Looking at the latest details on the Cast website it appears that the recommended hardware specifications were written some time back. I'm updating my 6 year old visualization station as I have an upcoming contract that is going to require some more horsepower (even though the one I have is no slouch). I'm looking at a system based around an i9 processor, but then am lost when it comes to GFX card selections as there are SO many to choose from. I do not want to go crazy but happy to spring in the CAD500 region for a decent card. So are there any recommendations from CAST or end users as to a good motherboard and graphics card choice that will give be decent FPM figures? I know it's a long shot but would appreciate end user experiences. Thanks in advance, Paul
Hi, we have a system with an i9 3.6 GHz processor and 32 MB Ram. The graphics card is an RTX 2080 Ti. The experience is that CPU and System Memory is never close to being fully used. The graphics card is quite easily working at 100% capacity. There is a lot to win in all kind of settings for the shaded view. The FPS is largely dependant also on screen resolution and whether or not you are using VR or not (and if so how fast your head is moving!) We are actually in the middle of optimising performance, so I am very curious to hear other users experiences as well. We tried to overclock the graphics card a bit, but wysiwyg becomes unstable really soon, so we consider buying something new. As is also on the current buying guide by Cast, it does not help you to buy a CAD optimised card, because Wysiwyg does not take advantage of the extra precision those card deliver (and it is way more expensive). The question Cast needs to answer is whether they are going to support raytracing (the RTX part) anytime soon. The one we are considering buying is a 3090 (no Ti), but availability and prices are a big issue.
Hi all, To answer @Floriaan 's question, at the moment we have no plans to support RTX. We feel that WYSIWYG's visualization is lacking in certain areas, and believe it is more important to either improve visualization where needed, or add the ability to visualize things that currently cannot be visualized, rather than make everything a bit prettier by adding support for what RTX technology brings to the table. That said, it looks like NVidia is no longer giving the world a choice by continuing with their GTX line of GPUs, so anything we buy these days is going to be RTX. WYSIWYG works perfectly with these though, and the same "rule" applies as always: if the processing bottleneck is on the GPU and not the CPU, the higher-end the GPU, the better the performance -- assuming the file is properly optimized and all that, as always. (To find out where the performance bottleneck is, shrink the Shaded View while visualizing in either DESIGN or LIVE mode: if performance improves, the bottleneck is not the GPU.) Before I close, I should mention that I recently updated our System Spec and Hardware Guide.
Hi, I have read the system specs and hardware guide which is really helpful. Does anyone have any opinions on mobile machines and yes I appreciate the actual machines are all different but do Alienware/Razer/Lenovo make machines that are very different or should I head in another direction for a machine that I can use when away from home that I can draw on and do visualization on shows with up to 100+ fixtures. I don't currently need specs but looking for actual brands that others are using that have worked well recently (2022) Thank you
We are working remotely via REALVNC. We have a good computer at the office (where we have fast and reliable internet) and are able to get very good results over the remote connection. It is even possible to get a fair amount of work done over cellular, but the better the connection the better the experience.
Hi Cormac, we have 2 MSI GS65 laptops with a RTX2070 graphics card. they work fine, only when the sets become larger (moving scenery with imported textures) they can become a bit slow when in design or live mode. But like Floriaan says, in that case you could VNC into a office based computer. ciao Sander
Thank you Sander, New machine arrives tomorrow & will report back. Got some advise from cast team which was very helpful. Appreciate the replies. C
