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CAD computer assembly WHICH GPU?

Fucur

i need to build a computer that's going to be used in an office as daily driver for software engineering like AutoCAD, Iper MILL, Solidworks and similar things.

 

I think i should go for 16gb or ram and an i7 8/9 gen, but i have doubts about the gpu. Should i go with a low/mid tier or high tier?

 

I was asked to do that system, but i dont understand a lot about those programs? As i saw project done until now are not too demanding,
so i tought that even a 8600k should be good, but i wanted to be sure.

 

That thing has to be as smooth as possible to accomplish needings; the point is that since it's used a lot with multiple task and frequently,
with multiple projects and programs opened at once.


That's what i'm asking for. Thanks for help

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2 minutes ago, Fucur said:

AutoCAD, Iper MILL, Solidworks and similar things.

go to the website of these vareous pieces of software, look at their recommended specs, and pick the card that covers these best, and suits the budget best. you're in a "corporate" environment => you look at the requirements to decide what you buy.

 

also, we're not blind, we can read font size <whatever default is> just fine ;)

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Aim for a Radeon 7, 2080 ti, 1080ti, or a VEGA Frontier, as you want a ton of VRAM in CAD, and a rather fast GPU. Also I heavily recommend a 9900k, 2700x, 9700k, 2600x, or a 1700x, for your CPU, as with CAD you want the overall performance of the processor over the per core performance of the processor (and 8 cores are VERY helpful), as CAD programs tend to be highly optimized for multi-threaded performance.

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4 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Aim for a Radeon 7, 2080 ti, 1080ti, or a VEGA Frontier, as you want a ton of VRAM in CAD, and a rather fast GPU. Also I heavily recommend a 9900k, 2700x, 9700k, 2600x, or a 1700x, for CPU, as with CAD you want the overall performance of the processor over the per core performance of the processor (and 8 cores are VERY helpful), as CAD programs tend to be highly optimized for multi-threaded performance.

*IF* they're doing CAD programs of that scale.. we have a few clients at work that do CAD on intel integrated graphics, and couldnt wish for more performance..

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 @Wh0_Am_1 i was thinking of going amd (for both cpu and gpu) since it's known better for productivy than gaming. I don't think project handled are going to saturate that much vram, so i was thinking on a mid tier one. @manikyath i wasn't asked to do a pc given the budget, i was asked to build a pc from the needings it has to accomplish, that's why i wrote the post that way.

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the most powerful pc that they are using right now has 8gb ram i7 4th gen and gtx 745, still managing theyr needings pretty well. That's why i was thinking at those things.

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15 minutes ago, manikyath said:

*IF* they're doing CAD programs of that scale.. we have a few clients at work that do CAD on intel integrated graphics, and couldnt wish for more performance..

True, most CAD programs can get the job done just fine with just the CPU on smaller projects, ( and are forced to get by with a CPU when their GPU simply does not have enough VRAM) but on medium to large projects, GPU's can be a lifesaver, as they are generally significantly faster at rendering these tasks than CPUs ( as no designer likes waiting for their project to render every time the zoom in, zoom out, and rotate their creation) leading to a better quality of life, (now while I am currently working on 3D modelling I have a relative who is a Solidworks engineer, whom (until recently ) constantly complained about not having enough computational power, he currently operates with a last gen I7 8700 and a Quadro p6000. He previously had a 4970, and a Quadro k4000.

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Solidworks highly prefers workstation GPUs.

The other two products don't seem to care. AutoCad has some GPU accelerated features, but they aren't nearly as intense as you'll find in 3D modelling and simulation software like Solidworks. I would recommend focusing on hitting Solidworks' requirements and the rest will function just fine.

Here's a Puget Systems page for SolidWorks: https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-SOLIDWORKS-150/Hardware-Recommendations

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13 minutes ago, Fucur said:

@manikyath i wasn't asked to do a pc given the budget, i was asked to build a pc from the needings it has to accomplish, that's why i wrote the post that way.

so.. then the task is simple.. check the software's requirements, and build a pc that upholds those requirements with slight margin for expansion, ofcourse.

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11 minutes ago, Fucur said:

the most powerful pc that they are using right now has 8gb ram i7 4th gen and gtx 745, still managing theyr needings pretty well. That's why i was thinking at those things.

How about a Vega 56, or a Vega 64?

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8 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

How about a Vega 56, or a Vega 64?

 

am thinking... should i go for amd or intel cpu? 2700x or 8700k/9700k? @manikyath @straigh_stewie

@Wh0_Am_1 i think that's too much, as i said, those projects are not going to saturate resources of a mid tier graphic card. Around 300€ what should i pick?

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Just now, Fucur said:

 

am thinking... should i go for amd or intel cpu? 2700x or 8700k/9700k? @manikyath @straigh_stewie

@Wh0_Am_1 i think that's too much, as i said, those projects are not going to saturate resources of a mid tier graphic card. Around 300€ what should i pick?

If you want value grab a 2700x, if you favor performance grab the 9700k. 

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Unless something has changed, Solidworks visualize won't function without a workstation graphics card because of driver comparability issues.

 

 

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at the end of day ill go for 2700x or 8700k depending of avaibility in my country and things like that, but i've heard that CAD is working better with intel right now, is that true?

 

im still thinking about the gpu. i think spending 400€ for a card that will be used at max at 20% isn't worth, but i cant find any other valuable choises.

 

i would go with a 2060/1070 if so

 

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17 minutes ago, Fucur said:

at the end of day ill go for 2700x or 8700k depending of avaibility in my country and things like that, but i've heard that CAD is working better with intel right now, is that true?

 

im still thinking about the gpu. i think spending 400€ for a card that will be used at max at 20% isn't worth, but i cant find any other valuable choises.

 

i would go with a 2060/1070 if so

 

It does, but in that sense the 2700x is probably better than the 8700k as it has more cores, meanwhile the reason I recommend the 9700k is because it has two more cores than the 8700k, making it a superior choice for CAD. Then grab a Vega 64 it performs better than a 1080 ti. Or a Vega 56, which performs like a 1080/2070 or better in these tasks. 

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 - SPECviewperf CATIA & SolidWorks

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I would point you towards one of the cheaper quadros the P series.

8600k with 6 cores, I'd reccomend a 2700x with 8.

 


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Right... Here's the pertinent information:

 

The first video is for Autodesk Inventor, but it and Solidworks will place a comparable load on the system.

In my experience, the minimum hardware requirements given by software vendors are a bit misleading - they really are "minimums". 

 

 

AutoCAD is a single-threaded program. You can throw as many cores at it as you like, but with the exception of a very few tasks (such as editing hatches) only a single thread will be used. Try for ~3.8GHz or higher.

 

On the GPU side of things, AutoCAD will utilize the graphics card most when orbiting around 3d models, editing hatches, and utilizing XREFs. A 1070ti will satisfy most Linework-type workloads, so the load from Solidworks will likely be the deciding factor here.

 

Solidworks is also single-threaded  in most cases, so same CPU advice as above. While rendering, Solidworks will scale across multiple cores. Ask if the engineers are rendering, if not, don't buy more than 6 cores. 

 

The GPU will be hit hard, however, so 8GB VRAM is a MINIMUM, the more VRAM the better.

 

 

No idea what Iper MILL is, so no comment there.

 

RAM: 16GB is a minimum. Get 32 if at all possible.

 

The loading time for Solidworks assemblies is very heavily affected by drive performance, so I prefer a separate SSD as a sort of "scratch disk" if you will, used only to store the working files.

 

As to i7 vs Xeon: If the company doesn't care, get the Xeon. Cover your backside. If they are more price-conscious, an i7 will do fine.

 

If you want to spend all of the moneys on workstation-grade toys, I would be inclined to buy Quadro cards, they can come with unusually large amounts of VRAM.

 

The Quadro RTX cards seem to be available (finally): https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/design-visualization/quadro/rtx-6000/

 

That's all for now...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Screwdriver specs: Long, pointy. Turns things. Some kind of metal.

 

Main rig: 

i9-7900x | Asus X299-Prime | 4x8GB G-Skill TridentZ @3300MHz | Samsung 970 Evo 500GB | Intel 5400S 1TB | Corsair HX1200

 

unRAID server:

Xeon  E5-1630v4 |  Asus X99-E WS | 4x8GB G-Skill DDR4 @2400MHz | Samsung 960 EVO 250GB cache drive | 12TB spinning rust | Corsair RM750X

 

FreeNAS server:

AMD something-or-other | Asus prebuilt sadness | 8GB DDR3-1600 | 9TB magnetic storage | Potential fire threat

 

HTPC:

i7-4790 | GTX1650 | Dell Sadness | 12GB DDR3-1600 | Samsung 860 250GB | 1TB magnetic storage | James Loudspeaker SPL3 x2 | Corsair SF450

 

 

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4 hours ago, Fucur said:

am thinking... should i go for amd or intel cpu?

AMD and plan on replacing the CPU within 6 Months as its very likely that 16 Cores for AM4 will be released within the year. Compatibility is not known, but even the 12 Cores should offer you a big boost over the 8 Cores you have right now.

 

For Intel its unlikely that there will be anything faster than 9900K on that system - and the prices traditionally don't drop...

 

What we know right now is that this new CPU (Ryzen 3000) will be released this year, have around half the power consumption at slightly higher performance (at the same amount of Cores) and up to 16 Cores.

"Hell is full of good meanings, but Heaven is full of good works"

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4 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

AMD and plan on replacing the CPU within 6 Months as its very likely that 16 Cores for AM4 will be released within the year. Compatibility is not known, but even the 12 Cores should offer you a big boost over the 8 Cores you have right now.

 

For Intel its unlikely that there will be anything faster than 9900K on that system - and the prices traditionally don't drop...

 

What we know right now is that this new CPU (Ryzen 3000) will be released this year, have around half the power consumption at slightly higher performance (at the same amount of Cores) and up to 16 Cores.

For most CAD work, (save rendering, simulations etc.) higher-core CPUs are a waste of money. They won't hurt your performance (given a high enough clockspeed) but the extra cores are just ornamental.

Screwdriver specs: Long, pointy. Turns things. Some kind of metal.

 

Main rig: 

i9-7900x | Asus X299-Prime | 4x8GB G-Skill TridentZ @3300MHz | Samsung 970 Evo 500GB | Intel 5400S 1TB | Corsair HX1200

 

unRAID server:

Xeon  E5-1630v4 |  Asus X99-E WS | 4x8GB G-Skill DDR4 @2400MHz | Samsung 960 EVO 250GB cache drive | 12TB spinning rust | Corsair RM750X

 

FreeNAS server:

AMD something-or-other | Asus prebuilt sadness | 8GB DDR3-1600 | 9TB magnetic storage | Potential fire threat

 

HTPC:

i7-4790 | GTX1650 | Dell Sadness | 12GB DDR3-1600 | Samsung 860 250GB | 1TB magnetic storage | James Loudspeaker SPL3 x2 | Corsair SF450

 

 

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