Autocad 3-D acceleration

a1call · 2017-04-26, 20:44

Hi all,
This is not number theory related.
I need expertise and if possible a benchmark test made on a fancy graphic card before I can convince our IT department to purchase one for me.

One of the software I regularly use is Autocad.
A combination of very detailed 3-D model, old computer and large files makes my computer at work highly unresponsive.
As an example a print to PDF using cutePDF, can take about 10 minutes per page.
The 16 cores of the CPU hardly show any activity when printing.
If I turn off the hardware acceleration, then the printing is much more quick, but of course useless due to improper rendering.

Would anyone be able to shed some light on this?
Would I get a real-time performance if we purchase an expensive graphic card?
Would someone be able and willing to time how long it takes to print to PDF a file that I provide?
Thank you very much in advance.

a1call · 2017-05-11, 02:57

Well it turns out the bottleneck is the fact that Autocad is not a multithreaded software and uses only one of the available 16 cores. The other thing is the "hard faults/sec" which has multiple bursts of 100% when printing to PDF. Google says it's a measure of multiple look ups to the pagefile. Our IT disagrees and says increasing the RAM will give no improvements!

There are 4 graphics cards on the system one of them is Tesla C2050 which has about 400 cores but somehow has no 3D acceleration.

* Is there any prime related tasks I can run on it overnight?
Thanks in advance.

chris2be8 · 2017-05-11, 15:50

What OS is this? Talking about pagefile sounds like Windows, but that's only a guess.

I've had experience on quite a few OS's. On all of them the best cure for paging was to add more memory. Making better use of the memory you have can help, but needs detailed knowledge of how the software you are using works.

The obvious first step is to temporarily add more ram and see if it runs faster. Make sure you have a good benchmark, eg boot the system up and time printing a particular file when nothing else is running on the system.

I've heard of badly written software causing paging by causing data or code it thinks it won't need to be paged out to disk. Then it has to be paged in again when it's needed. You might be able to stop that by removing the pagefile so nothing can be paged out to disk, but that's a last resort.

Another option would be to remove the pagefile on disk and add a USB memory stick configured as the pagefile (or with the pagefile on it). Making paging faster should help a bit.

Chris

a1call · 2017-05-11, 18:20

Thank you for your reply chris2be8.
I made a free more tests and things just don't add up.
The system is Windows 7 with a 7 year old high end(at the time) system.
I disabled the the page file and there was no timing change in print-to-PDF.
I started 2 instances of AutoCAD and did simultaneous print-to-PDFs and it took a bit more than double the time, even though each instance was assigned to a different core.
I just can not pinpoint the bottleneck resource, when doing print-to-PDF of a 3-D shaded scene from AutoCAD. What makes it take minutes to finish execution?

chalsall · 2017-05-11, 18:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by a1call

Well it turns out the bottleneck is the fact that Autocad is not a multithreaded software and uses only one of the available 16 cores. The other thing is the "hard faults/sec" which has multiple bursts of 100% when printing to PDF. Google says it's a measure of multiple look ups to the pagefile. Our IT disagrees and says increasing the RAM will give no improvements!

Yes, AutoCAD is not multithreaded. A bit surprising considering how mature the software is, and how much it costs.

I respectfully disagree with your IT. I am the ICT support for my girlfriend's Architectural office, running many "seats" of AutoCAD. Maxing out the RAM always increased each worker's throughput.

Also, please note that AutoCAD doesn't leverage on the GPUs for anything but screen rendering.

Edit: The fact that you're getting "pagefile hits" means you have exceeded your physical memory, and are experiencing what is known as "thrashing". AKA "hitting the polished rust" (read: paging to disc).

Mark Rose · 2017-05-11, 19:46

Memory is cheap. If you have a DDR4 system, it should be possible to give it at least 32 GB of RAM. If you're stuck on DDR3, then you should be able to get at least 16 GB.

Give than you have some fancy Xeon with 16 cores, you should be able to put a lot more memory in it than that. Maybe 128+ GB.

How much memory is in your system?

Time how many minutes a week you spend waiting for printing. Then compare that to your hourly wage and the cost of memory. Take the numbers to your boss.

potonono · 2017-05-12, 00:20

Max the RAM if possible. Even if it is slow memory, it will be faster than paging out to the disk(s).

One other thing to check is the paging file size, and if Windows is managing it, or if it might have been set to a specific size that is too low for your system. [Control Panel -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced -> (Performance) Settings -> Advanced -> (Virtual Memory) Change -> "Automatically manage paging file size"]

If more RAM isn't an option, assuming you only have hard-disc drives (HDD), you might want to get a solid-state drive (SSD) installed, and put your paging file on there instead of on the slower HDD's.

2017-04-26, 20:44	#1
a1call "Rashid Naimi" Oct 2015 Remote to Here/There 2·11·109 Posts	Autocad 3-D acceleration Hi all, This is not number theory related. I need expertise and if possible a benchmark test made on a fancy graphic card before I can convince our IT department to purchase one for me. One of the software I regularly use is Autocad. A combination of very detailed 3-D model, old computer and large files makes my computer at work highly unresponsive. As an example a print to PDF using cutePDF, can take about 10 minutes per page. The 16 cores of the CPU hardly show any activity when printing. If I turn off the hardware acceleration, then the printing is much more quick, but of course useless due to improper rendering. Would anyone be able to shed some light on this? Would I get a real-time performance if we purchase an expensive graphic card? Would someone be able and willing to time how long it takes to print to PDF a file that I provide? Thank you very much in advance.

2017-05-12, 00:20	#7
potonono Jun 2005 USA, IL 301₈ Posts	Max the RAM if possible. Even if it is slow memory, it will be faster than paging out to the disk(s). One other thing to check is the paging file size, and if Windows is managing it, or if it might have been set to a specific size that is too low for your system. [Control Panel -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced -> (Performance) Settings -> Advanced -> (Virtual Memory) Change -> "Automatically manage paging file size"] If more RAM isn't an option, assuming you only have hard-disc drives (HDD), you might want to get a solid-state drive (SSD) installed, and put your paging file on there instead of on the slower HDD's. Last fiddled with by potonono on 2017-05-12 at 00:20

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2017-05-11, 02:57	#2
a1call "Rashid Naimi" Oct 2015 Remote to Here/There 2·11·109 Posts	Well it turns out the bottleneck is the fact that Autocad is not a multithreaded software and uses only one of the available 16 cores. The other thing is the "hard faults/sec" which has multiple bursts of 100% when printing to PDF. Google says it's a measure of multiple look ups to the pagefile. Our IT disagrees and says increasing the RAM will give no improvements! There are 4 graphics cards on the system one of them is Tesla C2050 which has about 400 cores but somehow has no 3D acceleration. * Is there any prime related tasks I can run on it overnight? Thanks in advance.

2017-05-11, 15:50	#3
chris2be8 Sep 2009 2⁵·7·11 Posts	What OS is this? Talking about pagefile sounds like Windows, but that's only a guess. I've had experience on quite a few OS's. On all of them the best cure for paging was to add more memory. Making better use of the memory you have can help, but needs detailed knowledge of how the software you are using works. The obvious first step is to temporarily add more ram and see if it runs faster. Make sure you have a good benchmark, eg boot the system up and time printing a particular file when nothing else is running on the system. I've heard of badly written software causing paging by causing data or code it thinks it won't need to be paged out to disk. Then it has to be paged in again when it's needed. You might be able to stop that by removing the pagefile so nothing can be paged out to disk, but that's a last resort. Another option would be to remove the pagefile on disk and add a USB memory stick configured as the pagefile (or with the pagefile on it). Making paging faster should help a bit. Chris

2017-05-11, 18:20	#4
a1call "Rashid Naimi" Oct 2015 Remote to Here/There 95E₁₆ Posts	Thank you for your reply chris2be8. I made a free more tests and things just don't add up. The system is Windows 7 with a 7 year old high end(at the time) system. I disabled the the page file and there was no timing change in print-to-PDF. I started 2 instances of AutoCAD and did simultaneous print-to-PDFs and it took a bit more than double the time, even though each instance was assigned to a different core. I just can not pinpoint the bottleneck resource, when doing print-to-PDF of a 3-D shaded scene from AutoCAD. What makes it take minutes to finish execution?

2017-05-11, 19:46	#6
Mark Rose "/X\(‘-‘)/X\" Jan 2013 https://pedan.tech/ 2⁴×199 Posts	Memory is cheap. If you have a DDR4 system, it should be possible to give it at least 32 GB of RAM. If you're stuck on DDR3, then you should be able to get at least 16 GB. Give than you have some fancy Xeon with 16 cores, you should be able to put a lot more memory in it than that. Maybe 128+ GB. How much memory is in your system? Time how many minutes a week you spend waiting for printing. Then compare that to your hourly wage and the cost of memory. Take the numbers to your boss.