PC for Autocad - engineering student

[Hector_1]

A PC with a core i5 4460, 8gb ram and a nvidia 750 is enough for 2D and basic 3D projects?
The graphics card is really needed for this purpose?

 

[raisonjohn]

A PC with a core i5 4460, 8gb ram and a nvidia 750 is enough for 2D and basic 3D projects?
The graphics card is really needed for this purpose?

Integrated graphics of the i5 4460 will be enough if your CAD works are limited to the 2D drafting. In this scenario, the RAM should be at an 8GB minimum, with highest speed possible. You might encounter some lagging/skipping when zooming in and out when your CAD file size becomes too large due to the number of components in the drawings you have.

But as you mentioned, you will be doing 3D, then a graphics card is highly recommended for that type of work. You won't be needing the best graphics card though especially if you'll just be working on 1x 1080p monitor, just the basic card mid-end will do (possibly, maximum of GTX 960 will be great). If you don't install a graphics card, you can't enable the hardware acceleration option in CAD which uses the GPU for better/faster display performance when working on 3D models.

One suggestion that will help increase speed: get a Solid State Drive and install your OS as well as your CAD program there. Boot times/load times and render times will be faster.

 

[bambiboom]

A PC with a core i5 4460, 8gb ram and a nvidia 750 is enough for 2D and basic 3D projects?
The graphics card is really needed for this purpose?

Hector_1,

Current Intel Integrated Graphics is far better than you'd expect.

AutoCad has been written since the beginning to run relatively well on moderately performing systems. Displaying and- moving lines as vectors is a kind of compression as compared to lines as bitmaps and a side benefit of vector graphics is small file sizes.

To illustrate this, have a look at the certified graphics cards for AutoCad 2015:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?siteID=123112&id=18844534&results=1&stype=graphic&product_group=3&release=2016&os=8192&manuf=all&opt=2

> and, you'll see both recent Intel integrated graphics HD P4600 /P4700 and among the dedicated grpahics cards the Quadro FX380, a 256MB card from 2003. The Intel HDP4600 produces an average 3D score on Passmark of 604. A search of 135 systems using HD P4600 produces a top 2D score of 1089 (Xeon E3-1245 v3 /ASUS Gryphon /16GB /Kingston Hyper X 120GB SSD) and a top 3D of 798.5 (Xeon E3-1245 v3 / Lenono Sharkbay / 8GB / Seagate Barracuda 1TB). The i5-4460 uses HD 4600 which is not on the Autodesk list, but the results from 307 tests of i5-4460 / HD 4600 are even better: Top 2D= 956 (Lenovo Sharkbay / 8GB / WD Blue 1TB) and Top 3D of 1144 (Dell 088DT1 / Seagate Barracuda 1TB)

For reference:

1 Dell Precision T5400 (2008) > 2X Xeon X5460 quad core @3.16GHz > 16GB DDR2 667 ECC> Quadro FX 4800 (1.5GB) > WD RE4 500GB / Seagate Barracuda 500GB > M-Audio 2496 Sound Card / Linksys WMP600N WiFi > HP 2711X, 27" 1920 X 1080 and Dell 19" LCD > Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit >
[ Passmark system Rating = 1859, CPU = 8528 / 2D= 512 / 3D=1097 Mem= 730, Disk= 929]

With Quadro 4000 >
[ Passmark system Rating = 1976, CPU = 8625 / 2D= 505 / 3D=2000 Mem= 742, Disk= 923]

2. HP z420 (2013) > Xeon E5-1620 four core @ 3.6 /3.8GHz > 24GB DDR3 ECC 1600 RAM > AMD V4900 (1GB) > Seagate 500GB > Linksys WMP600N WiFi
[Passmark system rating = 2372 / CPU = 9001 / 2D= 712 / 3D= 1353/ Mem= 2261 / Disk= 712]

If you notice in particular system 4, that's a Dell Precision T5400 with dual Xeon X5460 4-core at 3.16GHz, 16GB RAM and a Quadro FX 4800 (1.5GB) that cost new $1,300 and the HD 4600 is capable of better results. True, that's an older system, but the HP z420 is from 2013, running a Xeon E5-1620 @ 3.6 /3.GHz and an AMD V4900 1TB 128-bit GDDR5.

So, integrated graphics is better than it should be.

But, if you mean by "nvidia 750" that you have a GTX 750, the results are more than enough: 202 systems i5 4460 / GTX 750

Top 2D = 921 (Gigabyte H96N / 8GB / OCZ-Vector 180 )
Top 3D = 3858 ( ASUS 885M-F / 8GB / Toshiba DT01ACA300 )

For comparison with a modern workstation:

HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz > 16GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K2200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> Logitech z2300 > Linksys AE3000 USB WiFi > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 4918 > CPU= 13941 / 2D= 823 / 3D= 3463 / Mem= 2668 / Disk= 4764

So, a GTX 750 would do well, although teh 750 nor the HD 4600 can run the special workstation drivers, so some functions and image quality capabilities, will be limited.

I'd suggest increasing RAM to 16GB to be able to run more applications at once and larger files. I often run 4-6 programs -2 of them 3D- and two browsers at one time and as raisonjohn mentions, have an SSD for the OS / Applications. I would add to that to have a 250Gb or larger SSD and divide the drive in half so that there can be a partition for working files and setup the mech'l drive with an incremental backup software that updates the file -often hour.

Give it a try and see. I think after some time and if you're doing simulations and begin using complex viewport or scientific applications like MATLAB, you'll need to move into the Xeon or dual Xeon / ECC / Quadro or Firepro world, but the current system with more RAM and an SSD will get you going. When you see the signs of instability, and very slow response, start planning the change early to give plenty of time for research as workstation hardware is becoming very particular to the software.

What kind of engineering are you doing?

Cheers,

BambiBoom


1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz > 32GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> Logitech z2300 > Linksys AE3000 USB WiFi > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

Pending upgrade: HP /LSI 9212-4i PCIe SAS /SATA HBA RAID controller, 2X Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB (RAID 1)

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) > Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 24GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys WMP600N PCI WiFi > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3490 / CPU = 9178 / 2D= 685 / 3D= 3566 / Mem= 1865 / Disk= 2122] [Cinebench 15 > CPU = 772 OpenGL= 99.72 FPS] 7.8.15