Alibre Graphics Support for V23, V24 under Windows 10/11

[H-L-Smith]

I tried this a few days ago under the hardware category, but got no responses. I thought I'd try it here.
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I'm considering replacing my main workstation, which is an HP Z400 with an NVIDIA Quadro 2000 graphics card running Windows 7 Pro and two monitors (1600 x 1200 and 1920 x 1200). HP tells me it can't be upgraded to Windows 10/11 operating systems. In looking over current HP products (my brand preference), I see the high end workstations now have graphic cards driving multiple 4K displays.

I have V23 Alibre Expert with maintenance, so V24 isn't too far off, and apparently Windows 11 will appear soon too. So here are my questions:

1) Looking ahead to the V24/Windows 11 combination, what will be the practical upper end of screen resolutions I should shoot for with a new workstation?

2) Does Alibre have any practical limit on the graphic cards and resolutions it can support in either V23 or V24 (Beta)?

Thanks in advance,

Lonnie

 

[Max]

The practical limits are:

• Your budget
• Your eyesight
• Your tolerance for FPS stuttering
• What can you actually purchase in these strange times

Alibre Design doesn't really have an upper limit on resolution - if you're trying to run an 8K design rig you can though it would be insane, a bad experience, and very expensive. From a "what will you actually enjoy using" perspective, the limit is roughly 4K (3840x2160) or in that ballpark, in my opinion.

Windows 11 doesn't really have much to do with those things, so ignore the Windows 11 part for now and focus just on some core concepts:

1. Screen resolution and Windows Scale Factor
   A modern computing experience, at least for me, is a 4k monitor at 60 frames per second that is reasonably large with a Windows Scale Factor of 200-300. That is my personal preference. Things are sharp and not too small. However other people (in fact most people) are using 1920x1080 monitors, probably because they already own them. So you need to figure out what kind of viewing experience you want. Big, sharp monitors make design (and life) easier, at least for me. This is the input to the second part.
   
   
2. Video card requirements
   If you decide to get a 4k monitor and run it at a 100% Windows Scale Factor, you're pushing a lot of pixels. Your new monitor may be 60 FPS, and I would assume you want to run it at 60 FPS too. So we're doing a lot of updates per second for a lot of pixels. You'll need a reasonably good graphics card to do this, or you'll see laggy performance. I would recommend a card in this or last generation, and not the lowest end possible. So for example an NVIDIA 2070/2080 (or higher) or a 3070 (or higher). You'll need at least 4GB of video memory on whatever card you want, if running at 4k.
   
   If you're running a 1920x1080 monitor or similar, you can get by with much less beefy graphics hardware.
   
   
3. What you can actually buy
   We're in a silicon shortage and buying hardware is hard, especially graphics cards. It's getting easier, but depending on whether you are building this computer yourself out of components or are buying an off-the shelf computer you may have an easier or harder time, and you may be scalped out of your price point. Buying a pre-made system is probably the easiest and cheapest way to get a computer with a card you want, though YMMV.
   
   
4. Your budget
   At the end of the day, your budget determines your experience. If you could let us know a ballpark, it would go a long way towards recommending a tier of hardware.

 

[H-L-Smith]

Thanks for that great, detailed report, Max.

In my case, I plan to buy the complete system from HP, so it will have a graphics card. It will be either the Z4 or Z6 line of workstations. I have noticed already that some HP workstation/graphics card combinations are "out of stock." Given the current context, that probably means they are out of the required computer chips or graphics cards.

I've been happy with my 2-headed setup (1600 x 1200 and 1920 x 1200), but see the 4K monitors are dropping in price quickly. It is perhaps the time to change with the new graphics card I'll be getting in future. The graphics card I like best supports (4 monitors @ ) 5120 x 2880 @ 60Hz and has 5GB of graphics memory. I think I could replace my two current monitors with one 31" 4K monitor and get the same functionality with better color. It's food for thought, anyway.

Thanks again,

 

[markporter]

Max: Is there an Alibre guideline for optimizing GPU settings?