Configuring Autocad with a Quadro K4000 graphics card

Would you BIOS have a setting? I know you built your own station but... Dell stations with Intel multi core CPUs have options to turn on multi core, and TurboBoost (for increasing GPU or graphics processor performance)

It is only CPU speed which matters for the speed for the final render task.

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?72697-Does-GPU-affect-final-render-speed-or-just-preview-speed-w-Vray-2.0-for-3DS-Max

A good GPU only speeds up the opening or preview times or enable the display of UHD files.

The BIOS recognizes the graphics card and uses it.  There are 2 monitors hooked to it and both come up.  The motherboard is an ASUS Z170-A mb.  

The link to the cadtutor refers to a YouTube video which suggests the graphics card can be enabled/disabled at will.  Anyone know if this is a setting in AutoDesk's Revit package?

--Ben

It is always CPU to do the rendering job and there should be no difference unless you upgrade CPU / RAM.

"Autodesk Owned Technology
Some readers may be surprised to find out that the current rendering engine in Revit, called mental ray is owned by NVIDIA – the graphics card company. In addition to Autodesk likely having to pay to use this technology, they are not at liberty to change or enhance it. The new Autodesk Raytracer engine is owned by Autodesk and can be modified and enhanced as needed to parallel other changes in Autodesk’s offerings. This new technology is also available in AutoCAD, Navisworks and Showcase.

CPU Based, not GPU
For stability and scalability, this new engine is CPU based, rather than relying on the graphics card’s GPU and memory which has been popular for rendering engines. The contemporary high-end Intel cards have Ray Trace functions used by Autodesk Raytracer to streamline compute power and improve performance. Other CPUs are also supported. The process is scalable from laptops to large HPC clusters, with the ability to handle complex scenes and lighting. Similar to mental ray, when a rendering is being processed, all the cores of the CPU are being pegged at 100%.

The Autodesk Raytracer can use more than sixteen CPU cores, which had been the limit for rendering in Revit 2015 (as per Autodesk’s website). This makes the new Autodesk engine very fast! For example, the first image below (Figure 1) only took 3 minutes to render with the following settings: Medium, 150dpi and Interior Sun and Artificial Light. Compare the detail in this image with the next one (Figure 2), rendered using the mental ray engine which took 2.75 hours with the following settings: Medium, 300dpi and Interior Sun and Artificial Light. The two images are fairly comparable in quality despite the significant time difference."

http://www.aecbytes.com/tipsandtricks/2015/issue72-revit.html

"GPU Rendering

Revit does not use the video card to process renderings. It's entirely based on the CPU (and available system RAM). However, there are a number of third party apps that can make use of the video card when rendering. GPU rendering uses the GPU on the video card to process the rendering... and because the GPU is so specialized at what it does, it can process realistic renderings much faster than the CPU can. While it's beyond the scope of this post to thoroughly examine GPU rendering via third-party software (iray, Octane, Indigo, etc.), the basics are: many GPU renderers use a method involving "CUDA" which is currently only supported on Nvidia video cards. Also, GPU rendering needs lots of fast video memory. So, if you want to do GPU renderings, you'll want the fastest Nvidia card with largest video memory you can afford... and two video cards can be even better than one (they don't necessarily need to be identical or in an "SLI configuration").

Currently there's no super easy way to get your Revit model into third-party software in order to take advantage of GPU rendering. It requires exporting the model into other software, and a bit of extra setup before you can actually create a rendering. The vast majority of users will not bother with the extra work and software involved. If it is something you're interested in, don't hesitate to start or add to a thread on the subject. "

http://www.revitforum.org/hardware-infrastructure/72-revit-hardware-video-graphic-cards.html

CPU rendering is the basic concept no matter the production is desktop based like yours or server based like one in production environment.

We have an assocaited company which its business is to produce 3D animation and I have assisted them to procure a server farm to render the 3D video output and the spec is on CPU and memory, not GPU at all.

Wow.  That's very disappointing, having just spent $500 on a card that can't be used.  Dang.  Will read the full article and see what options I have.

Thanks!

--Ben

Graphic rendering involves a super large CAD file and I will not rely on third party tool just for letting the GPU to do the job as it adds another layer of uncertainty for the render output.

If you are rendering Autodesk 3dsMax, your Quadro K4000 graphics card might help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaCawECVHuo

Oh!  So Autodesk has multiple applications that provide rendering??  Sorry, am pretty ignorant regarding Autodesk products...

--Ben

Thank you so much!  Nice to know I didn't squander 5 benjamins for nothing.
That link is impressive...  will give it to the gentleman who actually has a clue.

--Ben

Maybe it worth to try a RAM disk. Then CPU can work very fast with the RAM instead of mother board bus to SSD limited speed.
https://www.softperfect.com/products/ramdisk/
http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/12-ram-disk-software-benchmarked-for-fastest-read-and-write-speed/

Hm.  Will give that a shot as well.  Thanks!

--Ben

No autocad product supports Windows 10, thats like you put benjamin or two into a big dumpster.

Hm.  Unfortunately that is what the client already had installed.  Appears to be working at the moment.  And the workstation is air-gapped, so updates from MS aren't going to be an issue.

--Ben

If you read next list, then you may think is not working with Win10:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Operating-system-compatibility-for-AutoCAD-and-AutoCAD-LT.html

But then you go here and things seem different:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Windows-10-support-for-Autodesk-products.html
And then here:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-AutoCAD.html
and you arrive to these 2 links:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-AutoCAD-2016.html
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-AutoCAD-2017.html

Then we can breathe easier and conclude that AutoCAD is compatible with Win10 if:
-      In case of AutoCAD 2016 you need AutoCAD 2016 SP1.
-      AutoCAD 2017 works just fine.

AutoCAD or AutoDesk?

Why lead the discussion to AutoCAD?

This question is on  AutoDesk Revit 2016.

"Why lead the discussion to AutoCAD?"
Who?Me?

In the question is written "I recently built a new workstation to run Autocad 2017"

My last 2 links are about AuoCAD and Win10 compatibility:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-AutoCAD-2016.html
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-AutoCAD-2017.html

Then we can breathe easier and conclude that AutoCAD is compatible with Win10 if:
-      In case of AutoCAD 2016 you need AutoCAD 2016 SP1.
-      AutoCAD 2017 works just fine.

Same applies to revit with numbers. Software raytracing is minor issue when vendor says that it should not work at all.

Yes, this is 2017, full package.  Just downloaded it a few days ago.

--Ben

Your video card is not certified for Autocad 2017, but at least exact driver number is worth trying.
https://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro-certified-drivers.html#partner_id=11&application_id=407&page=driverSelected

Oops.  Will poke around and try various ones.  Thanks.

Have had occasional hangs in the new release.