A laptop for CAD

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Pedrovsky

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Hello guys, I'm in market for a laptop which will manly used for AutoCAD alone...

I need to know two things...

1 - Should i go for a i3 a i5 or a i7? ( I have no idea if autoCAD takes advantage of 2 or 4 cores and i don't if hyper threading is an advantage in this application)

2 - Is there any laptop around equiped with professional graphics card? Nothing really fancy...Fire pro v3900 with be the top of the line for my needs.

 
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sk1939

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i5 or i7 for sure.

Yes, several, but they are relatively pricey.

(From least to most expensive)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158145
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158149
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=F2A3EC7C45634AE8AB0F26CCAC867854
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158342
 
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sk1939

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The FirePro M5950 is about on par with a 9800M GTX, whereas the Quadro is about on par with a GTX 460M. The Quadro 1000M is about on par with an 8800M GTS. They are all relatively powerful cards in a notebook, but of course the most expensive computer has the fastest card (Class 1), while the others are Class 2.

In order of speed (fastest to slowest):

Quadro 3000M
FirePro M5950
Quadro 1000M

Relative power of the Quadro 1000M:
Battlefield 3 Gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mUaIWzrPXI
CATIA tested by Develop3D (FirePro V5700 is the same power as the 1000M)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1hShDKEKWY
CATIA v5 on a 5 million polygon model
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZjaDN04peE

Quadro 3000M
AutoCAD Civil 3D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJmXUorXmwE
 
dodger46

dodger46

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Would you consider a laptop with an SSD? I've no experience of CAD, but I imagine there will be some large files being manipulated and moved around, what better than the superior access times of an SSD? The Sony Vaio Z series looks juicy...plus you always have the option of fitting an HDD in the Optical Drive Bay for additional storage...
 
Major_Trouble

Major_Trouble

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SSD would not really be needed for CAD files as they are not generally that large. They're more of....draw line from point A to point B in this style, colour etc. They become more complex when drawn on screen, perhaps being fully shaded and in 3D space and from multiple views. That would move into the domain of the CPU, GPU and available Ram.

All that isn't to say a SSD wouldn't be desirable, if only for the boost it gives for boot and program loading.
 
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sk1939

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The VAIO Z's card is pedestrian at best, and not a workstation card. An SSD would not really net anything for AutoCAD, but might make overall use nice. However, you are very space limited then, and depending on the size of the drawings, that could be fatal.
 
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sk1939

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The advantage is the accuracy of the rendering. Desktop chips approximate calculations for speed, rather than accuracy. Also, the workstations cards are optimized to work better with mathematical calculations and certain software than their desktop counterparts. The last video in particular demonstrates some of the differences, which are most noticeable when working with complex drawings and shapes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtNLhzgz9Vw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD1hJJsqCms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phZ3XMfzL5I&feature=related
 
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