Getting the Most Out of Your Computer Purchase:

Hardware Myths Revealed!

Jason Hickey, Senior Product Support Specialist, Autodesk, Inc.

CM204-1 Ever wanted a "Ferrari" computer but only had "Yugo" money? In this class, we will look
at common hardware myths and explore the best suggestions for hardware purchases. We'll look at
what's hot right now and what's not. We'll also discuss which hardware provides the best bang for your
buck and which hardware provides the best bang for unlimited bucks.

About the Speaker:

Jason has more than 15 years of experience in the land surveying and civil engineering industry. He has worked as a
surveyor, designer, CAD Manager, applications engineer, and consultant. Jason has worked with Softdesk®,
AutoCAD® Land Desktop, and AutoCAD® Civil 3D since its inception. He is a co-author of Mastering Civil 3D and
has contributed to many Autodesk Official Training Courseware titles. Jason is a popular AUGI® CAD Camp and
AU presenter where he shares his knowledge and passion for helping companies get the most out of their technology
investment. Jason currently helps Autodesk customers worldwide as a Civil Support Specialist in Autodesk product
support.
 Getting the Most out of Your Hardware Purchase - Hardware Myths Revealed!

The Quest

Your company has decided that it is time to upgrade your computers - after all, your boss heard that
there's this new operating system called Windows 98 and it's supposed to be MUCH more stable than
Windows 3.1. As the CAD Manager/Network Administrator/All Around Computer Guru/Boss' child, your
job is to research and find the best computer for your company. Oh, did we mention that you can't spend
much money? We thought you already knew that...

At one time, your options were simple - laptop or desktop? What was the Dell/HP/BestBuy/Office
Max/Wal Mart current special? Custom built "white box" or whatever
the big computer seller suggested? These decisions have morphed
into a litany of questions, and many depend on the software being
used. What's this 64 bit hype? Gaming video or certified workstation
cards? What operating system? (This is a big one - with many large
corporations stuck on Windows XP and two other big options out
there, it's tough to decide.) How much RAM is enough? How much is
too much? What on earth are all these CPU options? Do we dare
discuss Mac vs. PC? The confusion can be overwhelming to some computer buyers.

Let's explore what we will and will not be discussing in this class:

 We will go over the general computer requirements for AutoCAD and the vertical applications.
Most of this will hold true for Revit and Inventor, but we won't dig in to very specialized software
such as the M&E requirements.
 You will not walk away from this class knowing the exact model of the computer that you need to
purchase. We're here to guide you to making the best decision for your company, not say "Brand
X is better than Brand Y." We have lots of corporate sponsors who wouldn't like to hear that.
 We're not going to dig into the deep intricacies of computer hardware. This is an overview class.

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 Getting the Most out of Your Hardware Purchase - Hardware Myths Revealed!

The Basics
First, let's start off with the basic system requirements for AutoCAD:

For 32-bit AutoCAD 2010

 Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional or Home edition (SP2 or later)
 Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® dual-core processor, 1.6 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology
 2 GB RAM
 1 GB free disk space for installation
 1,024 x 768 VGA display with true color
 Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 7.0 or later
 Install from download, DVD, or CD

or

 Microsoft® Windows Vista® (SP1 or later) including Enterprise, Business, Ultimate, or Home Premium
edition.
 Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 3 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology
 2 GB RAM
 1 GB free disk space for installation
 1,024 x 768 VGA display with true color
 Internet Explorer 7.0 or later
 Install from download, DVD, or CD

or

 Microsoft® Windows 7 (see note below)

 Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 3 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology
 2 GB RAM
 1 GB free disk space for installation
 1,024 x 768 VGA display with true color
 Internet Explorer 7.0 or later
 Install from download, DVD, or CD

For 64-bit AutoCAD 2010

 Windows XP Professional x64 edition (SP2 or later) or Windows Vista (SP1 or later) including
Enterprise, Business, Ultimate, or Home Premium edition, or Windows 7.
 AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology, or AMD Opteron® processor with SSE2 technology, or Intel®
Xeon® processor with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology, or Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T
support and SSE2 technology
 2 GB RAM
 1.5 GB free space for installation
 1,024 x 768 VGA display with true color

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 Getting the Most out of Your Hardware Purchase - Hardware Myths Revealed!

 Internet Explorer 7.0 or later

 Install from download, DVD, or CD

Additional Requirements for 3D Modeling (All Configurations)

 Intel Pentium 4 processor or AMD Athlon, 3 GHz or higher; Intel or AMD dual-core processor, 2 GHz
or higher
 2 GB RAM or greater
 2 GB hard disk space available in addition to free space required for installation
 1,280 x 1,024 32-bit color video display adapter (true color) 128 MB or greater, Microsoft® Direct3D®
capable workstation class graphics card

The requirements for the verticals are similar, but most require more memory. One added note in the Civil
3D system requirements is of particular interest:

Note: Microsoft® Windows Vista® Ultimate/Business/Enterprise offers better OS memory management

over Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2 or SP3. Microsoft Windows XP 64 and Windows Vista 64 are
suggested over 32 bit operating systems, due to 4GB of memory being available to applications .

What's this better OS memory management? We'll dig into that when we start talking about memory.

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 Getting the Most out of Your Hardware Purchase - Hardware Myths Revealed!

MYTH - CPU selection is all about the Gigahertz!

There has been some confusion and many questions regarding the best CPU to use with AutoCAD Civil
3D. The system requirements for the 2009 products state the following:

Intel Pentium 4 (3 GHz or higher); AMD Athlon; multiple processors supported, dual-core
supported

This is a great starting point, but remember that the Intel Pentium 4 CPU has not even been
manufactured in over 2 years. Many people are bewildered by the choices out there, and end up
choosing their CPU based only on the stated speed (GHz.) There is much more to your processor than
the speed, as we will show. Before we dive in, let’s start with a general statement as a launch off point -
very unofficial testing has shown that a "middle of the road" dual-core processor is going to meet the
needs of the average user. This is helpful as these processors have become the basis for many current
standard computer configurations.

With quad-cores becoming much more common in new machines, it is worth exploring if this is a justified
upgrade, or does it provide nothing more than bragging rights amongst your fellow workers. It wasn’t long
ago that an upgrade to a quad-core meant two things: a huge increase in price, and an overall decrease
in processor speed. Today, that those gaps have been greatly minimized. So we need to ask, “is a
quad-core worth the extra money?”

To answer this question, we need to look at how the application utilizes multiple-core processors. An
important thing to keep in mind is that, on the application level, only a handful of applications out there
today that can take full advantage of 4 cores. And this is true for AutoCAD and its verticals, which only
uses multiple cores for a limited number of functions. The WHIPTHREAD variable was introduced back
at the dawn of multi-core processors and will push some of the REGEN work over to a second processor.
Nevertheless, while this was a big help back then, in today’s environments you will see a much smaller
improvement. And even then, you may only notice this when working with really large drawings.
However, on a system-level, having multiple cores (2 or 4) this will allow applications to be split up to
separate cores, allowing more processing power for each. Rather than all of your applications fighting for
one or two processors, you can spread your workload out over two or four cores. So, you may notice
overall system performance improvements if you are a CPU-intensive multi-tasker. In other words, if
you enjoy running Outlook, Photoshop, Media Player, and AutoCAD at the same time, all while doing
some video editing...well, then the quad-core might be for you!

Where will AutoCAD users see the most

measureable improvements with a quad-core
CPU? Unofficial testing shows that
Rendering is where the quad-core shines.
The time spent with a box of markers to make
a presentation plan is becoming less
common. With the Rendering ability in
AutoCAD, users can create a beautiful plan
much more easily (without that notorious

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 Getting the Most out of Your Hardware Purchase - Hardware Myths Revealed!

“marker headache”). Below are some measurements for various CPU's rendering a typical scene with
out of the box settings. If you compare the E6700 to the Q6700 you will see that these two are essentially
the same except that the Q6700 is a quad core. You can see that having the quad core reduced the
Rendering time in half! Additionally, as expected, an increase in processor speed will result in a decrease
in Render time. When comparing processors with the same number of cores, the correlation between
process speed and render time is almost linear.

 Intel E6700 (dual-core) @ 2.67ghz: 30:25 mins

 Intel Xeon 5130 x 2 (dual core) @ 2.0ghz 17:13 mins (this machine has 2 dual core processors.
All 4 cores were utilized during rendering)
 Intel Q6700 (quad-core) @ 2.67ghz: 14:41 mins
 Intel Q6700 (quad-core) @ 3.40ghz (overclocked): 11:26 mins

The short answer is that if your user is a multitasker, or produces many Renderings then the quad core
may be for them. Also, if consistent upgrades are difficult in your office, a quad core may be more future-
proof. However, if the user doesn't multitask, create Renderings or are just short on funds, a dual core
processor with a faster processor speed can be acquired for less than a quad core and actually pay off in
single thread commands where it will typically perform faster.

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 Getting the Most out of Your Hardware Purchase - Hardware Myths Revealed!

MYTH - Operating Systems Don't Matter as Long as I Have Lots of

RAM!

While 3GB is going to meet the needs of most of you, those who are working with larger drawings
regularly ask what advantages they can get by increasing past the required amount, or even moving to a
64-bit system. This topic is sometimes misunderstood and there is a lot of conflicting information on the
Internet (even among popular sites), so let's review some of the basics.

First thing to realize is that a 32-bit versions of XP and Vista are limited to 4GB of installed Physical
RAM. Be aware, however, that not all of this memory will be available. This is most obvious for those of
you with 4GB installed, as a chunk of this gets “used” by various hardware, such as your video cards.
This is why on XP and pre-SP1 Vista, you will not see a full 4GB shown on your Computer Properties.
SP2 of Vista changed this so it “shows” 4GB. Meaning YOU can see 4GB, but your computer still sees
less than that.

64-bit systems have been around for a while and are starting to become more common. 64-bit
environments allow almost an infinite amount of memory (~17 million terabytes!), although depending on
your OS, this can actually be limited (Vista Ultimate tops out at 128 GB of installed RAM).

OK, now that we have the physical RAM restrictions out of the way, let’s talk about Virtual Memory. This
term often gets misused, and as such, this can get confusing. Basically, Total Virtual Memory is the sum
of your Physical RAM (installed in your computer) and the Page File you have set up Advanced System
Properties. What is a Page File? This is sometimes called a Swap File and is a way of using your hard
drive as additional memory. So, if you have 3GB of Physical RAM and a 3GB Page File, you will have
roughly 6GB of Total Virtual memory. This is how your computer uses more memory than you actually
have installed.

Now we need to talk about the limits of a 32-bit application. Each application gets allotted a virtual
memory address up to 4GB (obviously limited by your total Virtual Memory). This is true, no matter how
much RAM is installed. Here is where it gets tricky. Only 2GB of that is used for the process itself (i.e.
acad.exe). The remaining 2GB is for the Kernel. So there are two places where you can run into
problems. The first is once your system reaches your limit of Virtual Memory. The second is when you
hit that 2GB process limit for Virtual Memory.

“So what is this /3GB I hear about?” In a 32-bit Operating System, this switch changes the configuration
described above so that 3GB of virtual memory address space will be allotted to the process and only
1GB for the Kernel. Again, you are still going to be limited to your Total Virtual Memory. If you are the
type that is working with large files, this may be something you want to look into. Booting normally for
everyday use would typically be recommended, and only "flipping the /switch" when you need it. Keep in
mind that in real world situations the acad.exe process will not get all the way up to 3GB before running
out of Virtual Memory. It may still give you an improvement, however, but don’t expect miracles.

"I have 8GB (or more) RAM installed in my Vista-64 machine. I'm golden, right?" Well, not quite. Using
a 32-bit application, you still have the same process limitations as above. If it is "large address aware",
which AutoCAD-based 32 bit applications are, then you will have access to 3GB (with no need for the
/3GB switch) of virtual memory address space. At first glance this doesn't sound like much of an
advantage. But here is what you need to remember, each process will have 2 (if not “large address
aware”) or 3GB of RAM available to it, and the increased Physical RAM allows more headroom for overall
memory usage. This means, depending on how much Total Virtual Memory you have, many more

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 Getting the Most out of Your Hardware Purchase - Hardware Myths Revealed!

applications can be run at the same time. Of course, if you are running a 64-bit version of an application
(such as vanilla AutoCAD 2009), you have virtually unlimited available memory for that process. .

If this stuff is more

than you wanted,
and you are just
curious what you
can do with 8GB of
Physical Memory
installed in a 64-bit
version of Vista,
then here is some
tests. In a single
session of Civil 3D
(a 32 bit application,)
I was able to open 11
copies of a 42MB drawing all at the same time! This is where I hit the 3GB limit for the process.
Additionally, since very little of the Page File was being used, this was still extremely fast. Although this
was just about the limit for that process, I still had plenty of room to play for the rest of the System. So, in
addition to Civil 3D, I also opened:

 Google Earth
 Google Chrome Browser with 15 Tabs
 Windows Live Writer
 Windows Media Player 11

All this and I was still using just under 60% of my Physical RAM. Just for fun, I opened a 2nd session of
Civil 3D and opened ANOTHER 10 copies of that 42MB file! Now that is multitasking! Certainly, this
would not be possible on a 32-bit machine. Take a look at the image above. You will notice each
acad.exe process is using just under that 3GB limit.

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 Getting the Most out of Your Hardware Purchase - Hardware Myths Revealed!

MYTH - I Have to Have a Certified Workstation Graphics Card

Quite often, we hear the question that is posed above – what is the best video card for AutoCAD? Awhile
back, the answer was very clear-cut, but times are definitely changing. Before we dive in, let's set some
expectations: you will not read this and be able to go pick out one specific part number at your favorite
online reseller. I am not going to say which brand or particular card is better than any other. Many
AutoCAD users have cards from each of the major players in the graphics card game (ATI and nVidia)
and have excellent performance with both of them. This section will simply compare some of the video
card architectures and explain how this applies to your daily AutoCAD use.

So what has that clear-cut answer been in the past? The standard tech support answer in years past was
“you should buy a workstation-class dedicated graphics card, and not a gaming card.” Now, to clarify,
when I said “workstation-class” I was typically referring to an OpenGL card. “Gaming” cards were
Direct3D cards. Familiar card brand names would be nVidia Quadro FX and ATI FireGL for OpenGL
compatibility and ATI Radeon and nVidia GeForce for Direct3D. However, my answers tend to be a bit
more even these days, leaning in the exact opposite direction – I think “gaming” cards are coming of age
for AutoCAD-based applications due to the enhanced Direct3D support in the core AutoCAD program.

First, a bit of history between the two. Silicon Graphics created OpenGL, which was the
successor to Iris GL. Iris GL was a major component of many old UNIX workstations. It was
meant to be used on a variety of operating systems, and was meant as a very precise way of
drawing graphics. OpenGL is a trademark of the OpenGL Architectural Review Board (ARB.)
The ARB writes the definition of OpenGL, and governs a strict series of testing by which an
implementation can call itself as an OpenGL device.

Direct3D is a Microsoft technology, and is a COM based 3D graphics API. Microsoft acquired this
technology in 1996 and has been offering it as a component of DirectX technology.
Direct3D is widely considered a gaming architecture, as it allows for much more
advanced mapping of 3D graphics.

As I stated earlier, in the past everyone was always saying “nothing but OpenGL” –
however as Microsoft changed platforms, they have gone away from native OpenGL
support out of the box. This emphasis is very important, since the common
misconception has been that Windows Vista does not support OpenGL. This is incorrect,
since Vista does support two primary OpenGL implantations
(http://www.opengl.org/pipeline/article/vol003_7/):

1. Hardware manufactures provide OpenGL installable client driver with variable renderer string.
2. Microsoft’s software OpenGL 1.1 implementation is clustered in higher numbered pixel formats.

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 Getting the Most out of Your Hardware Purchase - Hardware Myths Revealed!

Simply put, OpenGL and Direct3D are treated the same by

Windows Vista, resulting in full integration into the OS.
Even better, users will normally experience fewer BSOD’s
in Vista than in XP because of the way the new Windows
display driver model works. In the article on OpenGL.org
referenced above, we find the following:

Because Windows Vista controls the submission of graphic

command buffers to the hardware, detecting hangs of the
graphics chip due to invalid programming is now possible
across the operating system. This is achieved via Windows
Vista's Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR). When a
command buffer spends too long in the graphics chip (more
than two seconds), the operating system assumes the chip
is hung, kills all the graphics contexts, resets the graphics
chip and recovers the graphics driver, in order to keep the
operating system responsive. The user will then see a
popup bubble notifying that the "Display driver stopped
responding and has recovered."

Since most of those hangs typically ended up with a pretty

blue screen, having the driver recovery is a blessing. Now,
even though this is good news, there is still some not-so-
great news for AutoCAD users running on Vista – OpenGL
software is currently not supported in AutoCAD 2009 when
running on Windows Vista. However, I can say that my
OpenGL card runs Civil 3D perfectly fine in both Vista and
XP. All effects are enabled and on, but only when using the
Direct 3D driver, as indicated in the image below:

So how does the program determine what is on and what is

off in the manual tune dialog? This is determined by the
AdskHwCertificationDatabase.xml file that is installed with the software. This hardware database checks
your card name, your driver version, your operating system, and your version of AutoCAD to figure out
what can be turned on and what should be disabled.

For example, my graphics card is an nVidia Quadro FX 1700 running on Vista x64 – the entry in the XML
file for this card is as follows:

- <cardDriver testedOn="7.15.0011.6939">

- <certified by="Autodesk" os="WinVista64" status="Passed" overallStatus="1" comments=""

default="D3D" osID="2048" reject="" commentsOGL="" commentsD3D="">

<effect name="AALines" status="3" driver="ALL" />

<effect name="phong" status="1" driver="D3D" />

<effect name="gooch" status="1" driver="D3D" />

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 Getting the Most out of Your Hardware Purchase - Hardware Myths Revealed!

<effect name="shadows" status="1" driver="D3D" />

<effect name="TextureCompression" status="1" driver="D3D" />

As you can see, everything I have is enabled, just set to use the Direct 3D driver.

So with this all being said (it certainly is a long read, isn’t it?) what’s best for you? I believe a decent mid-
range Direct3D capable video card will get most people the performance that they need, but OpenGL will
still perform decently as well. Don’t go overboard – dual higher end video cards may be good for playing
video games on the weekend, but you won’t get any special usage out of a setup like that from AutoCAD.
As far as memory is concerned, discrete is the keyword here. Discrete means that the video memory is
not shared with system memory, but comes with memory installed on the video card just for the card.
More is usually better – both of mine run with 512 MB of discrete memory, which gives me good
performance.

Want to find out if a card that you're thinking of purchasing will work well with AutoCAD? You can find a
list of certified graphics cards on the Autodesk website. Autodesk graphics hardware certification
indicates that Autodesk has worked with the graphics hardware vendor to test the graphics hardware to
ensure that it supports the real-time 3D shading, shadows, and smooth-line display features of products
based on AutoCAD 2007, AutoCAD 2008, or AutoCAD 2009 software. It also indicates that the card
supports 2D drawing in the Windows Vista operating system when using hardware acceleration.

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 Getting the Most out of Your Hardware Purchase - Hardware Myths Revealed!

MYTH - You Can't Run AutoCAD On a Mac!

I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention in passing running AutoCAD on a Mac. Sure, it can't be
done natively - you still have to have a copy of Windows running on a VM - but it definitely is
doable. Many of the people I know running it on a Mac are happy with the configuration, but it
doesn't run QUITE as fast as it does on a native Windows machine. However, if you're an Apple
Fanboy (or Fangirl - I know of at least one) then go ahead and have fun with it!

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