GRAPHIC CARDS FOR SKETCHUP
SketchUp is 3D modeling package that attributes a sketch-based modeling approach. SketchUp is designed to run on systems with graphics cards. Generally there three types of Graphic Cards in SketchUp - ATI, NVIDIA, Intel.
ATI
X600XT
No closest-face bug with latest graphics driver, but textures become periodically distorted. Restart or unchecking and then rechecking graphics acceleration in preferences helps temporarily. Speed is fairly decent for vast majority of models.
4870
With Catalyst 8.7 drivers SketchUp crashed. Going to Catalyst 8.8 solves the problem beautifully. With Catalyst 9.7 drivers SketchUp runs fine but have a problem with hardware rendering / hardware acceleration (open gl). When selecting an object, surface or scrolling around it will lag for a while until it runs smoothly (The lag take several seconds 2 ~ 3. But it will always happen). Deactivating solve the problem but this is not a real solution.
HD2400
I seem to have found a solution/workround to the problem with enabling hardware acceleration - try different screen resolutions! 1280x800 works when others don't. I have not seen this option discussed elsewhere.
HD2600
Cannot select the closest face or object when the Open GL hardware acceleration box is checked. Experienced by at least 2 users. (Note this card is used i.e. in some HP business notebooks.) Does anyone can fix this terrible problem (except switching to slow software mode)???
User noticed this problem on Gateway series M-68 laptop with HD2600 512 MB video memory, very difficult to select closest face, display stutters to a halt! No known fix for this. Also crosshairs unusable, locks up.
For the HP Compaq 8510p with this graphics card HP has released a new ATI driver version (v8.512, sp41138.exe) which seems to solve the issue for me. Yes! (sp41138.exe) really solved the picking faces question, thank you so much! Installing a modded firegl driver upon an Imac 24 with windows XP seems to solve the problem.
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450
Dell Studio 15 w/ WUXGA LCD
Panning and orbiting a bit choppy; shadows quite slow. Face picking works decently; if faces are small they are not recognized all the time.
ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT
With ati2dvag.dll Version 6.14.0010.6806 has trouble selecting faces, and reverse picking solution didn't help.
Powercolor AG 3650
With Catalyst 8.501 on XP SP3- We purchased this card to get dual monitor use and ATI assured us that it was fully Open GL compliant especially 1.5 Well its not and when you disable Hardware acceleration SKP on both 6 and 7 just dies. When you call tech support at ATI they just run round in circles pointing at Catalyst when you call Catalyst they refer you back to ATI. Total dud. It would appear that drivers for this card are an issue as its not supported by ATI but Powercolor who subcontract to Catylist. We also noticed that the Open GL support claimed is OGL2. and not 1.5 and this may be an issue If only Skp and Google would publish a recomended list.
FireGL
- ♦ v3100 - 128MB; Windows XP sp3
- ♦ Problems selecting and painting
- ♦ Shadows display incorrectly
- ♦ OpenGL version 6.14.10.7660
- ♦ 2D driver version 6.14.10.6822
NVIDIA
GeForce
8800GTS (G80 series) - 640MB, Windows XP SP3, 3GB DDR2 RAM
- ♦ Driver issues with almost all driver versions downloadable from Nvidia, and from partner sites (modded drivers, etc.. In particular, OpenGL crashed continuously, forcing me to disable it via the SU options. This slowed down performances of SU and basically was only a workaround, not a solution to the problem. After having tried a driver suggested by a group member (driver version 175.19) which only partially solved the problem, reducing the quantity of crashes of OpenGL per day, I managed finally to solve the problem installing the latest driver always from Nvidia, and in particular this BETA version: GeForce_177.98_beta_WinXP_32bit. Being a BETA version, I cannot grant that it will work on all PCs, but I finally eliminated the visual errors I had with preceeding versions of drivers and with the OpenGL crashes.
8800GTS (G92 series) - 512 MB, Windows XP SP3, 4 GB DDR2 RAM (3,25GB)
- ♦ Runs with the latest drivers very good and there were never problems with Open GL or anything like that.
8500 GT - 500MB, Windows Server 2003
- ♦ Driver 177.92 fixed the following problem on 9/15/08:
- ♦ SU does not run perfectly. When I place the cursor on an inference point that is the lowest point in an object, the display often breaks up below that point. However, when I start dragging the object the display corrects itself. The computer never crashes so I have not bothered to try to fix that glitch. The orbit tool works just fine, but my file is only 150K at this time.
8600 GTS - 516MB
- 9/2/2008 driver 6.14.11.5827. XP Pro SP2, 2GB RAM. The card does not care to work with antialiasing on while using tools like Move. Antialiasing needs to be set to 0x for everyday use. The program window needs to be maximized (not floating) otherwise there are funny little display abnormalities. Other than all that, it works.
8300 GS - 512MB
- ♦ 12/08/2008 driver 6.14.11.7824 (Current at this moment), WinXP SP3, 2GB RAM. The only issue I have is that periodically the model will disappear from a point upward. If I move the model it does not self correct. The only solution I have found to correct the error is to switch from "Camera" -> "Parallel Projection" to "Camera" -> "Perspective" orbit and move the model around, save it then go back to "Camera" -> "Parallel Projection". It will work again for a while then get the same error and repeat the process.
6600 GT - 128MB. WinXP SP2
- ♦ No observed anomalies after a few weeks of intense work.
9500 GT - (prerelease WDDM1.1)
- ♦ 1/18/2009 driver version 7.15.11.7923. Windows 7 Ultimate build 7000 (beta), 32-bit OS, 4.00 GB RAM, AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 5000+, Dell Inspiron 531. It runs Sketchup 7 very well; (I'm still having difficulty geting sketchyphysics to work, however). I know SP worked with SU6.
Quadro
FX 1500M - 256 MB; Windows XP Pro, SP3
- ♦ This is one of the mobile versions of the nVidia Quadro FX graphics cards, installed in a DELL Precision M90 laptop. The DELL-installed driver was pretty good, but anti-aliasing would occasionally cause either a black or 'frozen' drawing window. (I had to keep anti-aliasing set at '0x', as '2x' or '4x' would cause the drawing window to choke.) Installation of the 'SketchUp-certified' Forceware driver, 169.96, resolved all misbehavior.
FX 1700 - 512 MB (System Specs)
- ♦ Base Model ID: Dell Precision T3400 Workstation
- ♦ OS: XP Pro SP3
- ♦ Processor: Intel “Conroe” Core 2 Duo E6850 3.00 GHz/1333MHz/4MB L2
- ♦ Memory: 4GB, 800MHz, DDR2 SDRAM, ECC (4 DIMMS)
- ♦ Graphics Card: PCIe x 16 nVidia Quadro FX1700, 512MB, nVidia Driver Version: 6.14.11.7805 Driver Date: 9/12/08
- ♦ Hard Discs: 2 - 3.5” Hitachi SAS 3.0 Gb/s 15K rpm 73GB Raid-1
- ♦ Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC 24" Widescreen LCD 1920 x 1200, 60Hertz
- ♦ Fast, flawless performance and microscopic detail with SU hardware acceleration "ON" and anitaliasing set at "4x".
FX 570 - 256 MB (System Specs)
- ♦ Base Model ID: HP Workstation xw6600T
- ♦ OS: XP Pro SP3
- ♦ Processor: Intel Xeon CPU E5420 @ 2.5GHz
- ♦ Memory: 4GB (3.25 Addressable)
- ♦ Graphics Card: nVidia Quadro FX 570, 256MB, nVidia Driver Version: 6.14.11.7805 Driver Date: 9/12/08
- ♦ Monitor: PLANAR PX2210mw 22" Widescreen LCD 1920 x 1200, 60Hertz
- ♦ Fast Performer, no face issues. Good orbiting. Shadows sluggish.
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