Graphics Cards for CAD

lorenz_poiger · July 2021

I have noticed that my laptop is struggling when moving objects around in larger assemblies (300+ parts). The model is stuttering/framerate drops heavily. Especially when creating section cuts I am barely able to navigate. To be clear: I am having trouble with framerates after the model has been fully regenerated.

This is a graphics card issue IMO. Is this correct? I have made sure that all the things listed on the hardware and graphics performance recommendations page from Onshape are fulfilled. Doing the performance test gives me a very high rating for overall performance. Now I am unsure if a better graphics card will reduce my stuttering issues, since I apparently already have good performance? I have included the GPU check from chrome as well, making sure hardware acceleration is enabled.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/hx/f7bz7zhu8k14.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/xy/1djxcquxvb9b.png

I am considering buying a desktop. My laptop currently has a AMD Radeon RX550 card and the desktop im looking at would have an nVidia Geforce GTX1660. I read online that there are graphics cards that may be powerful but not well suited for CAD design as they are catered more towards gaming and vice versa. Does anybody know if the GTX1660 is suitable for CAD?

Any help is appreciated.

PeteYodis · July 2021

@lorenz_poiger. Because Onshape relies on WebGL, we are much more poised to deliver very good performance on GPU's like the GTX1660. We are not like typical installed CAD software that relies on driver optimization usually only found on workstation class cards. You will find Onshape helps give you much better performance on often times more powerful gaming GPU's and usually at a much better price point than a workstation class card. If you are relying on Onshape as your CAD solution, there is really not much of a reason to pay more for a workstation GPU. We often recommend you to try us out on hardware before you purchase that hardware. This is almost impossible to do casually with installed software, however it is very easy to do with Onshape - as you can often log into your Onshape account in any store that sells devices and see how local GPU performance is on that device with your datasets. Of course you can always run the check page with each device as well.

lorenz_poiger · July 2021

PeteYodis said:

@lorenz_poiger. Because Onshape relies on WebGL, we are much more poised to deliver very good performance on GPU's like the GTX1660. We are not like typical installed CAD software that relies on driver optimization usually only found on workstation class cards. You will find Onshape helps give you much better performance on often times more powerful gaming GPU's and usually at a much better price point than a workstation class card. If you are relying on Onshape as your CAD solution, there is really not much of a reason to pay more for a workstation GPU. We often recommend you to try us out on hardware before you purchase that hardware. This is almost impossible to do casually with installed software, however it is very easy to do with Onshape - as you can often log into you Onshape account in any store that sells devices and see how local GPU performance is on that device with your datasets. Of course you can always run the check page with each device as well.

Hello Pete,

Thats very interesting. I will definitely try the performance out on other devices.

Thank you

MichaelPascoe · February 2022

Here is an unofficial Onshape Benchmark test. It may help. Currently, only the load times have been compared with this benchmark.

Graphics Cards for CAD

Answers

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Categories