CAD testing...

[phill9800]

What software could I freely download (legally) to 'test' the speed of any PC when it comes to rendering in 3D, things like wire frames etc?

A friend wants a PC and I have various spec's I can sell him, but not knowing a huge amount about CAD Programs, I'm not 100% sure what will be best for him ie, loads of memory, good graphics card or just a really beefy CPU... But he will only be doing basic stuff, I just want him to have something decent rather than something that's pants...

Can anyone shed some light on the subject for me please??

Many thanks

 

[Xee]

Wireframe in 3D is all done by the gfx card. So heavy models require a good gfx card. If your using textures in viewports then the more on board gfx mem the better. Where as rendering is mostly down to CPU, large/complex renders require more memory.

Not hardware specific but it should point you in the right direction.

 

[philhoole]

Download Cinebench from Maxons web site - www.maxon.net. This is a good benchmark program for 3D rendering machines which makes pure CPU tests (single and multi processor) and also makes OpenGL shading tests using software rendering and GPU rendering.

Quite a few hardware review sites now include Cinebench scores along with the usual other benchmarks.

 

[phill9800]

To start off I have a XP1600 with a gig of ram and a ATi 7000 graphics card, but I do also have a Geforce 3 Ti 200 card too. Basically I know its not going to do anything complex or major, but I just hope it'll be enjoy to get him started.

You guys are really helpfull Thank you!!