How do I set up my GPU to run in Onshape?

Katie_Bosilovich

I think I've read the Graphics Performance Help page at least ten times and I'm very frustrated. I have a GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card, but whenever I run the compatibility check, it says Google Swiftshader is being user to render the graphics. I have done everything the help page has said, and it still won't work. If anyone can help me figure this out, I'd really appreciate it, because as it is now, it takes minutes for onshape to register any interaction I have with parts.

Domenico_D

@Katie_Bosilovich if @TimRice's suggestion doesn't help, I recently had a similar problem getting my RTX 2070 on my laptop to be used but figured it out for my case.

You used to have to go to the Nvidia Control Panel and change the preferred graphics processor for your browser to the RTX 2070. However with a new update to Windows I think this has changed. I was trying to get Chrome to use my RTX 2070 and noticed this notification on the NVIDIA Control Panel:

I ended up having to go to Settings App>System>Display. At the bottom of this page there is "Graphics Settings". I then had to set the Graphics Performance Preference for Chrome. Of course Chrome was not already in the drop down menu of apps to set performance so I had to browse for it. Then I was able to change the preference to High Performance (RTX 2070). Ran https://cad.onshape.com/check again and it was using the RTX 2070.

Not sure why Windows had to make that so hard or if this is the same problem you are having!

TimRice

Hi Katie! Do you have multiple graphics cards installed on your device? Assuming you are using Chrome on a Windows device, you can ensure Windows defaults to the better graphics card by navigating through your system settings to Graphics settings and ensuring your browser is set to High performance. From there you can also ensure WebGL and hardware accelerated are turned on:

Go to chrome://settings

1. Click the Show advanced settings link
2. Scroll down to the System section and ensure the Use hardware acceleration when available checkbox is checked
3. Relaunch Chrome for any changes to take effect

Check Onshape at this point. If it's still not working, you can try to force WebGL hardware rendering via the following:

1. Go to chrome://flags
2. Enable the flag called Override software rendering list

Domenico_D

@Katie_Bosilovich if @TimRice's suggestion doesn't help, I recently had a similar problem getting my RTX 2070 on my laptop to be used but figured it out for my case.

You used to have to go to the Nvidia Control Panel and change the preferred graphics processor for your browser to the RTX 2070. However with a new update to Windows I think this has changed. I was trying to get Chrome to use my RTX 2070 and noticed this notification on the NVIDIA Control Panel:

I ended up having to go to Settings App>System>Display. At the bottom of this page there is "Graphics Settings". I then had to set the Graphics Performance Preference for Chrome. Of course Chrome was not already in the drop down menu of apps to set performance so I had to browse for it. Then I was able to change the preference to High Performance (RTX 2070). Ran https://cad.onshape.com/check again and it was using the RTX 2070.

Not sure why Windows had to make that so hard or if this is the same problem you are having!

PeteYodis

@Domenico_D Windows 10 has replaced the need to access the nVidia Control Panel for setting the GPU preference per application. The area is under Graphics Settings. It's a more generalized approach regardless of the graphics card vendor, nVidia, AMD, Intel, etc...

You can see what mine looks like here:

@Katie_Bosilovich is your question answered with Domenic's suggestion? Were you aware of the Windows 10 Graphics Settings area? Can you provide a screenshot of what that looks like for you?

matthew_stacy

@Katie_Bosilovich , I just went through the similar issue. In my case changing the display setting in my browser (Firefox) fixed the problem (somewhere in the Firefox>options if I recall correctly). The default setting utilizes the integrated graphics hardware to conserve power. There is high-performance setting to override that to utilize your GeForce GPU.

emagdalenaC2i

@PeteYodis or @lougallo Please, could you create an Improvement request to add that information in the Graphics Performance Recommendations ?