My recent tests proved that on Windows 10 (whether 1080p or 4K) Dorico runs more fluent using NVidia Geforce GTX 1060 (3GB VRAM) comparing to the crossfired D300 cards on my Mac Pro (Bootcamp Windows 10). My gaming machine has only 8GB RAM (while Mac Pro has 32GB). Both computers are hexacore (i5-8500 and Xeon E5) and have similar benchmarks. Comparatively, Dorico on my Mac Pro using bootcamp becomes sluggish in displaying high-density orchestral scores through even 1080p screen resolution.
Looks like the minimum system requirements for Dorico on Windows (if 4k monitor is used) may need to change to GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580 (both have not less than 3GB VRAM). (Recommending any graphic card with better 2d rendering performance and 4GB VRAM or above.)
P.S.: Dorico on my Mac Pro runs fine if the OS is macOS Catalina. (I don’t know how Dorico 3.x behaves with Mojave).
I may not use all possible features, especially in playback, and most of my scores are not huge, but FWIW, Dorico 3.1.10 behaves quite well on my iMac under Mojave.
Why? I’m running Dorico on an 8-year-old GTX 650 TI and it runs just fine, running 2 monitors (not 4k) and working on a huge score with around 100 staves. No graphics issues, and the Windows performance monitor hardly registers any graphics activity at all (only 1% or 2%).
From one comparison site, the 650 is about 30% of the performance of the 1060.
A 4k monitor is obviously not a minimum requirement in any case.
I’ve no idea how the same card would perform in a Mac though.
You definitely want to see everything clear by using a 4k monitor if you have that budget, especially for orchestral scores.
My advise regarding minimum requirement for 4k monitor ensures Dorico runs at not less than 45fps on Windows 10 (I didn’t measure it yet, I feel it like 50fps).
P.S.: This doesn’t apply for Windows 7. Something told me that Dorico GUI acceleration works slow on Windows 7.
It’s more than 50 years since I got my first full time job working with computers. I might not have learned much in that time, but one thing I have learned is “don’t take advice from random people who seem to know everything, especially if it involves spending money on stuff that you don’t actually need”.
BTW Dorico isn’t even supported on Windows 7 (which isn’t surprising, since Microsoft no longer support it either) so I don’t know what that has to do with the price of fish.
Whether officially supporting Windows 7 is a thing, while actually being able to run on Windows 7 is another.
You don’t have to bother it simply because your GTX 650 Ti is likely to be optimized for high-end gaming at that time (only with 1080p I guess).
I just noticed significant performance differences comparing to using crossfired double AMD FirePro D300, hence creating this thread.
Comparing to what you have learnt, my experience is to take some time to investigate it first, gathering enough information to help me make decisions.