autodesk photo realistic rendering Windows 10

[steven cook]

High, I've been self studying architecture for at least 3 years, mostly designing floor plans and elevations etc. different styles from different parts of the world and the history etc. etc. College is too expensive for me right now so I'm trying to learn it myself. I appreciate the self taught architects of the 19th and 20th century.

Anyways I was hoping someone could give me a real answer about autocad; what kind of CPU and GPU would I need for very realistic rendering of my projects? I want it to be as realistic as possible and was planning on saving up about $2000 for the PC and a minimum resolution of 2560p x 1440p.

Do I even need to spend that much money? I already have about $1300 saved up but I really want a ultrawide monitor for obvious reasons. Any advice from someone who is experienced to a newbie would be appreciated.

 

[kenrivers]

What version of AutoCad will you be using? Autodesk recommends 8 GB of RAM and a 1GHz processor. Depending on the complexity of your drawings I would consider going with at least 16 GB of RAM and no less than an i5 and possibly an i7. Maybe someone who uses it will reply and be of more help.

 

[anbello262]

I can't recommend a full build, but I can give some guidelines:

First, for AutoCAD, Geforce/Radeon give the same performance as Quadro/Firepro cards most of the time, while being half the price.

Then, I'd recommend an i7. Here it's up to you: you can get a mainstream i7-6700k with z170 platform, or you can go big with an extreme version X99, which will coust double, but has more cores and quad channer ddr, although lower clocks.

For AutoCAD in particular, I'd stick with the 6700k, a GOOD cooler and a nice overclock, and 32 or 16gb of ram, paired with a gtx 980ti/1080 (depending on pricing available) or equivalent AMD card, as the performance difference with x99 is not big for this particular program, while the price being cut basically in half. Some say that autocad even performs better on Z170.

Other programs like Maya and SolidWorks see larger improvements when going with x99 and quadro.


If you're mainly using AutoCAD, $1300 is more than enough for a Top performing PC, that will work really well with other programs too.



EDIT: Also, what kind of cpu or gpu you get has no effect on the realism of you project, only on how long it takes to render. You maybe know this, but it never hurts to clarify.

 

[steven cook]

I can't recommend a full build, but I can give some guidelines:

First, for AutoCAD, Geforce/Radeon give the same performance as Quadro/Firepro cards most of the time, while being half the price.

Then, I'd recommend an i7. Here it's up to you: you can get a mainstream i7-6700k with z170 platform, or you can go big with an extreme version X99, which will coust double, but has more cores and quad channer ddr, although lower clocks.

For AutoCAD in particular, I'd stick with the 6700k, a GOOD cooler and a nice overclock, and 32 or 16gb of ram, paired with a gtx 980ti/1080 (depending on pricing available) or equivalent AMD card, as the performance difference with x99 is not big for this particular program, while the price being cut basically in half. Some say that autocad even performs better on Z170.

Other programs like Maya and SolidWorks see larger improvements when going with x99 and quadro.


If you're mainly using AutoCAD, $1300 is more than enough for a Top performing PC, that will work really well with other programs too.

Thank you... you just confirmed what I was already thinking. I would love to have a octacore 5960x and a Titan X but that's way out of my price range right now.

But this is a link to my part list from PC Part Picker http://pcpartpicker.com/user/starforceone/saved/JkKFf7 it's about $2000.

 

[anbello262]

Well, that build looks great!

I'm not very informed of the latest prices of some components, but from what I see, everything is perfect. It would be a great build, a top performer for the programs you will be using (and gaming too, btw).
If you still have to wait in order to save enough money, some prices might change a bit, especially in the GPUs, so if you buy this in a month or two check again.

 

[steven cook]

Well, that build looks great!

I'm not very informed of the latest prices of some components, but from what I see, everything is perfect. It would be a great build, a top performer for the programs you will be using (and gaming too, btw).
If you still have to wait in order to save enough money, some prices might change a bit, especially in the GPUs, so if you buy this in a month or two check again.

Thank you... I keep seeing more stuff that I want for my personal rig, but it keeps getting more expensive. I wish I had $5000 so I could get everything I could want or need.

 

[anbello262]

You can always upgrade down the road. That's what I do with mine, and usually once a year I get some very good bargain in at least one part, so I end up upgrading for really cheap.