I currently have a NVIDIA Quadro K2100M graphics card in my Dell Precision M4800…does anyone know if a better card would help run SketchUp faster (I typically work in files over 20mb so I would like it to run faster), and if so, what kind of card would you recommend?
An ultracool whizbang graphics card might make SketchUp run faster, but the speed difference will probably be hardly noticeable. Despite SketchUp’s increased reliance on the graphics card, it is still very CPU-intensive. Roughly speaking, when zooming or orbiting, the graphics card processes your textures and shadows, and the “geometry” is processed by the CPU. To make a model run smoothly, minimizing the amount of geometry your computer has to process is the most important thing. Avoid using high-polygon 3D entourage elements like cars and trees, and hide them when working. Components make the file size smaller, but everything contained in them has still to be taken care of when the file is open. Any model with face/edge count (Window menu>Model Info>Statistics, check components, too) running into millions will be slow, whatever the computer you use to run it in.
Anssi