Version 11.5 does make use of GPU now for rendering, so having that capability in hardware is a nice thing. But in general the Vectric applications are "easy peasy" when it comes to processing compared to many other applications.
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Version 11.5 does make use of GPU now for rendering, so having that capability in hardware is a nice thing. But in general the Vectric applications are "easy peasy" when it comes to processing compared to many other applications.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Contributor
I run my cnc on an old Windows 95 laptop (it is not connected to a network). The solid modeling software I use is web based and takes very minimal computer horsepower (which I do on a different computer that was a $100 refurb with latest Windows installed). Vectric requirements are nominal as well.
It all 'works' and has worked for a few years now. Yes it is unsupported and 'should' be updated, etc etc blah blah blah (ironically at one time I managed IT for a large organization).
But it works as is. So I have not bothered to 'fix it'.
Just saying you do not have to have the latest/greatest PC hardware, especially if a hobbiest and not making a living from it.
Moderator
You do need Win7, Win10 or Win11 at this point, however. I'm guessing that Win7 support may go away with the next Vectric release.
https://www.vectric.com/support/system-requirements
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Contributor
I bought a new gaming laptop to be able to run the simulations in V-Carve without waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more, like with my old one. It's true that you don't need much horsepower to draw in VCarve, or to create toolpaths, but complex simulations don't work well on machines with limited resources. I had the same problem trying to run SketchUp 2017. It would freeze up if I created anything more than the simplest model. The new PC runs it w/o issue.Originally Posted by Jim Becker
John
Contributor
For those that might not know about it, newegg.com is one online store for refurbished computers. A quick search there shows several sub $100 systems with Win 10 or Win 11. Adequate for running the various software required.
Moderator
Yes, with the Vectric applications, the 3D rendering is where the ability to use a GPU now with 11.5 (and system horsepower) does provide some benefit. The average user with VCP will not notice the difference as much since there is less use of complex modeling, but Aspire users who dip into the "really neat" world of complex modeling will notice for sure, especially when the rendering resolution is kicked way up.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Contributor
Some of the 3D modeling software takes more horsepower. Onshape is web based and one possibility to consider.
I havent benchmarked Fusion or sketchup or solidworks against each other ... likely somebody has though. Having said that computers are cheap.
Contributor
True, but any of the newer PCs with built-in GPU is adequate. The Mini I bought for 550 with Intel GPU + Hardware acceleration is imperceptibly slower compared against my custom rig with 3080TI which cost +3x the price of the entire mini PC. If you can get an AMD it will be slightly better vs. Intel but I do have the 11th gen, which is very good in the mini.
If you do extensive, complex 3D carving/modeling, ok fine, but in the context of this post and the average CNC use case, you do not need a stand alone GPU. Any of the modern gen CPUs with built in GPUs are more than adequate.
Last edited by Michael Burnside; 03-13-2023 at 11:39 AM.
Contributor
When I needed to update Windows on my desktop system, I found it was cheaper to just buy an entirely new refurb machine. For $110 this is what the system spec list says - which runs everything I throw at it. (Even less $ these days).
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD PRO A10-8750B R7, 12 Compute Cores 4C+8G, 3600 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Contributor
Nice!! I'm running my large cnc machining centers with an old Windows XP computer and it has worked great since 2003. I've still got my Gateway PC I bought new back in 1998. I think it originally came with Windows 98, but I later "upgraded" to Windows 2000. It runs 24/7 in my office and I still use it for AutoCAD 14, MasterCAM 9, and several other programs that won't run on the newer systems. Newer isn't always better.
David
Contributor
It depends on what you do with your CNC as to how much power you need. I'm often finding STL files made up with hundreds of thousands if not more triangles. Often that many aren't needed so I'll use a web site called "3D less" to cut the number down. Even though I'm using a gaming laptop with a ssd and fast processor it only had 8g of ram. That made for some very long crunch times as Fusion calculated tool paths. Bumping it up to 32g made a world of difference.
Member
The Carveco Maker subscription you got for free is quite comparable to VCarve Pro. Both have unlimited size, support a full collection of bit types and toolpath types. Both can import several bitmap or vector 2d file types. Both can import STL (3d) files (1 in VCarve Pro, multiple in Carveco Maker ). Carveco Maker has better "tracing" of bitmap images into vectors (and can "centerline" trace something like scrollsaw or coloring book type images). VCarve Pro has nesting and tiling. I own both, and tend to use Carveco more. Carveco is what used to be ArtCAM and has been around longer. Vectric was started by folks who used to work on ArtCAM so both do things similarly, just have different user interfaces.
VCarve Pro is $700, Carveco Maker is $15/mo. The higher level Carveco Maker+ is $1200 for a perpetual license or $50/mo, and has essentially the same feature set as Vectric's Aspire ($2000).
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