3D Graphics Performance Comparison – Part 1

Last week I compared the graphics performance of more than a dozen CAD systems. See “3D Graphics Performance Comparison“, “IRONCAD 2009 Startup Crash Fix And 3D Graphics Performance” and “AutoCAD 3D Graphics Performance“. When comparing the graphics performance of each CAD system I used the default graphics options as set up by each CAD vendor. The only thing I turned on was the display of edges if it was turned off by default. If I didn’t do that the comparison results would really go haywire.

After the comparison, many CAD vendors contacted me to say that my comparison wasn’t fair to them. Also many users started sending me tips on how to tune my graphics settings so that I could get better performance. Frankly, I did not expect such a response, especially from users. But then some users are quite passionate about the CAD system they use, and make it a point to let you know how exactly how they feel when they think you have done injustice to it. This is actually a good thing.

So this is what I’m going to do. I am going to conduct the graphics performance comparison again. And this time I will leave absolutely no room for discussion or dispute. How? I will ask each CAD vendor to send me their optimal graphics setting for large models and will use those exact settings to do the comparison. This will serve two purposes. Firstly, the comparison will be as fair as it can possibly get. Secondly, I will publish the graphics settings that each CAD vendor sends me so that users can learn how to tweak their CAD systems for displaying large models.

I will be using the same STEP file of the engine for this comparison as well. I will send each CAD vendor the STEP file so that they can fiddle around with their graphics settings to their hearts content. In each subsequent part of this series, I will highlight one particular CAD system. I will create a new video using the graphics settings given to me by the CAD vendor. I will also include the original video with the default settings to show how much the performance changes with the new settings.

Things are now going to get pretty interesting. Watch this space.

Part 2 >>