Recently, I bought a new computer with a poor graphics card. The computer runs rather smoothly, I mean the transfer rate is pretty fast and all the programs run perfect except for my 3D software and games. I load up Blender and I get this major lag while running it. I mean I go to highlight something and I get like a 5 second delay before it highlights; I run the GE and I max out at 25fps and lower with just a simple untextured cube in a scene and that’s even with “All Frames” enabled. Well anyway, I picked up a new graphics card, ATI Radeon HD 3450, that was at the time in my price range. The clerk said it wasn’t the best but it was pretty good. Well, I installed it and the computer runs even smoother and faster, it plays my games with rarely any problems, but I get NO IMPROVEMENT whatsoever with Blender. I thought it might’ ve been my processor until I saw on here that ATI Radeon graphics cards aren’t recommended for Blender. They say Nvidia cards are better suited. I guess that makes sense seeing as how my old computer was running on an old GeForce4 NVIDIA MX 440 and ran Blender pretty smoothly. I mean I was getting 60fps and with “All Frames” enabled I was getting over 200fps. Anyway, I just got paid and in need of some quick advice before I waste more money on a gfx card I don’t need. If I got a new Nvidia graphics card, would Blender work any better? FYI, my processor and RAM: Intel Celeron Processor 440 and 2GB RAM?
Support for ATI cards really should be improved in Blender. However, I don’t think that it is that severe of a problem as you are saying. I think there may be another issue here. Such as the processor. Could you give more specs on the processor. Celerons aren’t that strong…
EDIT:
The Celeron 440 is a single core 2.0GHz proc with a 512KB L2 cache.
That isn’t too bad; it’s workable.
I’ve got an aluminum iMac, it comes with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro.
I don’t get any lag at all, and as far as I know, all problems with ATI and Blender have been fixed. I can get over 350 frames per second with enable all frames and a cube and such.
I don’t think it’s an ATI issue dude, it might not even be related to your graphics card.
What OS are you running? What is the highest item when you enable “Show Framerate and Profile” ? Also, try this:
Open Blender
Right click on the taskbar and select “Task Manager”
Go the the “Processes” tab
Click on CPU until the list is organized by CPU in descending order
Tell us what is taking up more than say 5% of the CPU
Then do the same for RAM except this time with processes above like 40~50, 000k
And also, tell us number of processes, CPU usage, and RAM usage. It should be on the bottom.
This should give us an idea of what is eating away at your resources if anything.
OS: Windows Vista Home Basic
Well excluding the taskmgr which is taking up about 3%, everything else is pretty much at 00%. As for RAM, Blender’s the only program taking up just over 44, 000K, everything else is under 3,000K.
Processes: 57
CPU Usage: 4-5% alternating
RAM: 32%
Hmm…Those numbers look fine. What is the highest stat in the profile? If it is the Rasterizer, it could very well be your card. I think the problems with ATI cards has either been eliminated or severly reduced.
Also, I guess it should be said:
Have you check to see if you have the latest drivers for your card? As in the ones off of the ATI Web site?
Highest stat is the Rasterizer: 60-64%
As for my drivers, they’re all up-to-date.
I would think that your Rasterizer would be about 80% with the default scene. What is the Overhead at?
Overhead: 35-36%
With that kind of overhead, I don’t think it is Blender. I think the problem lies elsewhere in your system. However, I can’t find out what, you processes looked fine.
Are you running any other programs while running Blender, such as Window Media Player?
I exit all other programs when I load up Blender, including the background programs.