What would be a relevant measurable task in Mastercam that would test the performance of the videocard?

I would use a contour. Just create a silhouette boundary to get arcs to drive the toolpath. Increase the tolerance to get larger arcs...maybe 0.002? Might be a better way...?

Only issue I see is that the steps are not getting cut to 0 stock in Z. Not sure if this is just a bug or if this behavior is intentional...I did have a similar issue with my suggestion of 2D HST with Area mill as well....no matter the settings used I could not get all faces to cut to 0 stock in Z in one op. Like I said in my original post...I'm not getting into whether Esprit is better than Mastercam, or if Gibbs is better than Mastercam, or if Fusion360 is better than Mastercam...I merely stated that I've used features in software's other than Mastercam and that they improve workflow and if Mastercam was to implement some of these it may actually make your life easier. Some really got offended for some reason...

I think OP was looking for solutions for open pocketing...not how awesome you are at wireframe programming.

Without opening a huge can of Esprit vs Mastercam.... Mastercam really needs to up its game on toolpath creation from solids. Nobody wants to draw additional geometry just to get a toolpath outside of an 'open' edge. CAM software should be able to do this, and Esprit does (I'm sure there are others that do as well). That being said though, could you not just use a 2D HST so you get the good chaining options but use an area mill path?

Interesting...where is that setting found?

My cats breath smells like cat food.

Nice, there is an option. Thanks! I realize why the plane info is there, done plenty of multi axis work. My 'bloated' comment was more directed at the toolpath name that shows. Why not just call it '2D Dynamic Mill' instead of '2D High Speed (2D Dynamic Mill)'...or better yet just the toolbar icon of the toolpath. Reasoning...working on a laptop or single monitor setup you lose real estate for the model by having to extended the tool manager horizontally to see your comment, which is at the end of the naming. Again, thanks for the help.

Is there a way to hide this info? eg I have a 2D dynamic path so that operation shows up as "22-2D High Speed (2D Dynamic Mill) - [WCS:Top] - [Tplane:Top] " and then finally my op comment. I don't really care to see the wcs/tplane info and the toolpath name is excessively long. Is there a way to hide any of this bloated info? Wouldn't it make more sense to just show the toolpath name as the toolbar icon for the toolpath?

Just click on the column name...or right click 'reset sort'

Yes. I have done this and it works as expected.

No idea what mouse you were reading about but here's what I use. http://gaming.logitech.com/en-ca/product/g600-mmo-gaming-mouse It has a 3rd button that makes it very comfortable to use all day.

Wasn't this issue addressed in one of the updates? Does your X8 have the latest release?

The standalone Productivity Plus will vector on to non flat faces, the MasterCam addin will not...at least not the last time I looked. This will cause some issues with your results. I've used Cimco with good results

Whats more believable... 1. I know MasterCam 2. I know MasterCam and have a certificate saying I've completed this course and passed a test. I know which one I would interview, which is what that piece of paper is supposed to do...get you the interview. After that its on you.