HELP! Workstation GPU for SOLIDWORKS

[gal-m]

Hey guys, I'll try to keep this short..

 

Because I am not completely familiar with this specific area of purpose built workstations I'm looking for some recommendations for a workstations PC build for a friend, that's going to be working mainly in programs such as SolidWorks & MATLAB.

 

I am currently in search of a GPU. I was thinking about something like a NVIDIA Quadro P2200, or maybe even an RTX 2060/2070 (if I can get it for a nice price), however I am not completely sure about how they would compare to the P2200 for SolidWorks EXCLUSIVELY.

Please note that buying used is NOT an option for him at the moment - so that's out of the question. Also keep in mind I know that the P2200 is outdated and that RTX 4000 would be absolutely perfect, but it does not fit into our budget bracket.

 

Budget (including currency): $400 +/- $50 

Country: Slovenia, EUROPE (I don't mind you guys using USD, since US Dollars are kind of roughly equal to Euros)

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: SolidWorks, MATLAB

Other details: So, he's going to be working with projects such as this one in this YT video (video should start at around 24 minutes, if not, skip): 

 

General idea:

 

CPU: Something like the Intel Core i7-10700K OR AMD Ryzen 7 3700X - AMD is cheaper, but Intel prob has better single core performance, which is what you want specifically for SolidWorks.. AMD might be best for overall PC performance (plus the boards are cheaper), so for budget reasons I'm leaning over to AMD

CPU Cooler: stock (if going with AMD) OR a nice Noctua air cooler. Or maybe even something else, there's tonnes of options anyways..

RAM: Probably going to go for 2 x 8GB (= 16GB, for now) DDR4-3200MHz+, can upgrade later to 32GB if needed. Might just go for 32GB anyways..

Motherboard: A nice B450/B550 board OR similar Intel supported board. Intel boards are usually more expensive, which is why I'm probably going for AMD (the money we save is going to be spent on GPU)

Video Card: NVIDIA Quadro P2200 OR RTX 2060/2070

Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2 NVME Solid State Drive - can't go wrong with that

Case: something like the NZXT H510, or similar - basically nice and cheap

Power Supply: need a little help with choosing decent low wattage PSU's

 

 

Please note:

 

I know that the NVIDIA RTX 3000 Series cards have just been released, but they are not available for purchase at this moment. Furthermore even the RTX 3070 would be quite a bit out of our budget, since, even though GPU's might be priced somewhere around MSRP in the US, they certainly are not priced like that here in my country.. e.g. GPU's here usually cost around $200 more than in the US. I also realise that new AMD CPU's are going to be released quite soon (along with Intel's response), but the issue relating to pricing explained above also applies to new CPU's as well. Let me also point out that we'd like to start building this system by the end of September. So waiting for an excessive amount of time unfortunately really isn't an option at this moment.

One more thing to note: He IS NOT a gamer. He told me himself, he isn't really planning to be gaming with this PC. It's going to be used exclusively for work and university/studying. So great overall/relating to the above mentioned workloads performance is an absolute priority. But I will agree that in the case of consumer GPU's being better anyways, that's a win-win situation, so might as well try some games on the thing as well.

 

 

I am kindly asking for some advice! Thank you all in advance.

[FloRolf]

I don't have experience with Solidworks, only Catia and Inventor and both run absolutely fine on a GTX or RTX card. If you don't need the Quadro features, you don't need a Quadro. 

So my vote goes for a 2060 S. You could also get a cheap GTX750Ti for the time and get an RTX3060 when it comes out but I honestly don't expect an benefit for Solidworks. He's probably even fine with a 750Ti lol. 

 

Then I say go with AMD for the threads, it's not just nice for Solidworks but also for multitasking in general. 

 

Last recommendations: get 2x16gb from the start. I often sit over 20gb usage at work and running out of ram is just no fun. I don't know what kind of projects he does but I'd hope it's bigger ones that actually justify a beefy PC. 

 

 

Edit: oh yeah, amd stock cooler is good, but not anywhere near a Noctua. Use the extra money you gained from AMD vs Intel to get a good cooler please. Having complete silence is very nice when doing CAD work. 

[gal-m]

2 minutes ago, FloRolf said:

I often sit over 20gb usage at work and running out of ram is just no fun.

Hey @FloRolf thanks for the reply! You're right. We might just go for 32GB, since the price difference between the two options isn't that bad. 

Multiple people have mentioned that maybe 16GB is going to be a little low.

 

Thanks!

[Kilrah]

In terms of CPU I would go for Intel, with the fastest possible single core perf since unless that has changed in the latest versions that's what really matters for SW. 

[gal-m]

Here are a couple of AMD based builds I've quickly thrown together for him:

*There might be some mistakes here and there + the pricing is off for some items, but you get the general idea. All of the components are of high quality, have been proven to do the job extremely well and are nice and reliable. 

 

MOST EXPENSIVE 2070 (with a bit of bling): 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$273.47 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard	$129.99 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	$139.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$167.78 @ Amazon
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card	$499.99 @ Newegg
Case	NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case	$68.83 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$124.99 @ Corsair
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1405.04
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-18 09:28 EDT-0400

MORE RESONABLE 2070:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$273.47 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$124.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	$114.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$167.78 @ Amazon
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card	$499.99 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case	$59.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$119.97 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1361.18
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-18 09:28 EDT-0400

EVEN CHEAPER 2070: 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$273.47 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$124.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	$114.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$129.99 @ Adorama
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card	$499.99 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case	$59.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Thermaltake Toughpower GOLD 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$108.99 @ Adorama
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1312.41
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-18 09:29 EDT-0400

 

CHEAP 2060 BUILD: 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$273.47 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$124.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	$114.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$129.99 @ Adorama
Video Card	MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X Video Card	$429.99 @ Walmart
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case	$59.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Thermaltake Toughpower GOLD 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$108.99 @ Adorama
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1242.41
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-18 09:31 EDT-0400

THE: "MAYBE I'D LIKE A 3600 BUILD..?":

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$209.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$124.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	$114.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$129.99 @ Adorama
Video Card	MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X Video Card	$429.99 @ Walmart
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case	$59.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Thermaltake Toughpower GOLD 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$108.99 @ Adorama
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1178.93
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-18 09:31 EDT-0400

 

[gal-m]

UPDATE:

 

I forgot about the AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT, which is a nice and cheap (about $200) 6-Core CPU.. And I believe (if my memory serves me correctly) that it's single core performance should be somewhere in between the 9700K and 3700X

[gal-m]

I just have to ask this because I am not sure I understood some of the comments on my other post saying I should just get the RTX 2060/70 when these benchmarks are showing the opposite.

 

 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3399-best-workstation-gpus-2018-for-adobe-premiere-autocad-vray-and-more

 

It seems like that the P2000 is better than even an RTX 2080 Ti in SolidWorks...

 

Sorry I just find some of these recommendations a bit confusing. 

 

 

Can someone explain?

[Dr0y]

Isn't navy better performing in solid works than most nvidia gamer card ? ...I watched the bench for the 3080 from linus and there's a slide with solid works that stood out for me and the rx 5700xt was beating them all ...  or I just don't understand the chart ?  Or maybe it's not representative of the real world performance maybe. 

 

 

I was wondering about that cause I'm trying to put up a solid works and master cam pc for a friend and I'm kinda in the same boat as you are.  Considering intel I5 10600k with 32gb ram at 3200 and maybe an rx 580 8gb while waiting for something else to be released.