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The GPU is definitely the most important piece of hardware for interactive performance in Onshape. The largest piece of work that your CPU does is taking the graphical information from the server, unpacking it, and shuttling it over to the GPU. One example of a case where a better GPU may make a difference is if you open a very complicated assembly after not opening it for a while. Your CPU will receive all the graphical data for this model and then have to process it for viewing. So, a better CPU will improve time-to-first-frame (a.k.a. the time it takes between opening the model and when it is displayed on screen). Once it is displayed on screen, though, the CPU usually has negligible affect on the interactive performance (framerate when panning-rotating-zooming, or creating section views) compared to the GPU. In cases of very complicated assemblies, the CPU can start to have a noticable affect on interactive performance.
Your CPU will have incremental performance gains/losses at any time when new graphical data is introduced. Another example is when editing a feature in a part studio. The CPU may have some very marginal effect on how long it takes to see the change when a parameter is changed (a vast majority of this time comes from calculating the actual geometric change on our side, though. The affect of the CPU here is marginal at worst, and negligible in practice).
@gkuhns It seems that you have nice hardware. Are you experiencing performance problems? We are happy to help diagnose them.
Simple part studios and assemblies can typically be rendered around 60 fps (the browser limit) with a relatively modest GPU. As the amount of data in the tab increases, as does the GPU workload. So, for example, if you are loading assemblies with thousands of components consisting of millions of triangles, you may want to invest in a GPU with a higher number of shader cores and more memory.
Screen resolution will also impact performance. As display density increase, so does the demand on the GPU. For instance, running a 4K display at native resolution will require storing and shading more pixels than a 1080p display. So if you have a higher resolution display, you may want to consider a beefier GPU.
Here are some top-reviewed options in different categories:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gpus,4380.html
@even This is good information to know and should save users money thinking they require a Quadros for better performance. Many users held this belief that a Quadros card would improve performance (Pan, Zoom, Rotate etc..) using SW for many years which is false.
One caveat to Chrome being the faster renderer: Chrome's per-tab memory limit is significantly lower than 64-bit Firefox. So if you are loading very large assemblies, we will hold back display data to keep Chrome under the limit. This should help maintain interactive performance in Chrome, but it comes at the cost of having to occasionally swap data in and out, which does have an interactive penalty. That said, for a typical model, everything will fit into Chrome's memory allotment.
I have a question specifically about your comment re: per tab memory usage in Chrome. I am 100% using 64-bit Chrome and previously when using some of my larger models I could easily reach 3-4GB+ memory in a Chrome tab and the model would load perfectly fine. This exact model used to drive system ram to about 10GB utilisation. Now Onshape is really struggling to load these models and I see that Chrome is bouncing between 1.5 - 2.0 GB for the tab. Generally the model never finishes loading at all. Attached is a screenshot of my memory monitor.
You can also see the CPU bouncing up and down (Core i7-6700HQ). I am just wondering if holding back data to keep Chrome under the tab memory limit is a new thing or it's always been there and I need to look for another issue?
Thanks!
I would suggest that you try loading your model in Firefox to see if it performs better. If you continue to experience issues, please reach out to support through the "Feedback" option under the help dropdown.
Please correct me if I'm wrong and it's just my biological clock that makes load times feel different
Tried the same model in Firefox and it loaded faster and used more "per tab" memory (checked the process memory usage) - all which I suspected would happen. My only gripe is that on large assemblies Firefox is just nowhere near as fast as Chrome but this isn't an Onshape issue.
FYI - the model has 1,340 unique parts and 3,934 part occurrences.
We've been working with some new performance monitoring tools and I'd like to see if I can pin this down.
Will any of these in-house tools be considered to the public or packaged within Onshape in the future (potentially)?
Thanks for the feedback @john_rousseau
I will put in ticket next time.
There's another factor too, when you try to show off something to a colleague/friend/customer it always makes things slow or even crash. Just like when your on phone and need to look some data it makes your whole computer freeze until you put off your phone. I'm not sure if it's about God or position of the Moon, need to run some more tests..
It is powerful enough that I have retired my workstation at work, and my gaming station at home. Even handles Oculus Rift well. (With external fans of course)
Performance in Onshape is pulling the same numbers as my GTX980 TI I ran at home, and the Quadro M4000 I was running at work.
Laptops have come a long way, and Onshape still runs great even on the tired old laptop we use to host the big screen TV in the conference room... That thing takes a full minute to open chrome.. but once in Onshape.. you can hardly notice.
Going to laser cut a better cooling base for work, hard to find a quality cooler with the fans feed directly into the vent
Onshape runs great on low end hardware for simple models, but the same adage holds somewhat true as traditional CAD - at some point you need more power. When you hit that tipping point you'll know it.
Neat thing to make---a custom cooling base! Do you have your own laser cutter? I'm eyeing a Glowforge but I worry it won't last... and I hear their warranty is very modest (only 6 months, I think, and that's on a new product that is largely untested...)
More results from my razer, now on Chrome and with GPU configured for maximum performance
I won't lie, though, my models get very large and that razer still feels slow at times
Yea we have a laser table at work. I have a cooling base but it is loud,under powererd, the fans are in a crappy place, it is slightly small so the laptop wants to suicide jump over the front lip, made of the cheapest quality plastic... figured I'd just make my own out of scrap aluminum, add a thermal sensor and some noctua fans and a wall plug to free up a usb port and make it more permanent..
So far I've got the same amount invested into the parts as I did the crap one, should have just done this to begin with.
FWIW, I'm seeing appx. 500/240 (very consistently) on a Xeon-powered Dell Precision M5530 laptop with a Quadro P2000.