SWx support for video cards

[doobes]

So,

I've been drudging along fairly happily with the AMD FirePro W2100 in my Dell compact workstation until recently.

SWx v2022 has kicked the card firmly in the balls. I've got a multi-sheet drawing that I've been managing for the cabinet layout in my house and after an hour or so, the views simply stop displaying.

Typical resolution is to reboot the computer and start again.

SolidWorks lists the card as obsolete and not officially supported. The recommended driver that they provide a link to is not for this card (nice!), so I just downloaded the latest from AMD. Still no joy. I had to reboot just this morning to create a pdf from the drawing to send to my cabinet guy.

Resultingly, an Nvidia Quadro P1000 card is on it's way as we speak.

Anyone else run into obsolete video card issues with v2022?

cheers,

[zxys001]

Hello Doobes,

What happens if you do a Ctrl-Q?
I've seen this with supported cards so, I think it's a buffer limit or bug with repfreshing the screen.

[doobes]

Nothing.

The only fix is a reboot. Closing Swx and reopening the file has no result. Yea, I'm certain it's a card/driver issue.

Major PITA....

[AlexLachance]

We had to switch our FirePro V7900 when we switched to 2019 because of multiple display issues.

[bnemec]

I'm convinced, until someone is kind enough to clear up any faulty assumptions/logic on my part, that latest graphics driver is seldom best if either the card or application are not latest. It seems that there's a good driver version match for the card/chipset and the version of SW you have, finding that driver version takes some trial and error.

We run P2000 and p2200s on main machines along with a mix of older stuff for people that use CAD as a secondary function. I've found that the latest drivers from Nvidia (500s) get glitchy when SW is open, we're on 2019. Windows update likes to try to install latest driver from Nvidia, which sucks IMO. I've found that any driver version in the 400s work well for us. I assume that will change when we update SW.

[Alin]

I'm convinced, until someone is kind enough to clear up any faulty assumptions/logic on my part, that latest graphics driver is seldom best if either the card or application are not latest. It seems that there's a good driver version match for the card/chipset and the version of SW you have, finding that driver version takes some trial and error.

We run P2000 and p2200s on main machines along with a mix of older stuff for people that use CAD as a secondary function. I've found that the latest drivers from Nvidia (500s) get glitchy when SW is open, we're on 2019. Windows update likes to try to install latest driver from Nvidia, which sucks IMO. I've found that any driver version in the 400s work well for us. I assume that will change when we update SW.

For video card drivers I believe in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

[AlexLachance]

For video card drivers I believe in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Same! I was going to suggest to doobes to rollback to a previous driver but figured he most likely already updaded because the previous driver was causing issues.

[zxys001]

I'm convinced, until someone is kind enough to clear up any faulty assumptions/logic on my part, that latest graphics driver is seldom best if either the card or application are not latest. It seems that there's a good driver version match for the card/chipset and the version of SW you have, finding that driver version takes some trial and error.

We run P2000 and p2200s on main machines along with a mix of older stuff for people that use CAD as a secondary function. I've found that the latest drivers from Nvidia (500s) get glitchy when SW is open, we're on 2019. Windows update likes to try to install latest driver from Nvidia, which sucks IMO. I've found that any driver version in the 400s work well for us. I assume that will change when we update SW.

Agree. It may take time downloading and recalling what worked but it's worth loading/testing the past drivers and evaluate.

[Berickson]

I'm convinced, until someone is kind enough to clear up any faulty assumptions/logic on my part, that latest graphics driver is seldom best if either the card or application are not latest. It seems that there's a good driver version match for the card/chipset and the version of SW you have, finding that driver version takes some trial and error.

We run P2000 and p2200s on main machines along with a mix of older stuff for people that use CAD as a secondary function. I've found that the latest drivers from Nvidia (500s) get glitchy when SW is open, we're on 2019. Windows update likes to try to install latest driver from Nvidia, which sucks IMO. I've found that any driver version in the 400s work well for us. I assume that will change when we update SW.

Due to the wide range of hardware age we deal with I've ended up creating my own hardware/graphics driver matrix based on SolidWorks certified drivers and my anecdotal evidence. Once we find a driver that seems to work I'll record it so I don't have to go through the process of finding a good one again and others I work with can reference it. This is what I have used for SW2021. We do see that the 400's are generally stable branches for us too.

[Frederick_Law]

I've avoided ATi for over 20 years because of driver problems. AMD claim to be better now.
I believe SW got some of their programmers and marketing.
Patch one problem and create 5.
The video card I got was 3DXpression.
The bugs and lack of 3D features made it 3DNoXpression.
Sound familiar?

Since switching to nVidia, I've been using latest driver whenever possible.
In games and Inventor.
I'm running IV2023.2 with 528.24 P1000 driver.

[bnemec]

For video card drivers I believe in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

You're an influential character Alin, could you lobby Microsoft on this point to keep their updating hands off our graphics drivers?

It is possible to hinder the default behavior, I think someone here shared the system setting to prevent windows update from changing driver. Some run into problems with group policy interactions though.

[Tera]

It is possible to hinder the default behavior, I think someone here shared the system setting to prevent windows update from changing driver. Some run into problems with group policy interactions though.

There are several ways. I use Group policy.

https://computerinfobits.com/how-to-sto ... 20Disabled.

[SPerman]

Yep, we considered this, but the idea of "all or nothing" seems extreme. And I don't think IT was very cool with the idea , nor do I want to start having to manage every driver for the sake of dealing with specifically the graphics drivers...

From: The constant battle of Windows Updates, GPU Drivers, & CAD viewtopic.php?t=2305

[doobes]

So,

I've been drudging along fairly happily with the AMD FirePro W2100 in my Dell compact workstation until recently.

SWx v2022 has kicked the card firmly in the balls. I've got a multi-sheet drawing that I've been managing for the cabinet layout in my house and after an hour or so, the views simply stop displaying.

Typical resolution is to reboot the computer and start again.

SolidWorks lists the card as obsolete and not officially supported. The recommended driver that they provide a link to is not for this card (nice!), so I just downloaded the latest from AMD. Still no joy. I had to reboot just this morning to create a pdf from the drawing to send to my cabinet guy.

Resultingly, an Nvidia Quadro P1000 card is on it's way as we speak.

Anyone else run into obsolete video card issues with v2022?

cheers,

Got the P1000 plugged in this morning. It's significantly faster in Windows than the FirePro was. Works just fine in Swx.

Cheers