bullines]

quote:

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Thanks for the reply; Would the GForce card be adequate for 3d work? We don't mind spending the extra money, we just want a card that will get the job done.

---

nVidia's GeForce4 Ti series is the best of the best when it comes to commercial video cards. They would definitely handle all of your Mastercam needs at an affordable price. Word to the wise, avoid ATI cards. While their Radeon cards are comparible to the GeForces, they do have issues with OpenGL apps, and Mastercam is an OpenGL app.

[cadcam]

Jack that seems to be a nice notebook.

I have a few that are using that graphics setup on there laptop and say it works well they just got them so I will check back.

 

Here is my next laptop.Toshiba SAT 1955-S801

 

I love the wireless full size keyboard and mouse.

 

Here you can download from my site a virtual view of this laptop.

Virtual laptop view.

 

[ 09-02-2002, 06:15 PM: Message edited by: cadcam ]

[LawyerRon]

So is the consensus that the GForce4 will do what the Quadro4 will do for less money?

[cadcam]

Ron this is about as close as you are going to get in my opinon.

[Bullines]

quote:

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So is the consensus that the GForce4 will do what the Quadro4 will do for less money?

---

Technically speaking, the GeForce4 Ti chipset does not have the capabilities of the Quadro4 chipset. However, the GeForce4 Ti chipset will take care of your Mastercam needs.

[gcode]

LawerRon,

The GForce Ti chipset is about the best video solution out there for Mastercam if you need to keep a budget. Just be sure to stay away from the MX cards. They will not run properly in a Mastercam enviroment. If money is no object Quadro is the way to go.

 

Here's a good place to start your search

 

http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=products

[gcode]

Jack,

Sony makes great looking notebooks, but all the ones I've seen were made of plastic. I owned one

a couple of years ago and the screen hinges started to separate from the back of case after about 6 months. The power supply failed at 9 months.

 

Sony's idea of customer service is a computerized phone system that makes calling the IRS look fun.

I spent nearly a week trying find the address of a service center. I ended up paying $25 to speak to a human.

They told me service for my 9 month old laptop was not available, but they'de be happy to credit

me $200 towards the purchase of a new Sony laptop.

Not in this lifetime

Another point is their batteries and chargers.

They are unique to Sony and you will pay dearly for them.

 

I've owned Sony TV's for most of my life, but I

will NEVER buy another Sony computer product.

 

My current laptop is a 2 year old Dell. My desktop is a Dell workstation. I can't comment on Dell's customer service. I've never had to call them.

[Roger Peterson]

To start I am using a P4 1800, 768 megs of rambus memory with the G Force Ti. We have done some tests on processors and the AMD Athlon processors "crunch" toolpaths literally twice as fast as a comperable P4. Does anybody have a good reason to not use an AMD processor?

 

Thanks,

 

[ 09-03-2002, 09:29 AM: Message edited by: Roger ]

[cadcam]

quote:

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Does anybody have a good reason to not use an AMD processor?

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Ya they cost less.... J/K

 

Truthfully I have not seen any reason not to get one.

I am going to build soon another useing the AMD.

I had one years ago and it worked fine.

But the newer ones are much better.

 

[ 09-03-2002, 09:37 AM: Message edited by: cadcam ]

[Bullines]

quote:

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Does anybody have a good reason to not use an AMD processor?

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It depends. AMD's CPUs tend to run much hotter than their Intel counterparts. You will want to keep this in mind when putting together your cooling setup. You get what you pay for.

[LawyerRon]

One more comment:

Another fellow told me this regarding the G4 and Quadro:

 

"The Quadro cards from nVidia and the Fire cards from ATI have hardware assisted rendering -- so both 2D and 3D rendering is effortless. The GeFroce4 is software rendering -- on a complicated design, they could go have lunch and it won't be done.

 

Ron, they need to do this right -- either the Quadro or the Fire. I prefer the Fire line for it's pure picture quality, but the Quadro are faster." (End quote)

 

Do you guys agree with that statement??

 

TIA!

[cadcam]

quote:

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Ron, they need to do this right -- either the Quadro or the Fire. I prefer the Fire line for it's pure picture quality, but the Quadro are faster." (End quote)

---

you are not making photos, So NO I do not agree.

the Quadro4 is much better for what we do.

 

quote:

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"The Quadro cards from nVidia and the Fire cards from ATI have hardware assisted rendering -- so both 2D and 3D rendering is effortless. The GeFroce4 is software rendering -- on a complicated design, they could go have lunch and it won't be done.

---

Really I have done all kinds of work have not had that trouble at all.

Wait back about 5 years ago I had a program crunch for about a four hours it made me a 45meg program file that ran for a few days.

 

Are the folks that are giving you this info ,Do they do cad-cam or qraphics?

 

This is diffrent if so.

 

Ron I am just trying to steer you in the right derection.

 

thanks for your time.

[LawyerRon]

Jay,

I appreciate your time and help and no, this guy is not into cad/cam, he's more on the video side.

 

I'm just afraid of making a wrong choice. If the Quadro is better long-term, we'll spend the money for it. On the other hand, if the G4 will be fine and just as fast for our use, we'll save a bit of $$. The difference in $$ is not a big issue.

[Bullines]

quote:

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One more comment:

Another fellow told me this regarding the G4 and Quadro:

 

"The Quadro cards from nVidia and the Fire cards from ATI have hardware assisted rendering -- so both 2D and 3D rendering is effortless. The GeFroce4 is software rendering -- on a complicated design, they could go have lunch and it won't be done.

 

Ron, they need to do this right -- either the Quadro or the Fire. I prefer the Fire line for it's pure picture quality, but the Quadro are faster." (End quote)

 

Do you guys agree with that statement??

---

His facts are way off. The only software assisted feature in the GeForce4 Ti chipset that is available via hardware in the Quadro's is the advanced anti-aliasing feature. Adequate anti-aliasing is implemented in GeForce4 Ti hardware, but the "extra fancy" anti-aliasing features are implemented in software. All anti-aliasing features are hardware implemented with the Quadro's. You will not notice a difference.

[LawyerRon]

OK guys, looks like it's gonna be the G4. Thanks much!!

[LawyerRon]

OK guys, here's the card I'm gonna order:

PNY GEFORCE4 TI4400 DDR 128MB AGP $239.00.

 

Look ok?

 

I think some of the difficulty I had with this decision is I don't understand the difference between 3d gaming and 3d cad/cam design.

[Bullines]

quote:

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OK guys, here's the card I'm gonna order:

PNY GEFORCE4 TI4400 DDR 128MB AGP $239.00.

 

Look ok?

 

I think some of the difficulty I had with this decision is I don't understand the difference between 3d gaming and 3d cad/cam design.

---

Good choice, and I'm not just saying that because it's the exact same card I have in my home system

 

Also, keep in mind that modern 3D games are 3D apps, too. Imagine if CAD/CAM software had to maintain things like dynamic lighting/shadows, skeletal animation and particle physics Don't let people give you the ol' "oh, that's just a gamer card so it sucks for CAD/CAM". Those are the people that aren't aware of what's going on under the hood

[Roger Peterson]

Not to change the subject away from the vid card but short of making sure you have a good heat sink and fan on the AMD Athlons there is no reason to wait on a P4 to process my toolpaths. We have had many AMD Boxes with G Force cards go through here and no problems to speak of yet.

 

Thanks everyone for the input

[cadcam]

quote:

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Good choice, and I'm not just saying that because it's the exact same card I have in my home system

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Ya right, that is exactly the reason.

[Bullines]

quote:

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Ya right, that is exactly the reason.

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Ok, perhaps it's partly the reason But the PNY card is a kewl shade of purple and that has to count for something

[Fig sign]

Hi , All !

 

When I build a pc for somebody the last stage in

my work I try it with Unreal Tournament.

And I can tell you this is very good benchmark.

And Geforce 4 Ti rocks with it , even Geforce 4 MX is not bad.

Well Ati is another story.

It is not bad but sometimes the results are unpredictable.

May be I too conservative but I can not forgot all the bunch of ati ,SIS, s3virge and other cards that passed through my hands.

Mastercam is not a critical program for a card ,

a difficult extensive grafic level with a lot of 3d action in game like unreal tournament shows more of what a videocard is capable.

Speaking about Amd and Intel a year ago I told to everybody go with Amd now they are losing the race.

p4 2.2 with L2 cache is a very good choice.

 

Waiting for Unreal tournament 2003 official release to use it as a benchmark.