Solid works benchmarks for graphics

[kamikaziechameleon]

My work computer is a pile of win xp 32 bit crud.

That being said I'm always pushing for some major upgrades. I want to be able to provide better info to my boss when recommending hardware (specifically graphics aka GPU goodness)

Anyone know of a graphically intensive solidworks benchmark that I could use? I'm gonna compare a 200 dollar workstation Quadro FX 570 card to a 200 dollar consumer MSI 460 (The one featured in the overclocking article on here.)

My machine doesn't have the ram to deal with large assemblies or anything(only 4 Gb) so I can't really test GPU preformance in general use on this rig, and I can't take the 570 home to test on my AMD 6 core 16 Gb DDR3 machine.

Thanks guys.

[Starfalcon]

It really depends on what your doing with the rig, the advantage to professional cards are that they are made to make sure there are no rendering errors and the drivers are designed to work with rendering programs. Regular consumer level cards have an acceptable amount of rendering errors, where as on a CAD wireframe being rendered for production...you really cant afford to have a rendering mistake. It comes down to how bulletproof you need your rig to be.

[kamikaziechameleon]

Well we don't work that way, we use auto cad for drafting interiors for our clients approval then we model up the fixtures Etc. in solid works and derive manufacturing drawings from those assemblies that we send out. In that instance I don't know if a workstation card is beneficial but we experience pleanty fo display anomolies when working on the assemblies with the quadro cards we currently have and they are solidworks/auto cad certified as are the drivers. I've worked on consumer cards before with no more issues than I'm currently experiencing with my quadro, I just want to compare outright graphical preformance, that is more what I need. My employer is kinda a penny pincher so 2,000 dollar workstation cards are out of the question, I'll be lucky if I get a 800 dollar rebuild my comp.
I really only need a card that can handle displaying larger assemblies while I work on them, we don't do anything larger than custom drop ceilings but the Quadro FX 570 I got doesn't seem to cut it. I was hoping to find a way to benchmark it VS my 460 I got at home to see if there will be a difference in performance at that same price.

[kamikaziechameleon]

I guess a better question is to ask what single component is more important to solid works, when dealing with a large assembly, a GPU or the CPU/RAM speed/quatity.

[kamikaziechameleon]

The reason I asked about that is because solid works makes a big noise about GPUs and drivers. When reviewing GPUs in preformance benchmarks it wasn't uncommon to see a 200-300 dollar consumer GPU sitting next to a 1,000 dollar workstation gpu in the system specs corresponding to the higher preformance numbers. From what I saw CPU/RAM speed and HDD had the most to do with those numbers. Again I just want to gather info so I can try to guide my boss in spending the least money and getting the most punch, hopefully this means I can stop working on a gen one cor 2 duo processor in win xp 32 bit.

[kamikaziechameleon]

http://wall.alphacoders.com/images/893/89399.jpg

I wonder how they were benchmarking solid works. Their benchmarking methods aren't well documented unless I missed something.