Best CPU for Cad Design and Coding

[hobbit199717]

I'm currently a Mechanical Engineering student that wants to build his own desktop. What I want to know and I may be asking the wrong question but with all the new CPUs out there how do make sure I choose the right one for the work that I'm gonna be doing in the future. This includes any Soildworks, Inventor, Auto-desk work, along with coding in python, MatLab and other languages. Any help is appreciated. 

[randomhkkid]

I'd recommend prioritizing a GPU if you want to do any serious stuff in Auto-desk or Solidworks. It will help much more with a smooth view port and rendering models than the CPU. I'd go with a Ryzen 5 based system, it gives more general performance than a similarly prices Intel i5. 

[hobbit199717]

So I'm looking more for GPU performance than CPU or kind of a combination of both?

 

[Natsoup]

4 minutes ago, hobbit199717 said:

So I'm looking more for GPU performance than CPU or kind of a combination of both?

 

Always a combination of both.

[randomhkkid]

4 minutes ago, hobbit199717 said:

So I'm looking more for GPU performance than CPU or kind of a combination of both?

 

 

Just now, Natsoup said:

Always a combination of both.

It's about balance. What budget are you working with?

[scottyseng]

4 minutes ago, hobbit199717 said:

So I'm looking more for GPU performance than CPU or kind of a combination of both?

 

A combination of both. I think I would try to balance it in your case.

 

Also what other programs from Autodesk aside from Inventor? Some Autodesk stuff relies on CPU to draw the view (Revit).

 

Oh, what's the budget?

[hobbit199717]

1 minute ago, randomhkkid said:

 

It's about balance. What budget are you working with?

I'm not sure what the budget is. I'm trying to get more information about what kind of parts I'm looking for. This is all future planning.  

[hobbit199717]

It would be best not to go over $2,000.

[RadiatingLight]

12 minutes ago, hobbit199717 said:

I'm not sure what the budget is. I'm trying to get more information about what kind of parts I'm looking for. This is all future planning.  

 

11 minutes ago, hobbit199717 said:

It would be best not to go over $2,000.

 

 

I'd suggest Ryzen 7 1700 + GTX 1080 / Vega

[The Benjamins]

32 minutes ago, hobbit199717 said:

I'm not sure what the budget is. I'm trying to get more information about what kind of parts I'm looking for. This is all future planning.  

how complex are the models and do you run simulations or renders of them?

to be honest a r5 and a rx 560-580 is enough for most average tasks in those cad programs.

 

for solidworks/inventor how many parts do you have in the assemblies?

 

you want CPU cores for simulation and rendering. GPU power is for smoothness of model rendering while modeling. the computers I used at work for these task usually are 4th gen i5 with 8GB ram and a old entry level GPU and 9 times out of 10 they run fine. GPU wise anything over a RX580 or 1060 is overkill unless you know you are doing a task that needs a lot of GPU power.

 

IF i was building a CAD only station I would go with a R7 CPU 16-32GB of ram and a RX 580.

 

I used AutoCAD, Solidworks, Inventor, Microstation at my current/past jobs.

[randomhkkid]

I've had better experience with Nvidia than AMD for modelling in the past but I don't have any recent experience. I do know that if you do any work in Maya with particles Nvidia is the way to go so GTX1060 should be fine. Then again if you have $2k you could fit a 1080

[bimmerman]

token mech e here.

 

For Solidworks:

Quadro or Firepro + single threaded performance oriented CPU. You don't need a crazy powerful Q/F card, but gaming cards are underwhelming and are specifically disallowed from some of the graphical rendering and performance features from Solidworks. I've also had graphical glitches on gaming/integrated GPUs that have not cropped up on proper workstation cards. There is a great benchmark I saw recently comparing Ryzen to an i7 7700k on Solidworks and the takeaway is that multi-core is not taken advantage of nearly as well, so faster throughput on the cores is more important, with the i7 being the better performer. Would you notice in the real world? Probably not, especially if you're coming from anything older. I have gotten by just fine on a Centrino M back in college, though that laptop had a mobile Quadro.

 

For Matlab:

Answer is a bit more murky. The jury is still out on whether Ryzen's implementation of AVX is a hindrance or a non-issue. The real question is what kind of code you will be using it for, and whether you can take advantage of the parallel computing toolbox (or, if you don't have it, you won't). Same goes for GPU, although that answer is clear: anything with a bunch of CUDA cores is better, as OpenCL is not supported without user-written low level routines. Matlab natively stores numbers as doubles, so double precision GPU compute is key--figure an older Kepler based Titan would perform better than nearly anything newer, without a lot of attention paid to data types. I would not worry about Matlab performance for a CPU purchase. I've been researching whether the 8c/16t Ryzen is a benefit and have found next to no empirical answers. I also wouldn't focus on GPU compute unless you're familiar with it and use it frequently (image processing being one use case).

 

For FEA-- highly dependent on your program, and whether it'll be cluster run or local. Implementations vary wildly.

 

My honest advice though would be to buy a refurbished mobile workstation off of ebay for CAD stuff, as you can find them for sub $1k with warranty support. A desktop in college kinda sucks since you can't easily collaborate with your peers.

 

However if your budget can stretch it, I'm in love with my Dell Precision 5520 I just upgraded to at work. Xeon, Mobile Quadro, and amazing battery life with the 1080p screen and ssd. I wish I would've had this thing in undergrad or grad school, it outperforms my desktop by a huge margin.

[ChristmasCat]

Hey guys, I have a similar question. I already have a system that I built myself about a year ago, but was wondering if it will be able to stand up to the next 4 years of the same types of programs. I currently have an intel i5-6600k at 4.6ghz, 8gb of 2400 RAM, and a GTX 950. (Underpowered, I know, but I don't do really any gaming, so it has worked thus far.) I would be looking to upgrade, as well as if it is in budget shrink to a mini ITX system, since size will be at a premium in my dorm. Any suggestions to upgrades I should do? I have about $300 to do everything I need.

[bimmerman]

16 minutes ago, ChristmasCat said:

Hey guys, I have a similar question. I already have a system that I built myself about a year ago, but was wondering if it will be able to stand up to the next 4 years of the same types of programs. I currently have an intel i5-6600k at 4.6ghz, 8gb of 2400 RAM, and a GTX 950. (Underpowered, I know, but I don't do really any gaming, so it has worked thus far.) I would be looking to upgrade, as well as if it is in budget shrink to a mini ITX system, since size will be at a premium in my dorm. Any suggestions to upgrades I should do? I have about $300 to do everything I need.

If it makes you feel better---

 

Freshman through Junior year of college:

Laptop: Pentium D, Nvidia 9700GS (on AGP socket!), matlab and solidworks was OK

 

Junior year through first year of grad school (3 years)

Desktop: i7-950, 2x ATI 5870, no SSD -- matlab and solidworks like a champ

Laptop: Centrino M, mobile quadro, hand-me-down from 2006, solidworks and CAM beast

 

1st year grad school through 2nd year working

spilled water in my case, killed one of the 5870s, no other difference

 

2nd year working until two weeks ago

replace HD5870 with R9 290, upgrade RAM from 6GB to 24GB, and add in an SSD

new laptop: refurbished Dell Precision M4800 from ebay, i7 + mobile Firepro. Fantastic CAD and matlab machine

 

two weeks ago until now

replaced stock clocked i7-950 with Xeon X5675, and overclock to 4.4GHz. No other changes.

 

The point to all this-- you don't need to change anything. Your computer is beyond powerful enough to handle engineering stuff for now, and if you feel the need to upgrade, add more RAM first, then upgrade GPU to a mid/lower tier Quadro/Firepro....IF you feel GPU issues are hurting you. I didn't with a much worse card. I honestly feel my i7-950/Xeon machine could still hack it at solidworks/matlab if I didn't have a machine at work specifically oriented for this.

 

Hell, the first 3 years at work I was using a Lenovo T440S for matlab, solidworks, and labview. It wasn't optimal, hence the upgrade to the Precision 5520, but if the Lenovo could do it your i5+GTX 950 sure can.