Guidance please on a new laptop

bhdavis2

Honorable
Apr 2, 2018
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I'm thinking about getting a new, faster laptop for home use of CAD/CAM software, AutoCAD and Fusion 360. My CAD/CAM software is an older version of Enroute before they upgraded their graphics capabilities for better processing speed. I'm using AutoCAD LT Ver. 14 so that also is pretty old. Fusion 360 is putting the most demand on my current laptop and while it take 45 seconds to load (100 mps internet connection) my drawings are simple enough that my actual use of the program isn't all that demanding. I'm retired and this is all just for personal use.

I currently have an Asus laptop with an I7 8550U @ 1.8 processor and other than these graphics applications it is more than adequate for anything I do. It is though border line lacking in its capabilities with the 3D projects.

Since I'm not making any money off these activities it's hard to justify $2000 plus for a new laptop. However anything in the $1500 and below range doesn't seem to have that big a jump in processor capabilities.

I'll add here that my AutoCAD LT 14 will not run on Windows 11. I've tried and all the online reports I see say the same thing. So if I do an upgrade it will need to have some version of Windows 10.

Looking at the PasMark rankings my current I7 8550U @ 1.8 has a rating of 5930. The most commonly found I7 processor I see in under $1500 Windows 10 laptops is the 1165G7. However the PassMark rating for this just jumps to 10393......so not even double my current processor. So while the 1165G7 is on the high end processors list, it is near the bottom of that list.

So question is would I see a significant, like 4 to 5 times, improvement on 3D actions with the 1165G7 processor, or is it just not worth only going that far up the processor performance list? I know graphics processors also come into play here but I'd think the main CPU in the laptop is the place to start analyzing the options.

Thanks,
BH
 
Without knowing where you're buying from it's pretty much impossible to help you out here. In the US nobody would be considering 11th gen Intel period because there are significantly better options from both AMD and Intel available under $1500.

Here's an example of a $1500 laptop: https://www.newegg.com/quiet-blue-asus-viewbook-pro-16-k6602vv-ds94/p/N82E16834236453

Fusion 360 scales with CPU and AutoCAD mostly depends on the type of modeling you're doing (2D CPU and 3D CPU/GPU).

Finding a new laptop not coming with windows 11 is going to be extremely rare right now, but there's no reason you couldn't just install windows 10.
 
Thanks for replying.

Yes, I've been limited in what I'm finding because I'm specifying Windows 10 in my searches. You did answer my question though so that is very much appreciated. The 1165 processor just isn't going to be enough of a jump up the ladder.

My concern on going the Windows 11 route and doing a SSD reformat and install of Windows 10 is I don't know if Windows 10 will have available drivers for the newer motherboard. You don't seem to see that as a problem though?

Oh, and I am in the US and most of my exploratory searches on this have been on Newegg and Amazon .

Thanks,
BH
 
Seeing 11th gen totally makes sense if you were limiting to Windows 10 due to how OEMs tend to switch everything when the release a new generation product. I would be surprised if there were any conflicts with just installing Windows 10 since it and 11 are the same base operating system. You would have to reinstall some drivers of course, but there shouldn't be any sort of compatibility problems. While consumer laptops will rarely be seen with the option of Windows 10 business most certainly isn't in the same boat. It's just one of those things where I cannot say for 100% certain you wouldn't have an issue there's absolutely no reason to expect you would.

Generally speaking CPU wise you'll want to look for something 12th/13th generation Intel with at least 6 performance cores, or 6xxx/7x35/7x4x AMD with 6 or more cores.