Question CAD system build recommendations

[woodson75]

I'm planning on building a PC for someone who uses Archicad (25/26 and plans to use 27 by the end of the year, once released). Recommended GPU specs for Archicad 26 appear to 4GB VRAM DirectX 11, going up to 8 GB VRAM DirectX 11 for higher end stuff. Here's the kicker, where things get a bit 'muddy' for me. The person I'm building for also mentions wanting to use the Redshift rendering engine whose recommended GPU specs are "NVIDIA GPU with CUDA compute capability 7.0 or higher and 10 GB of VRAM or more. We recommend NVIDIA Quadro, Titan, or GeForce RTX GPU"

Would something like this, with 6GB be suitable: https://nzdepot.co.nz/product/leadtek-nvidia-rtx-a2000-6gb-gddr6-workstation-graphics-card/ ?

Other build specs are:

MSI PRO B760M-A

Intel Core i7 12700

G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB DDR4

Corsair RM Series RM650X 2021

Fractal Design Define R5

LG GH24NSD1 Internal SATA DVD Writer

Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 3.5"

DEEPCOOL AK500 CPU Cooler

Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB

Would really appreciate any recommendations from anyone running similar Cad version/rendering engine. Thanks, in advance for any advice 😊

 

[Lucky_SLS]

The first question that your friend needs answering is - does he really need a quadro card or can he make do with a 4070ti?

Alternatively, if the prices are low and if the performance in redshift is better, you can look into getting a previous gen card like the 3090ti/3090

i would suggest a 850W psu, the RMx/RMe 850 would be perfect.

You might not need a DVD writer.

The CPU/Mobo combo seems optimal for your task, especially if the 12th gen products have a discount on them.

You might want to look into the Fractal Design Pop silent case, modern and updated design.

 

[woodson75]

Thanks for your suggestions. My only concern use the gaming cards is that I've since heard anecdotally that if you ever need vendor support, that first level support love to point to the use of uncertified (GeForce) cards being the cause of all problems. That, and the fact that the gaming card drivers won't be as well optimised at the workstation specific cards for CAD specific tasks.

Will check out the Fractal case, and look at a gruntier PSU. 👍

 

[USAFRet]

You also might want to bump the RAM up to 64GB.

I recently had to move up to 64GB, because some of my models in Rhino3D were squeezed by the previous 32GB.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

One other thing you can look at are cheap 2.5" sata drives instead of 3.5" HDDs, the prices have come down a lot.

 

[woodson75]

One other thing you can look at are cheap 2.5" sata drives instead of 3.5" HDDs, the prices have come down a lot.

Sadly, not so much where I am (NZ). The HDD will only be for backup, so still more cost effective over here.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

the other thing you can do to make things more economical or cost effective is to get the RTX a2000 for your CAD and a 2nd GPU - maybe a 3090 or 4070ti for red shift.

The price would be lower than going for a 12gb+ VRAM quadro card.