What video drivers do you use for AutoCAD?

[Hazdaz]

AutoCAD in general has very poor performing and unstable 3D graphics display. For a while now I ahve been using the "CAD tools" (or whataver they are called) from Nvidia's site that is supposed to speed up AutoCAD when running Quadro cards (I have a Quadro FX1000). I have seen quite the opposite - while it isn't any faster (and possibly a little slower actually), the system also runs a lot less stable.

 

While I love Nvidia's MAXtreme drivers for 3DS MAX, it's AutOCAD counterpart is quite bad. So... having said all that, what do YOU guys run for your graphics driver in AutoCAD?

[STRAT]

i've always run autocad with the drivers that come as standard. interesting to hear about Nvidia's stuff though, as i was considering trying them.

 

when you say "poor performing and unstable 3d graphics disply" what exactly do you mean? only i've got no complaints.

[Hazdaz]

Well with the Nvidia drivers, I see a lot of flickering (not because of refresh rate) when yhou switch from one screen to another (like say you have the Layers window open, and then close it, it redraws the screen a few times). The flicker doesn't exist when using the "regular" AutoCAD drivers.

 

About the instability, AutoCAD has ALWAYS been EXTREMELY unstable when rotating around the screen in 3D - On EVERY computer I have ever used on multiple versions of AutoCAD you can "force" a crash if you try to rotate in 3D too quickly before the system is "ready" to rrotate - ofcourse AutoCAD doesn't really give you any good indication as to WHEN it is ready to rotate - and thus it goes -POP- if your too quick. And this happens with our without the Nvidia drivers.

[STRAT]

hmm, i dont suffer any of the problems you describe. i get smooth panning and orbiting in shaded mode, and dont suffer crashing when speeding 3d rotating :/

 

im confused by these 'regular' autocad drivers you talk about. what are these, how do i try them out?

 

dont you just run autocad using the default display drivers your graphics card provides?

[MegaPixel]

Go to Nvidia.com and get the latest Detonator Drivers. I've always had good stable video using them and if you game on the side, it helps that too "wink".

[Hazdaz]

By "regular" drivers, I mean the ones that AutoCAD installed automatically... the Nvidia "special" ones (which don't perform any better in AutoCAD) are called POWERdraft drivers straight from their site.

 

According to their manual:

"seamlessly integrated into the AutoCAD environment and contains significant improvements over existing driver technology. NVIDIA POWERdraft driver provides an extremely fast and reliable platform for AutoCAD. 32-bit display list technology and knowledge of the NVIDIA graphics adapter are combined to provide an optimal solution for Windows AutoCAD users."

 

And none of the performance improvements ever seem to show up - maybe my card is messed up or something, but I know it works fine with 3DS MAX and has fairly new drivers, and I knwo it is not just my computer that I have has issues with this.

 

STRAT - I have to admit, I am shocked that you have never crashed AutoCAD while trying to Orbit around a 3D drawing! I know if the model is fairly simple it doesn't crash nearly as much, but on a complex 3D solids drawing with lots of curves, it crashes ALOT when just getting INTO the Orbit command - once you are already orbitting around it usually is pretty good. It is the initial orbit that tends to crash the program.

 

MEGAPIXEL - are the "Detonator" drivers any different than the ones straight from the Nvidia site? I just go to download drivers>pick Quadro>pick XP and you get the list of latest drivers.