Question Fusion 360

[faalin]

So im building a new computer at work, the person at work does design work but then generates the tool cut path. I've done some testing on 3 computers.....


a dell running a i7-8700 with 32GB 2666MHz CL15 Samsung 2.5" ssd, takes the cut path 34min to generate. What they are using now
a custom built i7-14700kf with 64GB 6400MT/s CL32 Samsung NVMe, takes the cut path 14min to generate. Tested on one of our CAD guys computer
a custom built R7 7700x with 64GB 6000MT/s CL30 Samsung NVMe, takes the cut path 17min to generate. My computer at home.


When its generating for the first half it uses all the threads available except on the 14700kf it does not use the E-cores at all, the second half on generation only uses 1 core at a time.

I can build the same i7 computer since i already have 2 built in the company, or i was looking at the 7950x. I havent been able to test anything on it, but if my 8 core 16 thread with slower ram was only 3 min slower then a 16 core 32 thread should be able to make up ground in the first half of the generation and then loose some in the single thread portion. I would also have the option next year to upgrade the CPU where im stuck with the 14th gen cpu.


Am i just trying to talk myself into the 7950x or is the better option the i7 14700?

 

[Ralston18]

What CAD software is being used?

What are the manufacturer's recommended specs for hardware and software?

Most software manufacturers provide specs in some form of minimal, recommended, or best.

You do not want minimal and you do want as much "best" as possible. Exceeding those specs may or may not prove helpful.

There may or may not be trade-offs involved.

 

[faalin]

What CAD software is being used?

What are the manufacturer's recommended specs for hardware and software?

Most software manufacturers provide specs in some form of minimal, recommended, or best.

You do not want minimal and you do want as much "best" as possible. Exceeding those specs may or may not prove helpful.

There may or may not be trade-offs involved.

They are using Fusion 360 with the manufacturing add on.

Auto desk recommends for complex modeling
3 GHz or greater, 6 or more cores
8-GB RAM or greater

I know the computer he is running i7-8700 with 32GB 2666MHz CL15, with 32GB of ram it would max out the ram and lock the computer for a while. I have put in 64GB and it will render just fine.

Stated above, i have tested 3 computers. The i7-8700, i7 -14700kf, and R7 7700x all rendering the same cut path and their times. The i7-14700kf renders the fastest but im wondering if a R9 7950x would be faster or match the time of the i7-14700kf. I also like the fact that i can upgrade the AMD system with a new CPU where im stuck with the 14th gen from intel.


Truthfully a potato can run Fusion 360, its just how fast can it render the cut paths, and thats what im trying to get the best time for. If they have to wait 30 min to render the cut path and then not like something, they then have to make the change then re render the cut path and wait another 30 min. Time is money and i'm trying to get the quickest render times.

 

[Ralston18]

R9 7950x = about $500 USD - correct?

However, as stated, "time is money". And the real question would be "how much faster".

Any sense of how much it costs waiting for a cut path to render? Some sort of chart or table?

Think in terms of ROI (Return on Investment). If every minute of rendering time costs $1.00 USD then saving 500 minutes of rendering time would pay for the cost of the CPU. Just over an 8 hour work day.

What are the costs of waiting? How many people, machines, etc. not "working" while waiting for the rendering? Or the do-over if that happens?

May or may not be viable (hopefully it is) but my suggestion is to purchase the R9 7950x, install, and test.

Details matter and the best test is in the real working environment.

And even if the CPU does not meet expectations then you still have an extra CPU - just in case. Or put it to use anyway even if only slightly faster.

Overall, you have done some testing and have a rendering time baseline to work with and compare.

Someone else may be able to jump right in and state or otherwise document that the R9 7950x would render faster. Fair enough....

In the meantime, feel free to "talk yourself into it".

Post what you do and learn.

 

[faalin]

I ended up going with a R9 7950x build, I should have all the parts later next week. Ill do some testing and post back how all the CPU's compare to each other.

 

[faalin]

So update time......the build

Asus prime x670-p
Ryzen 9-7950x
G.skill 2x32GB 6000MT/s CL32

So one issue with the build is there is no troubleshooting lights on the board, its all done through the power button light. So first boot up i get a slow flashing light, 1 second on then 1 second off just repeating. Thought it might be a memory learning thing so i just left it be, after about 10 min i held the power button down and then restart it..... no issues just boots. I go through with installing windows reboot multiple time, no issues at all. I then power it down and take it out the the design guy where he boots it up and runs it for half a week.

So a few days ago a guy came up to talk to the design guy and leaned on his computer, he ended up having his elbow on the power button and shut the computer down..... and this is where the issues started. For the life of me i could not get this computer to boot back up.

I started by googleing the error lights, slow on/off blink is gpu error a quick 4 blinks is a ram error. Every time it would boot it would give the slow on/off blink, so i tried 5 different cards in all 3 of the PCI-e slots with no solution. The next steps i tried

BIOS update
clearing CMOS
1 ram stick trying in every slot
pulled a stick from my computer and it immediately gave a ram error
I then pulled the cpu out and re seated it with a clear cmos, after a few reboots it finally got to the bios, hitting F10 saving and exiting with no changes it went back to not booting.


In short i retuned the CPU, MB, and Ram for the same Intel build i built at the first of the year for 2 of our CAD guys.

Asus Prime Z790-a
i7-14700k
G.skill 2x32GB 6400MT/s CL32


Also did some testing with the same design and generation.

The dell i7-8700 34min to generate
New build 7950x 18min to generate
Home build 7700x 17min to generate
CAD build 14700k 14min to generate

Not sure if the slow time on the 7950x was due to underlieing issues, also noticed it was only using 10 of the 32 threads when doing the generation.


New parts are coming in tomorrow so after the build i will retest and see if the new build will match the CAD computers, it should as they are the same parts but we'll see.