Video Card for CAD on Mac

[RMerrell]

I've got AutoCAD LT 2010 running through Fusion on a Mac. I've got all the bugs tweaked except one. Here's my issue:

When moving or copying, once you initiate the command, select the items, and select a basepoint, AutoCAD redraws the items that are being moved every time you move your mouse, pan, and/or zoom. This redraw takes about 3 seconds (depending on the number of items selected) when I run AutoCAD in Bootcamp (where Windows is booted natively). This takes 10 - 15 seconds when I run AutoCAD through Fusion - quite annoying and time consuming.

Is the video card the limiting factor for this redraw, ie. a slower video card with less ram (256 MB Ram) will take longer to do this type of redraw during a move than a higher performance video card (1 GB Ram)?

Here's what I have:

iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 800 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GS Video Card

I've dialed back the video acceleration and turned off write combining to improve the video performance, but it still doesn't get me to where I want to be.

This card has not been tested nor approved by AutoDesk, so I am considering a different video card if y'all think the source of my problem is related to the video card.
Here are my options:
1)Nvidia GeForce GT 120
2)Nvidia GeForce GT 130
Neither has been tested or approved by Autodesk
3)ATI Radeon HD 4850
This has been tested and approved by Autodesk

Since 1 and 2 aren't approved by Autodesk, it seems my only choice is the ATI. Does anyone think that this card would clear up my problems?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Robert

[Cad64]

Set your Autocad WHIPTHREAD variable to 3. This will allow Autocad to use both cores when regenerating and redrawing. That should help some, but I don't know if it will completely solve the problem. Everyone I've spoken with that tries to run Autocad on a Mac says the same thing. It's slow!

[RMerrell]

LT 2010 does not recognize "whipthread". I don't think it is a feature with LT.

Once I did a bunch of tweaking, I'm finally satisfied with how ACAD runs through Fusion except for the above mentioned issue. It seems like such a simple issue to fix. I just want to make sure I'm barking up the right tree before I spend a bunch of money on a video card.

After further research here on this board it seems like the Nvidia Quadro cards are the way to go. That is not listed as an option on the Apple website for the iMac. I'm not sure it will fit. I don't mind spending the money if it will fix the issue, I'm just not interested in wasting a bunch of money chasing my tail.

I guess the main issue is to narrow down whether the video card is what is causing this slow down when redrawing during a move or copy. If it is then I'm willing to experiment a little.

Robert

[RMerrell]

Oh, I forgot to mention that I am running a second monitor as well.

[Cad64]

LT 2010 does not recognize "whipthread". I don't think it is a feature with LT.

I think you're right. Just another feature missing from LT.

As far as I know, everyone here runs ACAD on a PC, so I don't know if you're going to get many responses to this question.

A better vid card could solve the problem, or maybe not. I won't even speculate on that because I don't want to be responsible for you spending a lot of money needlessly.

You might want to post your problem on a Mac forum and see if anyone has a suggestion, or possibly contact Autodesk and see what they have to say.

Good luck, and be sure to post back if you find a solution.

[DVDM]

Unfortunately, replacing the videocard in an iMac is not possible. You'll have to buy a new iMac if you want a different video card.
The only Apple computers with a user replaceable videocard are the mac pro's.

Bootcamp would be the better option to run windows on. I do think Bootcamp is now officially supported by Autodesk. I run Autocad on a macbook pro (9600GT), and in benchmarks it absolutely smokes the 570 Quadro I have at work. A 8800 should be fine, and I suspect it's a driver issue. (i was lucky that Autodesk has certified drivers for the MBP with 9600 graphics card).

[f700es]

You have found the problem, Fusion is a hardware emulator. No mater what they say Fusion and Parallels are emulation of hardware and will never get you the performance of using straight hardware as opposed to software emulation. You are correct in that you will get better performance by using Bootcamp. There might be a way to update the drivers for Fusion but I am not sure of it.
Good luck :)

I don't run ACAD on a Mac but I do run OSX on my Dell sometimes ;)

[DVDM]

Set your Autocad WHIPTHREAD variable to 3. This will allow Autocad to use both cores when regenerating and redrawing. That should help some, but I don't know if it will completely solve the problem. Everyone I've spoken with that tries to run Autocad on a Mac says the same thing. It's slow!

Be careful with that setting, it caused severe crashes on my system (quad core xeon) during specific situations. Unfortunately, it took me several months and a fair bit of lost time and work to finally realize it was the whipthread variable that caused it.