AutoCAD and Vectorworks slow.

[HughMitch]

Hi,

I was not sure exactly where this thread should be posted so apologies if its in the wrong place.

I am finding that after 30mins of using Vectorworks or AutoCAD the redraw rate and the object info boxes flicker a bit and the programs become really slow. Changing between tools and moving objects around the screen is laggy to the point where it affects my workflow.

I would like to think that i am running powerful enough hardware to not have a problem but clearly something is not right. I can seem to track it down though.

I phoned up the Vectorworks support line and they tried to fix the issue but to no avail. The girl was helpful but basically just changed some of the graphics properties within vectorworks which made no difference.

It does not matter how large or small the file is, how complex or how simple the geometry is. I am working mostly in 2D.

Sketchup 3D works absolutely fine without any issues.

I am hoping someone else had had the same problem or knows where i can next look for a solution.

My specs:
AMD FX 8350 CPU
AMD radeon R9 270x 2gb
16GB Corsair DDR3 1333mhz ram
both programs are running on an SSD (samsung 840 pro)
ASUS TUF Sabertooth 990FX R2 motherboard
Windows 10
2 screens @ 1080pi each.

i would be hugely grateful to anyone who could shed some light on the problem. I am not sure how to track down if its a hardware issue or a software issue.

Many thanks,

 

[Mikel_4]

Slow viewport display is related to the GPU ability, both hardware and software, you'll find better insight from 3D forums. It seems like your GPU is throttled down of over heating which explain the flicks and stutter, I don't think replacing GPU cooler will help, but for the mean time you can do:

■ Replace thermal grease with known brand, the one with good online reviews for them.
■ Getting internal ambient temperature to be cooler by clearing intake air burst and out take fan from obstructions (clattered wire/cable)

Some other possible causes are such as insufficient of used system RAM or video memory ( the excess memory usage will be handle by slower page file sys), and component's over heating.

 

[HughMitch]

Thanks,

please could you elaborate on the GPU throttling? I dont suffer any drops in gaming or performance in other areas. The MSI version of the card i have is overclocked slightly and is meant to have pretty good cooling (the fans never make 100%).

I will post the question on a 3D forum and see what people say.

In terms of RAM usage and video memory. is there a way i can optemise this or is this down to the software coding?

 

[Mikel_4]

when the R9 270X (curacao XT core) reach certain temperature (usually around 90 C) the VGA voltage regulator module (VRM) will reduce the power of the core (speed down clock), the video memory will have to wait the new speed registration to replace previous registered speed. You can't and shouldn't compare gaming API to CAD on vectorwork base on gaming frame per second result, try run solidwork with AMD gaming card. With 16GB DDR3 you no longer need disk write chace. You can disable it http://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-disable-disk-write-caching-windows-7-8 or
http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/21904-disk-write-caching-enable-disable-windows-10-a.html
If your monitor support high refresh rate (above 60Hz), set it the highest.

 

[HughMitch]

Thanks for the advice. I have checked my temps and im not going above 32 degrees (C) yet. But i might replace the thermal paste anyway.
My monitor is on 60Hz and i have set the disk write cache as in the links.

I decided to have afterburner and a few other monitoring programs open whilst i used Vectorworks. Generally the GPU clock and Memory clock stay at their base values (450mhz and 1400mhz respectively). However when i decide to move a piece of text or suddenly scale or select a load of objects on screen i get a pause and then a spike on the graphs. The lag is cause by the GPU suddenly increasing core speeds to cope with the demand then it drops back down again to base value. My CPU has a similar spike but not so drastic.

It's as if its waking up from a low power state or something when it realises it has work to do and therefore there is a time lag as it 'wakes up'.

Is there a way of forcing the GPU clock to just run at its fastest all the time whether required or not? or basically does not go into the 'low power mode' so that i wont have this lag as the GPU tries to keep up every time.

i don't know, i'm just trying to work this out...am i onto something here or is this just rubbish thinking?

 

[Mikel_4]

Thanks for the advice. I have checked my temps and im not going above 32 degrees (C) yet. But i might replace the thermal paste anyway.
My monitor is on 60Hz and i have set the disk write cache as in the links.

I decided to have afterburner and a few other monitoring programs open whilst i used Vectorworks. Generally the GPU clock and Memory clock stay at their base values (450mhz and 1400mhz respectively). However when i decide to move a piece of text or suddenly scale or select a load of objects on screen i get a pause and then a spike on the graphs. The lag is cause by the GPU suddenly increasing core speeds to cope with the demand then it drops back down again to base value. My CPU has a similar spike but not so drastic.

It's as if its waking up from a low power state or something when it realises it has work to do and therefore there is a time lag as it 'wakes up'.

Is there a way of forcing the GPU clock to just run at its fastest all the time whether required or not? or basically does not go into the 'low power mode' so that i wont have this lag as the GPU tries to keep up every time.

i don't know, i'm just trying to work this out...am i onto something here or is this just rubbish thinking?

I don't know if this suffice http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/1104/Renderworks+Hardware+Dependencies+ I never use AMD CPU before so must be my mistake comparing my i7 6900k CPU to your FX 8350 . Meanwhile you can try better CPU cooler such as Noctua DH 15 or water cooler If your case support radiator mounting:
Corsair Hydro 100 240 mm
NZXT Kraken X61 280 mm
Thermaltake water 3.0 ultimate 360
After that do manual overclocking, your motherboard happen to be good overclocking motherboard. http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1730551/ready-overclock-amd-8350-voltage-multiplier-start.html
Just to be safe, what's your detail PSU?

 

[HughMitch]

HI, sorry for the late reply,

I'm using an XFX 750W PSU.
I am already using A corsair H100i and i am overclocked to 4.6Ghz. CPU runs cool same as MSI GPU. I have checked my temps and nothing seams too high.

Thanks for the link. I am running the latest version of Vectorworks 2017. Its fully 64bit. The 2D plan drawing still only uses 1 core on my 8 core CPU so i am thinking that this is the issue. Single core performance on a FX8350 is not as good as the Intel counterpart.

Thing is, in order to use an Intel would require a complete rebuild pretty much which i don't have the time or money for at the moment. I would have liked to think that the FX would be powerful enough to run the program easily so its frustrating that it is not working properly.

I am hoping that someone has had the same issue and can recommend some program changes or things to disable/enable which might help?