i use sketchup everyday at work. when i rotate a building, it's jerky and slow and takes a while to regenerate patterns/colors. we've recently added a gig of ram, brining me up to 2 gigs. here are some specs:

-dell precision pw370
-pentium 4, 3.6 ghz
-2 gb ram
-ati fireGL v3100 http://ati.amd.com/products/workstation/techspecs2.html
-40gb harddrive
-dell 20" wide screen flat panel

what do i need to add to this computer to make it work smoothy in sketchup? i am not using shadows (it barely works at all then). even if i turn off patters and colors, it's still slow and jerky.

12/18/2006 1:34:56 PM

http://www.nvidia.com/page/qfx_uhe.html maybe this card? im not too good about pro-rendering cards

another gb of ram wouldn't hurt...

12/18/2006 2:29:58 PM

your video card is piece of trash basically

you would get 3-5x the performance out of a desktop 3d card. For SketchUp/Autocad it's absolutely absurd to buy a workstation card, you will see no difference whatsoever.

Go pickup a Nvidia 7600gt or above, or an ATI x1900 or above, pretty much any card over 150 bucks will make your life a dream.

12/18/2006 3:05:53 PM

damn double post

Oh and RAM has nothing to do with it, adding more is just overkill.

[Edited on December 18, 2006 at 3:06 PM. Reason : .]

12/18/2006 3:05:53 PM

meh, wasn't sure really, i don't play with those toys much

12/18/2006 3:38:08 PM

i have an nivida with 128 of shared memory on my laptop, 1gb ram, and 1.6 duo-core (i know it probably only uses one core)... would sketchup run smooth enough for me just for something to doodle with?

12/18/2006 3:53:26 PM

basically whatever i recommend, they will buy me...

so which is better, nvidia or ati? any specific model to recommend? it'd be better if it's something i can walk into best buy or circuit city to get (no compusa here).

thanks for the help.

12/18/2006 6:03:22 PM

nvidia for that kind of stuff usually (at least last time i checked), but i dont know about sketchup as much as other modeling programs

12/18/2006 6:38:42 PM

http://www.sketchup.com/?sid=481

12/18/2006 8:14:56 PM

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8003732&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01151&id=1155072371459

or

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/EVGA-e-GeForce-7600-GT-Graphics-Card-256P2N553DX/sem/rpsm/oid/147048/catOid/-13043/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

are going to be about the only two cards you could go pick up in store that I would recommend. You'd be able to do a good bit better by ordering off of newegg or another online store.

12/18/2006 8:37:18 PM

okay, what are your suggestions for ordering?

12/18/2006 8:57:02 PM

get the 7600gt on sale from newegg for 80 bucks, check slickdeals.net, its on the frontpage

12/18/2006 10:19:43 PM

thanks so much for all your help. i ordered that one from newegg.

12/19/2006 8:53:35 PM