Before I start spending money
Before I start spending money
(OP)
I've been experiencing an annoying slowdown most noticeably while I'm sketching and dimensioning. I suspect it's the amount of ram I have but before asking for money I want to be sure it will improve performance. I do maintenance weekly if not more. 3D controller is a little jerkey also. All drivers are up to date. Example: when dimensioning, I'm usually waiting for the value to be entered and display on the screen, the screen is about three steps behind my input.
Thanks in advance,
Windows XP Pro
Pentium 4 3.00 GHz
512 mb ram
Matrox Millennium P650
SolidWorks 2005 sp 3.0
Thanks in advance,
Windows XP Pro
Pentium 4 3.00 GHz
512 mb ram
Matrox Millennium P650
SolidWorks 2005 sp 3.0






RE: Before I start spending money
Making the best use of this Forum. FAQ559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions. FAQ559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of. FAQ559-520
RE: Before I start spending money
Thanks, good idea. I wonder if my boss will notice the slowdown in his computer....;<)
RE: Before I start spending money
Making the best use of this Forum. FAQ559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions. FAQ559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of. FAQ559-520
RE: Before I start spending money
The first thing I would try if I were you is to open Windows Task Manager and see if you're close to using all your RAM already, or if it's a processor limitation (check the graphs under the performance tabe, get Task Manager by CTRL-ALT-DEL, in case you're not familiar with this tool). If it's neither, you may have other issues.
What OS are you using? I noticed some similar things on my ancient Win 2000 machine.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reality is no respecter of good intentions.
RE: Before I start spending money
RAM and Video Card are the big issues.
(He probably won't notice the card missing either until Sat when he comes in to look at pics
Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP2.0 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site
FAQ371-376
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-1091
FAQ559-716
RE: Before I start spending money
RE: Before I start spending money
Check the Performance tab in the Task Manager while SW is running a normal load. This will put the RAM and processor up near the norm and give you a great idea of how much of your hardware's potential is being used up. If you ever use more RAM than you have, your system will slam to an almost stop while creating space on the hard drive for virtual RAM. If this is normal, you're wasting much more time than RAM costs these days and should solve that problem immediately.
By the way, take heed to ctopher's post and make sure your graphics card is compliant with the SW site's list. If not, this WILL cause big performance problems. The graphics card is essential.
ht
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reality is no respecter of good intentions.
RE: Before I start spending money
There are also other things that you should pay attention: OpenGL selected; computer chipset; program/process running in the background and eating CPU ressources; spyware; fragmented HD; registry full of invalid entries.
Good Luck
RE: Before I start spending money
RE: Before I start spending money
You may want to get a full gigabyte of RAM if you upgrade at all. SW 2006 will be out soon and you may as well only do this one time if you can (since it will likely require more from your hardware).
I've got 1GB of RAM and am finding I need more with large assemblies and complex parts every once in a while. It's cheap enough now, might as well upgrade.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reality is no respecter of good intentions.
RE: Before I start spending money
Bradley
RE: Before I start spending money
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
RE: Before I start spending money
2 GB ram
2 Hard drives
XP Pro
Using my old computer for e-mail, surfing and etc.
Bradley
RE: Before I start spending money
AMD or Intel chip(s)? Check out the latest dual core reviews in 64-bit. Pricey, but amazing. Good performance coming soon.
I have dual SATA drives and love them--quick and relatively cheap.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reality is no respecter of good intentions.
RE: Before I start spending money
Oops forgot that: AMD 64 bit
Bradley
RE: Before I start spending money
FAQ559-986
FAQ559-974
Regards,
Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies
www.3dvisiontech.com
www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376
FAQ559-716 - SW Fora Users