Best Graphics Card for CAD Workstation

[CTrap33]

I'm looking to build myself a new CAD workstation. I've been doing some reading up on benchmarks and performances for CAD software. I've found that for Direct X applications like AutoCAD and Inventor, your GTX cards are best. For OpenGL programs like Solidworks and CATIA, then the Quadro series is a good choice.

The thing is, while I use AutoCAD more (probly ~70% of the time), I also use Solidworks.
I've also seen that Radeon HD cards generally perform very well. And what about the Radeon R9 series?



My question is, what type of card is best for me?

Thanks in advance.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

You are correct.... GTX rules 2D / 3D AutoCAD and Quadro rules Maya / Solidworks. If you want to game off hours, GTX comes in handy. if you are only going to get one, it all comes down to what you use more. Tho Solidworks won't run at all on GTX

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-9.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-6.html

Radeon isn't really in the game

 

[MarkW]

To properly answer your question, I need to know how much you have budgeted for the video card.

Quadro cards can easily cost into the thousands. GTX and Radeon cards can also get up to just above the $1000 point. Depending on the levels of performance you need, and the budget you have, we can probably find a happy medium for you.

 

[CTrap33]

To properly answer your question, I need to know how much you have budgeted for the video card.

Quadro cards can easily cost into the thousands. GTX and Radeon cards can also get up to just above the $1000 point. Depending on the levels of performance you need, and the budget you have, we can probably find a happy medium for you.

True, budget for me is around $1000. If the higher end cards justify performance, then I'd be willing to go $1,500. However, I am aware of diminishing returns as we increase price.

 

[CTrap33]

You are correct.... GTX rules 2D / 3D AutoCAD and Quadro rules Maya / Solidworks. If you want to game off hours, GTX comes in handy. if you are only going to get one, it all comes down to what you use more. Tho Solidworks won't run at all on GTX

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-9.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-6.html

Radeon isn't really in the game

Hmm, maybe it would be best to put ~$1k towards AutoCAD and get a separate machine for Solidworks..

 

[MarkW]

In that case, I would recommend going with a pair of GTX 980ti cards. At roughly $650 each, paired up, you will be at the $1300 point on the two cards. Run them in SLI mode. That should give you the best bang for the buck short of a Quadro card that would easily cost double that, if not more.

If you do decide to do this, you will likely need a motherboard that supports having SLI cards, 3 slots apart, since most of these GTX 980Ti cards take a little more than 2 slots wide for their cooling solutions. I have a list of those than I can post if you would like. Its not complete, but it does offer some models from most manufacturers, and should give you options on prices due to that.

Power supply is also going to be a factor... I can also help with that.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The old Titan was quite a nice performer in both CAD and Gaming (was the reason you bought it over a 7xx). Haven't seen anything on the new Titan tho.

Much more so than budget, exactly what you will be doing is key.... how big and how complicated is the work ?

And if you look at those links ...as important as what is on those graphs is , what id more important is what cards are not on them as they just didnt run.

 

[CTrap33]

In that case, I would recommend going with a pair of GTX 980ti cards. At roughly $650 each, paired up, you will be at the $1300 point on the two cards. Run them in SLI mode. That should give you the best bang for the buck short of a Quadro card that would easily cost double that, if not more.

If you do decide to do this, you will likely need a motherboard that supports having SLI cards, 3 slots apart, since most of these GTX 980Ti cards take a little more than 2 slots wide for their cooling solutions. I have a list of those than I can post if you would like. Its not complete, but it does offer some models from most manufacturers, and should give you options on prices due to that.

Power supply is also going to be a factor... I can also help with that.

Good points. Do I need to worry about gaming type motherboards? The reason I ask this is that I was going to use pcpartpicker to ensure compatibility. Will gaming mobo's work or should I look for something else?

 

[CTrap33]

The old Titan was quite a nice performer in both CAD and Gaming (was the reason you bought it over a 7xx). Haven't seen anything on the new Titan tho.

Much more so than budget, exactly what you will be doing is key.... how big and how complicated is the work ?

And if you look at those links ...as important as what is on those graphs is , what id more important is what cards are not on them as they just didnt run.

I saw Solidworks wouldn't run your GTX cards. I'm surprised that's still the case since it's 2015 and those tests were done back in 2013. I would have thought Solidworks would have adapted to the GTX cards by now. I guess there isn't a chance for that this year.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

In that case, I would recommend going with a pair of GTX 980ti cards. At roughly $650 each, paired up, you will be at the $1300 point on the two cards. Run them in SLI mode. That should give you the best bang for the buck short of a Quadro card that would easily cost double that, if not more.

If you do decide to do this, you will likely need a motherboard that supports having SLI cards, 3 slots apart, since most of these GTX 980Ti cards take a little more than 2 slots wide for their cooling solutions. I have a list of those than I can post if you would like. Its not complete, but it does offer some models from most manufacturers, and should give you options on prices due to that.

Power supply is also going to be a factor... I can also help with that.

I'm gonna say no on both counts.

I have been building CAD boxes since 1991. My personal box serves as a CAD workstation; it basically served as my introduction to building gaming boxes..... it has twin watercooled 780 SLI benefits AutoCAD in no way whatsoever, but it sure is fun after hours when I manage to get away from work and enjoy an hour of gaming. I built all of my firm's workstations for the last 20+ years as well as boxes for other engineering firms and professional society colleagues. I do not do rendering builds as my firm designs stuff that don't need to look pretty .... no rendering required/

Unless things have changed, SLI does nothing for CAD
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-2013-2014-2015-2016/does-autocad-support-sli/td-p/3683468

GTX is great for 2D and 3D AutoCAD as the links clearly show ... But Solidworks on GTX ???

https://www.mcad.com/solidworks-topics/solidworks-2015-system-requirements/
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/videocardtesting.html

 

[CTrap33]

In that case, I would recommend going with a pair of GTX 980ti cards. At roughly $650 each, paired up, you will be at the $1300 point on the two cards. Run them in SLI mode. That should give you the best bang for the buck short of a Quadro card that would easily cost double that, if not more.

If you do decide to do this, you will likely need a motherboard that supports having SLI cards, 3 slots apart, since most of these GTX 980Ti cards take a little more than 2 slots wide for their cooling solutions. I have a list of those than I can post if you would like. Its not complete, but it does offer some models from most manufacturers, and should give you options on prices due to that.

Power supply is also going to be a factor... I can also help with that.

I have been buildinG CAD boxes since 1991. My box serves as a CAD workstation; it basically served as my introduction to building gaming boxes..... it has twin watercooled 780 SLI benefits AutoCAD in no way whatsoever, but it sure is fun after hours when I manage to get away from work and enjoy an hour of gaming.

Unless things have changed, SLI does nothing for CAD\
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-2013-2014-2015-2016/does-autocad-support-sli/td-p/3683468

Solidworks on GTX ???

https://www.mcad.com/solidworks-topics/solidworks-2015-system-requirements/

I wouldn't mind having it double as a gaming rig either!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Especially cause all the parts are tax deductable

Our main work product is waste water treatment plants .... lots of color coded piping runs, pipe fittings.... that work inspired this build:

Unfortunately .... er fortunately "sludge" is not a currently offered Mayhems Coolant color

 

[CTrap33]

Especially cause all the parts are tax deductable

Our main work product is waste water treatment plants .... lots of color coded piping runs, pipe fittings.... that work inspired this build:

Unfortunately .... er fortunately "sludge" is not a currently offered Mayhems Coolant color

Nice. My area of focus for my Civil Engineering degree was water/wastewater so that's pretty slick.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Where you located ? ... and in what field now ?

 

[CTrap33]

Where you located ? ... and in what field now ?

Degree is from Penn State. Moved to Tampa after school. Currently reside here. Still a CE but do a decent amount of work with assembly drawings, which is what I like more.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

To far .... wuda offered you my workbench and tool box to do the build

 

[CTrap33]

To far .... wuda offered you my workbench and tool box to do the build

Ha. Thanks. I've built my own gaming rig already and a few home PCs for other people. So, needless to say I have my own table/toolkit already set up.

 

[MarkW]

Yes, gaming motherboards will work. The only thing different on a gaming motherboard normally is beefier power hardware and some gaming/Overclocking features. In this case, I doubt there will be any overclocking done, but the beefier power hardware will come in handy keeping the pair for GTX 980Ti and the CPU happy. Paired with a high quality power supply, good memory, good storage devices, the system should be very stable for years.

You will have choices to make on the CPU. Do you want to go with X99 chipset on the 2011-v3 socket, using a I7-5930K or I7-5960X which are 6 core CPU's with 40 lanes of PCIe capacity, or even a 4 core I7-5820K with 24 lanes of PCIe capacity. These all use DDR4, which is a bit pricier than DDR3. And they all support 4 channel memory. Due to their 4 channel memory support, they also can have 64GB of RAM.

Short of that, there are the Z97 chipset with the 1150 socket CPU's, The I7-4790K would be the one choice for you here. 4 cores, 16 lanes of PCIe capacity, and still uses DDR3l. There is also a Broadwell chip... well, there is supposed to be... I just peeked at both Amazon and Newegg, and they do not exist there... So I guess the I7-4790K will have to stand alone here. With Dual Channel memory support, the limit here is 32GB of RAM.

There are also some Xeon CPU's that can work with both types of those motherboards. I would think that the two software packages you plan on running would support those as well.

If I were to do what you are planning on doing, I think I would stick with Asus on the motherboard. And maybe on the video cards as well. They do make some amazing hardware, and their reliability is second to none. They also cost a little more than some of the other brands. But in a business environment, uptime matters. I would probably go with an X99 system. Not only are the CPU's stronger, but they offer more PCIe lanes, which will allow each of the video cards to have a full compliment of 16x PCIe lanes. On the 1150 boards, they would only get 8x PCie lanes each. That may not be a big deal for gaming, but it could be with AutoCAD. And as far as the CPU goes, I think having 2 additional cores, so 12 threads maximum should help with the workload. So I would pick the I7-5930K CPU. It is a slower version of the I7-5960X, but also about 50% of the price.

In looking close at the motherboards, trying to pick something that should work well for you for a number of years, I have focused in on the Asus Sabertooth X99 motherboard.

I will let you look it up, and see what you think about it.

This should give you a bit to consider. Let me know what you think so far...

 

[CTrap33]

Yes, gaming motherboards will work. The only thing different on a gaming motherboard normally is beefier power hardware and some gaming/Overclocking features. In this case, I doubt there will be any overclocking done, but the beefier power hardware will come in handy keeping the pair for GTX 980Ti and the CPU happy. Paired with a high quality power supply, good memory, good storage devices, the system should be very stable for years.

You will have choices to make on the CPU. Do you want to go with X99 chipset on the 2011-v3 socket, using a I7-5930K or I7-5960X which are 6 core CPU's with 40 lanes of PCIe capacity, or even a 4 core I7-5820K with 24 lanes of PCIe capacity. These all use DDR4, which is a bit pricier than DDR3. And they all support 4 channel memory. Due to their 4 channel memory support, they also can have 64GB of RAM.

Short of that, there are the Z97 chipset with the 1150 socket CPU's, The I7-4790K would be the one choice for you here. 4 cores, 16 lanes of PCIe capacity, and still uses DDR3l. There is also a Broadwell chip... well, there is supposed to be... I just peeked at both Amazon and Newegg, and they do not exist there... So I guess the I7-4790K will have to stand alone here. With Dual Channel memory support, the limit here is 32GB of RAM.

There are also some Xeon CPU's that can work with both types of those motherboards. I would think that the two software packages you plan on running would support those as well.

If I were to do what you are planning on doing, I think I would stick with Asus on the motherboard. And maybe on the video cards as well. They do make some amazing hardware, and their reliability is second to none. They also cost a little more than some of the other brands. But in a business environment, uptime matters. I would probably go with an X99 system. Not only are the CPU's stronger, but they offer more PCIe lanes, which will allow each of the video cards to have a full compliment of 16x PCIe lanes. On the 1150 boards, they would only get 8x PCie lanes each. That may not be a big deal for gaming, but it could be with AutoCAD. And as far as the CPU goes, I think having 2 additional cores, so 12 threads maximum should help with the workload. So I would pick the I7-5930K CPU. It is a slower version of the I7-5960X, but also about 50% of the price.

In looking close at the motherboards, trying to pick something that should work well for you for a number of years, I have focused in on the Asus Sabertooth X99 motherboard.

I will let you look it up, and see what you think about it.

This should give you a bit to consider. Let me know what you think so far...

Thanks. That "body armor" looks awesome. I'll check it out.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Yes, gaming motherboards will work. The only thing different on a gaming motherboard normally is beefier power hardware and some gaming/Overclocking features. In this case, I doubt there will be any overclocking done, but the beefier power hardware will come in handy keeping the pair for GTX 980Ti and the CPU happy.

No it's not going to be happy at all. Ya gotta let go of the SLI thing .... AutoDesk products do not / can not use SLI and Solidworks **does not run** on GTX. These products are a complete fail running his stated apps. You have him buying 2 cards when he can only use one fpr his major app and cards that won't run his 2nd app at all.

As for Asus, I used Asus exclusively for 10 years bit in last 2 years, they have lost their luster. Look at the user reviews on newegg.... see how many 1 egg reviews on those Asus X99 boards .... the return rate on the Extreme is hovering just under 10%

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/920-2/cartes-meres.html

- 9,65% ASUS Rampage IV Extreme

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/927-2/cartes-meres.html

- 8,80% ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
- 8,05% ASRock AD2550B-ITX
- 7,93% ASRock FM2A88M Extreme4+
- 7,25% ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0
- 7,20% ASUS Maximus VI Extreme
- 5,95% ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0
- 5,93% MSI Z87I
- 5,56% Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3
- 5,26% ASRock 990FX Extreme3
- 5,06% ASUS Maximus VI Formula
- 5,05% ASRock FM2A55M-VG3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132262
Asus Rampage 23% 1 egg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132263
Asus WS 24% 1 egg

 

[CTrap33]

Yes, gaming motherboards will work. The only thing different on a gaming motherboard normally is beefier power hardware and some gaming/Overclocking features. In this case, I doubt there will be any overclocking done, but the beefier power hardware will come in handy keeping the pair for GTX 980Ti and the CPU happy.

No it's not going to be happy at all. Ya gotta let go of the SLI thing .... AutoDesk products do not / can not use SLI and Solidworks **does not run** on GTX. These products are a complete fail running his stated apps. You have him buying 2 cards when he can only use one fpr his major app and cards that won't run his 2nd app at all.

As for Asus, I used Asus exclusively for 10 years bit in last 2 years, they have lost their luster. Look at the user reviews on newegg.... see how many 1 egg reviews on those Asus X99 boards .... the return rate on the Extreme is hovering just under 10%

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/920-2/cartes-meres.html

- 9,65% ASUS Rampage IV Extreme

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/927-2/cartes-meres.html

- 8,80% ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
- 8,05% ASRock AD2550B-ITX
- 7,93% ASRock FM2A88M Extreme4+
- 7,25% ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0
- 7,20% ASUS Maximus VI Extreme
- 5,95% ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0
- 5,93% MSI Z87I
- 5,56% Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3
- 5,26% ASRock 990FX Extreme3
- 5,06% ASUS Maximus VI Formula
- 5,05% ASRock FM2A55M-VG3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132262
Asus Rampage 23% 1 egg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132263
Asus WS 24% 1 egg

What board would you recommend? I've heard that ASUS is generally good across the board for mobo's. I'm partial to ASrock myself as they seem to be less expensive and very reliable in my experiences. MSI tends to get mixed reviews from what I've seen.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

There's no universal answer. In 2011 I wuda said Asus going thru much of 2012 when they made their last big splash with the Saberooth. MSI really picked it up there doing quite a reversal . My Asus WS has been horrendous, the Maximus Formula has been no end of frustration.... Looking at the mid level gaming MoBos for example....

These boards all have basically the same feature set and feature / componnet wise I'd rank them as follows with only small difference between:

MSI Gaming 5
Gigabyte Gaming 5
Asus Hero

ranked by gaming performance prowess, they come in the same way

But look at the prices

MSI Gaming 5 runs $125 0 $140
Gigabyte Gaming 5 runs $105 - $125
Asus Hero runs $200 - $208

Now because the MSI Gaming 5 is a new line for them and at the lower end of the price scale, I will expect in the next rankings, their reliability (measured from in warranty returns) will climb a bit.... up to 5% is not unusual for a new line.

last i saw from the link above, this is how they stacked up

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/927-2/cartes-meres.html

- Gigabyte 2,51% (contre 2,02%)
- MSI 2,65% (contre 2,60%)
- ASUS 2,86% (contre 2,31%)
- ASRock 2,99% (contre 2,27%)

The thing to walk away with from thise numbers is not who is 1st and who is last but this:

Out of 1,000 MSI customers.... 27 peeps were unhappy, leaving 973 happy
Out of 1,000 MSI customers.... 29 peeps were unhappy, leaving 973 happy

Certainly within the bounds of statistical variation.

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/927-2/cartes-meres.html

I start like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%20600533617&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=RATING&PageSize=30

Lists boards by best rating. To be statistically valid...ignore anything below 40 reviews or so. The ASUS X99-A looks well here w/ just 9% 1 egg reviews. The ASUS X99-E WS loos scary w/ 24%. The MSI X99S Gaming 7 w/ 15% isn't bad. After getting a list put together, I'd go looking at reviews.

i really like the look of the MSI X99S SLI Krait Edition but the Z97 krait is a performance dog. The other MSI alternative is this one which garnered a THG Editor's Choice award

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-x99s-sli-plus-motherboard,4116.html

But it also has 23% negative reviews.

This Gigabyte build comes highly recommended

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128765

If you want to do a themed build on a white / orange theme, I can send ya pics of my sons, he used the Z97 version. Both are very solid boards that take a ton of abuse. BIOS however on Gigabyte boards need a stylistic improvement.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1418637/official-case-phanteks-club-enthoo-primo-primo-se-luxe-pro-mini-xl-evolv-evolv-itx-evolv-atx-lovers-owners/8760#post_23674282

No finished pics tho