Hi I am new to solidworks and this forum and would greatly appreciate the advice off experienced users. I am a university student studying mechanical engineering and this years module heavy feature solidworks for assemblies containing approx 200 parts, FEA simulations and flow simulations. I have purchased a second hand hp workstation which I have already upgraded to the following specs
Dual xeon E5540 2.4 Ghz CPU
16 gb Ram
120 gb ssd drive
My question is regarding the graphics card, I have bought a quadro fx 580, I know this is an old low end card but being a student this is all I could afford. Would this card be adequate for the assembly and the simulations as I've seen a deal on a firepro v4800, this is also a low end budget card but would the increase in memory make a substantial difference in the performance of solidworks 2012 or should I just save up and get a modern card in the future when I can afford it
Cheers
SolidworksGeneral