Nvidia Optimus Graphics Support
The Nvidia Optimus driver has an option to select which programme should use which graphics processor. I can choose 'bricscad.exe' and assign it to the Nvidia GPU. However, when I run Bricscad, the Nvidia control panel tells me, that no application is using the Nvidia chipset. Up to now this wasn't so much of a problem, because the Intel HD graphics seemed to cope fine with the complexity of the drawings which I was working on. I now have to work on drawings, which clearly are too much for the Intel HD graphics and really would like to get the Nvidia GPU to work with Bricscad.
Has anyone had any luck in getting BricsCad to work with the Nvidia GPU on a dual GPU Optimus laptop?!
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As I understand, graphics display has little to do with the speed of processing dwg files. They just start to generally bog down from about 4Mb onwards.
Certain entities such as hatches add more load than others, but that difference is fairly marginal.
I believe it's the same in Autocad.
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I have to disagree. The power of the graphics adapter has a mayor influence on display quality and speed.
There are special drivers for Autocad to utilise the enhanced capabilities of workstation graphics cards. A Nvidia Quadro or AMD FireGL makes a huge difference in Autocad to using a integrated Intel GPU. Rhino3D makes good use of consumer graphics cards and running Rhino with the GT540 on my laptop is a huge improvement on using the built in Intel HD3000.
The problem with Bricscad is, that I can't get it to run using the GT540, it just utilises the Intel GPU, no matter which settings I try in the Optimus control panel.0 -
In 2D I don't see much of a difference between this newer notebook PC and my older HP (with "integrated" shared-memory graphics). The old HP was a dog in rendering and could just barely manage to operate in 3dcontext mode but 2D was okay.
Since the spring I've been running a Lenovo core i7 box with Optimus over a Quadro 2000M GPU. Very nice box. I have it set to use the Quadro for Bricscad in the nvidia control panel and, as far as I can tell, it's using it. That's only by eyeball, however. Is there a properties setting (other than in the nvidia control panel) that shows which graphics processor that Bricscad is using?
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To show which graphics processor is being used, go to Nvidia Control Panel then select "Desktop" on menu bar and then make sure "Display GPU activity in notification area" on drop down list is ticked. You then get an icon in the notification area which is monochrome when only the Intel HD GPU is in use and coloured when the Nvidia Geforce GPU is being used. The tray icon also pops up information on which applications use the Geforce graphics.
I am actually surprised how well the Intel HD3000 can cope with most situations. I would have never considered buying a laptop with only an integrated Intel graphics unit, but now have to admit that it's sufficient most of the times. Not being able to tap into the extra power of the Nvidia GPU is very annoying though.
Let me know whether your Quadro is actually being used by Nvidia Optimus.0 -
http://www.bricsys.com/bricscad/help/en_US/V11/Bricscad/source/00_01_Whats_New_Overview.htm
At the bottom is a note under Rendering which might be relevant.
There are settings in Options under Rendering for redsdk, also for Graphics System Device (which was there for 'testing purposes only' in V11).
Optimus apparently has battery life advantages. I had looked for recommendations to upgrade graphics, but not found any suggestions that any would help much outside 3d work. Certainly e.g. a 12 mb file still zooms and pans instantly on my standard hardware, if that's the measure.
I believe when Autocad started out, printer and other hardware manufacturers declined to include Acad support in their driver software so they wrote their own for everything. With graphics, that situation evolved into a focus on optimising for high end cards. Acad carried on with the annoying driver installation thing after it generally became unnecessary with improved hardware and universal drivers. I was not sure if that still occurred or if there was still an area where there was any point.
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Hi Simon,
There is a knowledge base item on V12 system requirements, which details the types of graphics cards supported see http://www.bricsys.com/common/knowledge/topic.jsp?id=65. It provides links to supported GPUs and recommended drivers. Yours appears to be included.
I would also check your OS setup. Maybe there is a way to force the nvidia to be used at all times. (temporarily to check the difference in Bricscad). For example my Asus laptop has power options that allow me to choose what modes I want to run the machine in. If you have V12 & V11 installed, perhaps try uninstalling V11, maybe it's confusing your driver.
Regards,Jason Bourhill
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Hi Jason,
Thanks for the link. Redway lists the GT540M as supported with Nvidia driver 275.33 - I have driver version 301.42
As for setting the Nvidia High-Performance GPU as default in 'Global Settings' of Nvidia control panel - I have already tried, didn't make a difference. Bricscad still runs with the Intel GPU.0 -
Simon -- Yes, the Nvidia applet does show Bricscad as using the Nvidia GPU.
It doesn't when first launched and Bricscad is only in 2D mode but after switching to 3dcontext (or something else that uses 3D rendering) it does show the Bricscad icon in the "activity" window.
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Hi Richard,
thanks for the information. I don't see any activity on the Nvidia GPU-meter, no matter if in 2D or 3D view. Anyway, the Nvidia GPU should also be active in 2D view as the redraw would be much quicker as well as having better anti-aliasing of the wires/lines. That's another advantage of a dedicated GPU over the bog-standard integrated units, the display usually looks much better, as well as being more responsive. Are you using WinGDI or WinOpenGL in Bricscad display options?
I hope technical support can help me out with something to try to get the Nivida GPU working with Bricscad.
Cheers, Simon.0 -
The default, WinGDI. (Actually, I didn't know there was an option there. ;-)0
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Support have pointed me towards a solution. Thank you, support!
I have to correct one point I stated previously. 3D views generally DO activate the Nvidia GPU, but it's all not that simple ...
When starting Bricscad in 2Dcontext the Nvidia GPU is NOT used, even if the screen shows 3D content in isometric or perspective view with '2D Wireframe' display. Switching to 3Dcontext or switching display rendering to anything else then '2D Wireframe' activates the Nvidia GPU.
Once the Nvidia GPU is activated it remains active even if the drawing is switched back to 2Dcontext or '2D Wireframe' display or even when other 2D drawings are loaded.
Just too bad that all my drawing and templates are 2D wireframe. My workaround is to switch display rendering to 'Hidden' which in 2D actually looks identical to wireframe, but activates the Nvidia GPU.0 -
For anybody interested, it seems that we now have a working solution for Linux laptops running Nvidia Optimus technology. My laptop is the same mdel as Simon's one, I believe (Dell XPS 15 with an i7 processor and GT540M GPU). Yesterday I installed a fresh Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit on a partition on this drive, apt-get update then upgrade (need >=12.04.3), then I followed this new guide on the Ubuntu wiki to take advantage of Ubuntu's latest efforts with the nvidia-prime package. Never a huge fan of backport "solutions" that take my Linux headers out for a spin...but it worked. I installed Bricscad 13.2.11 and the application is up and running and seems to be very smooth indeed. I would welcome further testing from some of you who actually know anything about 3D modelling on Bricscad to see where the inevitable glitches are.
A year after I forked out US$720 for Bricscad, I have it installed on my machine.
Happy hunting.0
