TheKitchenAbode

Given the level of system you are building and the varied types of software, the AMD 1950X will beat the I9-7900x in multithreaded situations but the I9-7900x will beat the AMD 1950x in single threaded operations. It will depend upon the mix as to whether one would be on average distinctly better than the other. However, given the current processors from AMD and Intel you may wish to consider that if you choose the I9-7900x and you find sometime down the road the need for more power you would be able to upgrade the CPU to say the I9-7980XE, a 36 threader that is considerably faster than the AMD 1950x right across the board. Without projecting on the unknown future the Intel system is upgradeable and the AMD one is not.

Yep, I get similar numbers on my system, which are similar to other plans of mine.

Unfortunately I can not replicate the lengthy 3D model rebuild I got the first time, maybe just a fluke. Do you get this lag on all your plans now? Once the view opens does everything seem to be fine form there on, the mouse zooms in & out normally, panning. Does this happen on new plans or just plans prepared before your computer change over?

Thorn-ecoc, I just downloaded your plan and it is unlikely to be your computer. There is something in it that is requiring a lengthy model rebuild before the camera view can open. CA must do a lot of computations before the model can be sent to your graphics display card and it seems to be this function that's slowing it down. This happens if there is some very complex modeling to do or something in the model is causing a conflict. Will take a deeper look to see if I can find it.

David _ 100% correct, great advice and a solid interpretation of what can be expected and under what conditions. The problem with many of these test reviews sites is that they are not the best a putting all of the results into a perspective that is easy to fully understand. Memory, bandwidth and many other things we can focus on really only matter when a system is being pushed to it's limits under very specific situations. Unless those very specific circumstance exist, there will be no perceivable difference. For CA and Ray Tracing the most important by far is the base frequency and # of cores. When evaluating that base frequency there is also the boost frequency to consider. This is not always fully understood, the boost frequency is intended to crank up the CPU for only a limited amount of time and very often on only a few of the available cores. This will vary according to the cooling system, boosting the frequency causes CPU temperatures to rise, once these hit the chips operating limitations the system will either crank up the cooling system and if this does not bring the temps down then it will throttle back on the boost, the boost is really only designed for short burst. For long term boosting on all cores one needs to set up their system for overclocking.

That's a lighting issue and has nothing to do with your CPU. If you wish to soften the hard shadows of the direct sun then just add a bit of Environment Light, start with a fairly low number first as the effect can be very strong. For overall contrast/crispness you need to use the image adjustment properties controls, back off the brightness and increase the contrast and/or the intensity. Can take a bit of playing around with but there is a lot of control there to get the look you wish. Have always found that the default settings produce soft washed out scenes, never use them.

What is it about the Ray Tacing that you are not impressed with. Is it the quality or speed. Speed of course is primarily the CPUs responsibility, the I7 7700 is a 4 core with hyper threading that gives you 8 logical cores, It's good compared to previous CPU generations but there are now many newer CPUs that offer everything up to 36 logical cores. Quality is of course primarily reliant on your lighting and material settings.

As this is a new computer and if you purchased this complete versus a self -built you may be a victim of "Bloat Ware". Norton and Mcfee trial antivirus software is a great example of this. Best way to find out is open up Task Manager and select the Startup tab.This will show a list of all the programs that are being loaded up upon startup. Find them and check disable and reboot. Personally with windows 10 you really don't need any other antivirus software and the Windows 10 Defender seems to be very low on resource usage. While in the Task Manger you can also check under the Processes tab, this will show you CPU, disk, memory and network usage of each program. When you are not doing anything the % CPU usage should not be any higher than about 2%. If it's constantly running at say 20% then it's very likely things could feel a bit laggy. Find the one in the list and then you can start to track it down to see if it is needed or not.

With Windows 10 you also have the added option to use the included Snipping Tool. This allows you to define the portion of your screen you wish to capture, it has a free form mode so you can cutout any shape you wish, definitely worth a try.

I believe within your budget you will find the I7 8700K to be a well balanced out CPU and you will see significant performance improvements right across the board. Of course finding these and the motherboard you want will be challenging as intel and other hardware providers ramp up production. AMDs release of the Ryzen processor series seems to have caught Intel off-guard. Not that Intel did not already have these processors developed but it was not in their marketing/sales strategy to bring them to the market at this point in time. This of course will correct itself over the next few months and all will be good.

These are the newer top of the line I7 intel processors. that model offers 8 hyper threaded cores for 16 logical cores running at 4.5. The next new series is the I9's with processors up to 18 hyper threaded cores for 36 logical cores. These run a lower base clock frequency but are the fastest single chip beasts you can buy. Top one runs in at close to $2,500 just for the CPU. The new updated Alienware 51 offers these now.

I would not recommend disabling the integrated chip via the device menu. If you have any issues with the discrete card you will have no screen at all, even on a reboot. If the cards specific setup is done properly as Mick suggests and you change your power plan to performance then everything should be fine.

Good point Mick - Also, especially for Laptops, you may need to set your Windows power plan to performance. Many of the newer laptops will flip between the discrete card and the integrated graphics chip as a means to extend battery life. Putting your power plan on performance will override this.

The new AMD Ryzen Series are definitely a big step forward for AMD, I guess they needed to make a choice and decided that the number of cores was where to focus their efforts. They definitely offer a lot of cores for the money. But core count alone is not the only factor that determines a CPUs performance capabilities. CPUs have to process both single and multithreaded operations and this varies greatly according to the software you are running. CA, though it has some multithreaded optimization, is still highly reliant on single threaded operations. Ray Trace on the other hand is fully optimized for multithreaded operation. Here's the dilemma, your model building performance is primarily affected by the former and your Ray Trace performance is dependent upon the latter. Also, how well the CPU does in these two areas is dependent upon it's operational base frequency. What you will notice is that many of these high core count CPUs run at base frequencies lower than the lower core count ones. This is often due to heat dissipation issues when all those cores are running flat-out. In general if you look at the Intel processors you will see that they tend to operate at higher base frequencies over the AMDs, especially when multiple cores are involved. That's why for instance the I7 8700 can deliver similar multi core performance over the higher core count AMD 1700 and better single core performance. Just my opinion, but unless you are going to go for the AMD 1950 I would choose the I7 8700K, hands down.

If budget is the main concern then seriously consider the I7 8700K, this would likely give you similar Ray Trace performance improvements with the added benefit of much improved single thread performance. This is an added bonus over the AMD 1700 which does not really perform much better than your existing CPU when it comes to single thread operations. Also moving up just one Video card level is likely not going to deliver any noticeable improvement. Use GTX 1050 Ti until you can afford something that will provide a noticeable benefit. Concerning motherboards there a lots of reviews out there, Tom's Hardware, Hot Hardware and Guru3D are great resources fro detailed reviews. Thought they tend to focus on gamming the results are applicable as what they are showing is how well the motherboard handles it's responsibility. Most of the test tend to indicate that the majority of boards from major manufactures are all pretty close. Yes there are some differences, but the question is will you be able to notice it. If you are an extreme overclocker then it may be a bit more concerning as some boards are better designed to let you have full control over this.

Just a caution if your main purpose is to reduce your Ray Trace times. Your proposed Ryzen 1700x. Over your current CPU this CPU should deliver the same Ray Trace in about 1/3rd the time. Initially you will be impressed. But what will happen is that you will soon start to add more complex lighting, maybe run at higher resolution or run more passes than you did in the past. Before you realize it you will be back at the same time as it took before and now be hooked on the now improved scene quality. So if reducing time is your ultimate goal it will be short lived. If AMD is your choice then bite the bullet and go for the 1950X, this will give you lots of room to grow.

From all the work I have done in CA the shadows are always correct in accordance with the light sources and the sun settings. If did as I suggested you will have no shadows at all. You then need to turn say the sun on and then adjust it's position (zone, day, month) to get the appropriate effect from it. You can then add additional interior lights that depending upon their type, position, direction and strength will cast the shadows that would be expected.

Hopefully so. I can appreciate how someone with a Graphic Design background would have no tolerance for a font substitution. I also spent a number of years in the field and you gain an appreciation for how impactful, obvious or subliminal, the characteristics of a font style can be. The one you have chosen is definitely a nice one, though very similar in style to say Tahoma it has some selective tracking applied to specific characters that just kicks it up a notch or two. Great Choice!!!

No problem on my system, placed multiple cameras and everything seems fine. You have a lot of defined Camera layers but only one or two of them have any cameras saved to them, just a few elevation ones. Maybe you forgot to save the camera before closing out the Window Tab, I've done that before.

Glad it got you out of trouble. You may also wish to open the symbol on that drawer front to see as Michael suggested if it's thickness is correct. Most of the handles and knobs that I'm aware of are offset based on a 3/4" door/drawer thickness. If they are anything but you then have to go into the symbol DBX and set the handle or knob to position correctly.

Johnny, that is controlled via the symbol DBX, there are X,Y & Z settings in there that determine that. What's a bit odd is that the vertical one seems fine on the flat door but the horizontal one is sunk into the slab drawer. Maybe the horizontal got changed somehow.

The only thing I can think of is to touch base with Tech Support or hope someone else with a Mac can assist/confirm this on their system. Is there another source for this font, if so you could download their version and see if the same thing happens.

If you go to Preferences in CA and select Font under Appearance does it show up in the drop down list?

I just down loaded this font style for windows, installed it and it seems to show fine in X9. Maybe you just need to delete your current version and do a clean install. Edit - the file I downloaded must be corrupted, it misspelled "Chief"

Is this happening when you bring an existing X7 file into X9 and also if you create a brand new file in X9?