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Which Graphics Card Should I Buy?

Community Manager Community Manager
Community Manager

First, it is important to note that consumer video cards are mostly targeted at those running games  often featured on Microsoft’s DirectX API, which runs on the Xbox. In contrast to these, CAD/CAM/CAE programs, like NX, Solid Edge, and Femap run on OpenGL graphics which is more compatible with the softwares’ functions, and  runs on multiple platforms like Windows, UNIX, Linux and Mac OS X.


Thus, due to the nature of the softwares in question,  we want to make sure we get a graphics card that performs well with OpenGL. There are two vendors that offer such graphic cards for desktop and mobile stations, the AMD FirePro line, and the NVidia Quadro line. While consumer graphics cards may work fine, they are generally not tuned for OpenGL, and I would always recommend staying with the workstation class cards from either AMD or NVidia. In the AMD line, that would be the AMD FirePro W5000, W7000, W8000 or W9000. In theNVidia line that would be The Quadro K2000, K4000, K5000 or K6000 would be good choices. There are similar choices for laptops.


I would recommend at least 2 GB of onboard memory to take advantage of the latest OpenGL features with larger models. All of the cards can support multiple monitors, some up to 6 monitors in case you really need to run a lot of apps all at once! A well performing graphics card can really help large model performance for NX, Solid Edge, and Femap.


Feel free to ask if you have any specific questions on graphics cards.

PLM World Member Phenom

Thanks for these information.

But what is the best grapic card for process simulate?


Process Simulate is not a normal CAD program.


Nvidia Quadro is a good way but these cards are very expensive.


I'm looking to buy a laptop and have a question if these graphics cards will be sufficient for large assemblies in Solid Edge ST7. 


  1. AMD Radeon R7 M270 graphics - Video Memory 4 GB, DDR3 
  2. NVIDIA GeForce 845M - Video Memory 2 GB, GDRR5 
  3. NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M - Video Memory 2GB, GDDR5

Much thanks!




The cards you mention are consumer cards. Sometimes these work ok, but you should read Al's article and apply what he has to say to these cards. The problems with these cards is that the drivers are not created with the heavy duty OpenGL applications in mind. Not that games can't be heavy duty, but the requirements are different. Laptops are made with workstation level graphic cards. Yes, they are more expensive, but yes, the productivity gains can be real: avoiding slowdowns and video related crashes.


Sometimes you can get away with the consumer cards, and everybody means something different by the word "sufficient". If I were spending my own money for a computer I used to make money, I would buy the higher end cards mentioned in Al's article.


Its been a while since the origonal post. What are are current recommendations for Femap?


Also can anybody recommnd a good driver for the AMD Fire Pro V7900 (Fire GLV) ?



Siemens Phenom



Please see the recommended graphics card requirements for Femap at:


You should always use the latest drivers from either the graphics card manufacturer for a desktop PC, and the latest driver from the laptop manufacturer for laptops.

We also recommend that you do not set application specific performance options, but use the default driver settings for OpenGL.


Best Regards,

Chip Fricke