Chief Architect X13 hardware requirements


HomeDesign724
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I've been running CA X12 fairly well on the machine I have (the only issue is that it runs a bit slow), but I have nothing near the recommended hardware requirements for X13.The upgrade is kind of pricy, is it worth the added cost to use the recommended hardware? What is everyone else using?

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21 minutes ago, HomeDesign724 said:

I've been running CA X12 fairly well on the machine I have (the only issue is that it runs a bit slow), but I have nothing near the recommended hardware requirements for X13.The upgrade is kind of pricy, is it worth the added cost to use the recommended hardware? What is everyone else using?

What are you using?

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CPU: Intel Pentium III Xeon

Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E8500  @ 3.16GHz   3.16 GHz
Installed RAM    8.00 GB (7.87 GB usable)
System type    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Video Card: GeForce GT 610

 

Just to be clear, I do plan on upgrading, but the "recommended" video card (RTX 3080) is quite a bit out of my comfort zone, will version 13 run on a PC with the RTX 3070 or even the 3060? The older cards are significantly less expensive.

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The RTX cards are recommended to run Real Time Ray Tracing (RTRT) but aren't needed if that's not a priority and any upgrade suggestions ALWAYS include getting the fastest and most of everything the budget will allow. My system in the sig below is pretty old now but runs Chief fine until plans get to a certain size. I don't do any RayTracing any more so the older 1080 video card works just fine - for me. 

 

One thing you could do is check other posters at random and check out their signatures as most have that filled out with the current computer specs. That could give you an idea of "What everyone else is using."

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The older 'cards' don't really RayTrace as that function has more to do with the CPU speed and cores than the Graphics card's speed. The new RTX cards do what's called Real Time Ray Tracing where the Ray Tracing function is off loaded from the CPU to the GPU resulting in much faster Ray Trace times. Obviously there's a lot of technical subtlety involved so if you do indeed decide to upgrade do a bunch more research before doing so as nothing sucks more than a new machine does not do what you expect it to.

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49 minutes ago, HomeDesign724 said:

 will version 13 run on a PC with the RTX 3070

I started with the laptop with 2070 Super  which is close to a 3060 on that machine. The speed of that didn't cut it for how much I was going to use RTRT quality is fine. NOTE that prior to RTRT I rarely used CPU based Raytrace, only on an occasional exterior, favoring PBR for interiors and the speed. I now do several RTRT views on pretty almost every job. Even on the laptop it's way faster than CPU based but different too. Some things are better- I find it easier to set up, a few not so much- mostly in exteriors and landscape for me anyway.

 

From what I could find the time difference to me is small enough from a 3080 or 3090 for my purposes-so long as I decide when to use RTRT by setting the default for PBR to NOT use it. Helps with the library materials too speed too.  I was looking for a balance between time, heat and noise (machine sits an arms length away on the desktop) Settled on a slightly overclocked 3070 and am happy with it. It was nice to save a some $$ but not the driving factor.

 

NOTE that I never see the card use the full amount of VRAM so I seriously doubt that a 3070 Ti is worth the extra cost just to add VRAM. There are several other factors,( clock, CUDA, TFlops) that make a 3080 or 90 faster than the 3070.

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@HomeDesign724 for what it's worth, I am using an off-the-shelf HP that I added an Nvidia card to a few years ago and X13 works just fine. I can't do the real time PBR, but everything else work just fine. Including the regular PBR and Raytrace. I will upgrade the computer when prices come down a bit. I don't do a ton of rendering so I'm good.

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9 hours ago, HomeDesign724 said:

 

CPU: Intel Pentium III Xeon

Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E8500  @ 3.16GHz   3.16 GHz
Installed RAM    8.00 GB (7.87 GB usable)
System type    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Video Card: GeForce GT 610

 

Just to be clear, I do plan on upgrading, but the "recommended" video card (RTX 3080) is quite a bit out of my comfort zone, will version 13 run on a PC with the RTX 3070 or even the 3060? The older cards are significantly less expensive.

Kinda funny but within that last link I posted re: Mark's video card this system below popped up. Seems like a very nice system for a very reasonable price. 

 

https://www.newegg.com/p/2E6-00BC-00BV5?Description=RTX 3070 XC3 Ultra Gaming&cm_re=RTX_3070 XC3 Ultra Gaming-_-9SIAJGZGYX1594-_-Product&quicklink=true

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Getting a pre-built is still the best way currently to get a 3000 Series Video Card, (ABS is a Newegg Subsidiary) especially if your system is more than 3-4 yrs old....

 

The 610 GT will not run X13 except maybe in Plan View, as you need Shader Model 6 and a DirectX 12 feature called "Extended formats TypedUAVLoad" and so you need a card in the 900 Series or Up, on a side note Nvidia also has dropped support of Kepler based cards as of last month, so there won't be any new Drivers for the 600 and 700 Series Cards either going forward. ( not that big a deal )

 

Mick.

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