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Before I start spending money

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

RE: Before I start spending money

Usually more RAM will help, but as a quick check, pull some RAM from another machine, and put it in yours to see if it helps.


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

(OP)
CBL,

Thanks, good idea. I wonder if my boss will notice the slowdown in his computer....;<)

RE: Before I start spending money

He will if you take all of it.


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 theory goes that most bosses don't really work--they just tell everyone else to do so.  So you might be in luck.

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

Your boss won't notice 'til Friday, when he's pushed at the last minute.

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

(OP)
Thanks to everyone, I did take a look at performance and for some reason my help isn't available. My CPU usage spikes up around 50% and settles down to 1-3% PF usage is 469mb while editing a sketch. Does that sound like a need for ram?

RE: Before I start spending money

If you have only 512MB of RAM, the answer is yes.  If you have more than 1GB, it doesn't sound necessary right now.  More RAM is great, but if you never really need it, you'll have a tough time justifying the expense to the IT guys (or boss, or whatever).

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.

http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/VideoCardTesting.html


Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reality is no respecter of good intentions.

RE: Before I start spending money

From your description, I would bet on a graphic card problem, but you're using an "approved" card. Check the card settings (does it have a Solidworks option?).

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

(OP)
My machine specs are in my original post. Made sure the graphics card was up to spec when ordering computer. It stills shows as passing all tests with SW2005. When I ordered this almost two years ago 512MB was recommended but everything I've seen posted here suggested more. I'm sure it will help out to get a little more get me to 1GB and see how it does. Thanks to all for the responses, I love this place. Now if I could just get my boss to approve upgrading the machine at home....

RE: Before I start spending money

Your're right.  Forgot you posted your specs.

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

I tried to get more RAM from our IT department. They said the cost was too high; they would have to replace all my chips with new ones, something about my slots being full. They ended up getting me a new computer.

Bradley

RE: Before I start spending money

You can get 1gb of memory for ~$100 now... but a new computer is nice too.  I hope they didn't skimp on the graphics card.

"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

Nvidia Quadro FX 1100, using old monitor.
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

Nice!

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

Jeff,
Oops forgot that: AMD 64 bit

Bradley

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