My Sugglish Computer Analysis

[TheKitchenAbode]

3 minutes ago, javatom said:

Preference/render panel only has options for hardware edge smoothing of low, med, high.  I do not see any numbering selections and I can not find the software edge smoothing control at all.

 

I think that has changed in X9. Just check Horizontal lines and choose Low, med or high. That should do it. 

[yusuf-333]

31 minutes ago, javatom said:

Preference/render panel only has options for hardware edge smoothing of low, med, high.  I do not see any numbering selections and I can not find the software edge smoothing control at all.

 

The availability of render panel setting in the preference are system dependent, specially the video card determines what setting to appear for different systems and may not be available due this and other system related issues. But I think edge smoothong is limited to 80% for some VC and may not be available as you say for unsupported VC. Though not sure what causes your problem.

[TheKitchenAbode]

8 minutes ago, yusuf-333 said:

 

The availability of render panel setting in the preference are system dependent, specially the video card determines what setting to appear for different systems and may not be available due this and other system related issues. But I think edge smoothong is limited to 80% for some VC and may not be available as you say for unsupported VC. Though not sure what causes your problem.

 

Not quite sure how the settings in Chief work in relation to the settings in the Graphics card control panel. I do know that the Chief settings will effect your graphics performance when working in Chief regardless of your Graphics card settings. Users should make sure that Chief has been assigned to the graphics card, this is done through the graphics card control panel.

[HumbleChief]

4 hours ago, DRAWZILLA said:

Thanks or all your time on this Graham, it all makes since to me. Moral of the story is get as much CPU and video card that you can afford, as it has always been.

I think this is actually one of the great illusions and conundrums regarding Chief today. Of course you need as much CPU etc. that you can afford but the new video cards are little to no better than last generation's cards as far as 3D rendering is concerned. I bought a brand new GTX1080 but wouldn't buy it tomorrow as there was little to no discernable difference between that and my older 780. Waste of money? Probably not but goes counter to what one expects with newer technology.

 

As for getting as much CPU as you can afford again it's not that simple. Some perform better at different tasks in Chief. Do you want to RayTrace? You might need more cores. Do you just want fast performance in everyday tasks? That's might be a combination of cores, Ghz speed, disk and memory performance. Again just not as simple as buying the fastest, best, or whatever adjective you choose. Chief is a complicated beast and behaves in mysterious ways and it doesn't always respond in a logical fashion to better faster, more cores in a CPU or GPU.

[TheKitchenAbode]

Larry - I think I have brought some logic into the equation, did you see my posts from earlier this morning onward. I strongly feel that if these things are kept in mind then one should be able to nail down a fairly good system within the budget they have.

 

There's a lot of marketing smoke & mirrors from the major players concerning features and performance. They have the majority of us convinced that more cores, more memory and expensive graphics cards are the answer. A lot of this is done to improve profit margins. All that extra memory in a graphics card does not cost them all that much, but they can charge the consumer many $$$ per GB for it. They can get 50% more for faster memory that at the end of the day does little or nothing for most users and it's benefit can only be discerned under very specific test condition.

 

A number of the CA tips that I have provided over the last few days will deliver p[performance improvements that one would be unlikely to achieve no matter what their budget was. Just have to adopt a few new working habits. 

 

 

[yusuf-333]

5 hours ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

 

Not quite sure how the settings in Chief work in relation to the settings in the Graphics card control panel. I do know that the Chief settings will effect your graphics performance when working in Chief regardless of your Graphics card settings. Users should make sure that Chief has been assigned to the graphics card, this is done through the graphics card control panel.

Graham, I am not sure how the availability of those settings are affected by the video card, but here it is on the ref manual. Do settings disappear as javatom was saying? Or are they available in the setting but limited regarding their effect on model?

Don't know what that exactly means, but the reference manual clearly mentions that, the availability of some options are limited, depending on what your vedeo card is able to support.

[glennw]

Yusuf,

 

Some oft those settings have been changed in X9.

 

 

[DRAWZILLA]

Larry,  Funny thing , I noticed a big difference between my 780 and my newer 980 ti. D

id you set it up in the NVidia control panel to work with chief? Maybe you need a new computer, to many bottlenecks. I know I'll buy new parts 1 time , then it's time to move on.

 

 

[TheKitchenAbode]

Larry - From what I can deduce your disappointment is primarily the result of two factors.

 

1.) The Open GL performance of the new card is not much better than your old one. This is rarely directly tested for and you need to google a bit to find this type of information.

2.) Your CPU's are not ideal for single thread performance.

 

You have plenty of memory so it's not that. Memory speed makes very little difference, so it's not that. PCIe bandwidth is unlikely the issue as today's graphics cards use very little of this, maybe 5-10%.

 

One other factor could be that the driver sets or the Graphics controller DBX settings are not right or corrupted. With Nvidia there is usually an option to perform a clean install versus just updating. This is done through the Nvidia software not via Windows Device Manager. Also, the fact that the card shows up under Chief preferences is not an indicator that the card is properly configured. It really just says Chief sees it in your system as the primary graphics card.

 

The last is that your older card was not being over taxed to begin with so adding a new card would not have any effect. The cards only do what they have to do and they only show their weaknesses when they are pushed out of their comfort zone. If to make a game appear smooth requires a 60 FPS rate then as long as this is attained by both cards you will not see a difference, even if the newer card is delivering 80 FPS, the extra 20 FPS is beyond your perception threshold. This is the same as monitor pixel density, for any given monitor size there is a pixel density limit for your eye, any pixel density beyond this can't be seen. Many may claim to see beyond this but then there are also those who claim to have seen UFOs'. What they are likely experiencing is the improved color accuracy, blacker blacks, better contrast and the likes, nothing really to do with pixel density  but it is often believed to be.