What processor for CAD work?

[tweakboy]

You guys are rightingi a novel or what lol ?


Im guessing they use AutoCAD ? If soo the latest vesrion is 64 bit HT ... You dont need those 1k 2k video cards... mostly their for Studio Max and Maya and what not.. and not Autocad... but autocad new version should show 8 cores in taskman. This is a 30 percent boost in performance from a 2500k and a 2600k . t gl

 

[Smoblikat]

You guys are rightingi a novel or what lol ?


Im guessing they use AutoCAD ? If soo the latest vesrion is 64 bit HT ... You dont need those 1k 2k video cards... mostly their for Studio Max and Maya and what not.. and not Autocad... but autocad new version should show 8 cores in taskman. This is a 30 percent boost in performance from a 2500k and a 2600k . t gl

AutoCAD 2012? I beleive thats what my customer said he uses, so if thats 64-bit and HT ill stick with the 2600K. What graphics card would you recommend.

EDIT - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130749

I was thinking that this card would be great for cad, its got a fair amount of CUDA cores and a good amount of memory, thoughts?

 

[kevinsbane]

AutoCAD 2012? I beleive thats what my customer said he uses, so if thats 64-bit and HT ill stick with the 2600K. What graphics card would you recommend.

EDIT - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130749

I was thinking that this card would be great for cad, its got a fair amount of CUDA cores and a good amount of memory, thoughts?

tweakboy is mistaken about AutoCAD 2012; it does NOT make use of hyperthreading. It is a primarily single thread program. The 2600k is better, but because it's got a 100 mhz faster clock than the 2500k, not because of hyperthreading.

There is NO SUCH THING as AutoCAD 2012 64-bit HT.

As for the graphics card, you really don't need pro cards for AutoCAD 2012; it doesn't really make use of CUDA either. The 460 is fine for basic AutoCAD.

 

[Denithor]

I'm going to throw in my $0.02 as well, having built several AutoCAD systems over the years.

2500K/3570K - no need for additional threads, just provide good cooling and OC to >4GHz.
SSD - minimum 120/128GB, 180-256GB preferred if possible in budget, use for OS/apps/swap file. Put My Documents/My Music/etc onto a different drive for storage.
Raid - don't, just don't. SSD provides exactly the kind of I/O needed for swap file, raided HDD don't speed this up significantly.
GPU - Radeon gaming card adequate if AutoCAD only. 7850 perhaps? As mentioned above, Radeons are better than geForce gaming cards for 'pro' duties if you're not going to spring for a true 'pro' level card.

 

[bononos]

....
EDIT - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130749

I was thinking that this card would be great for cad, its got a fair amount of CUDA cores and a good amount of memory, thoughts?

As others have said, having lots of cuda cores don't mean a card is suitable for Autocad since it will perform very badly compared to pro cards with less cores making the purchase wasteful. For 2d work on Autocad, its much better to get a cheap gaming card (integrated probably still too slow) and spend money on the cpu/ram.

Non-pro Radeon's might be faster than their Nvidia counterparts in Autocad. I don't know about now but that was the general trend some time back.

 

[Smoblikat]

So the general consensus is that a 2500K with an ATI GPU will be better than one with an Nvidia GPU, and the 2600K will be useless due to the HT not helping. So now the question is V4900 or HD 6870, hes doing only 2D now, BUT might do minimal 3D in the future. Which is better?

 

[exar333]

Im not too concerened with what anything does under LN2, but if you can show me the 3D mark chart, with temperatures, you might just have changed my mind. But temps are the main reason i wont switch over.



Yes, hes in college so hes not working for any huge company, but he does get a good amount of work. Thats interesting that autoCAD is D3D, so a gaming card would perform just as well as a pro card, ill look into a 450/460. Im getting a mushkin SSD, its got great speeds and its 120gb for like 115$ or somthing like that. Is there any place i can go and look up how cards actually perform in autoCAD or is it just guesswork + other peoples experiences?

Your argument is silly. You run a 2500K at stock. You would rather have a slower CPU vs. one that runs (at stock) a few degrees warmer while using less power? Huh?

I have a sale on tin-foil hats if you are interested.

 

[Smoblikat]

Your argument is silly. You run a 2500K at stock. You would rather have a slower CPU vs. one that runs (at stock) a few degrees warmer while using less power? Huh?

I have a sale on tin-foil hats if you are interested.

Im not sure i understand what youre trying to say, this is about my customer not me. I run my 2500K at 3.7ghz and temps and power are both in check. I wouldnt want to give my customer a 3570K because of the temps it produces, plus its my choice and not yours. As i said, proove to me that a 4.5 IVB beats a 5.0 SB and you might change my mind, assuming temps are in order.

 

[tweakboy]

AutoCAD 2012? I beleive thats what my customer said he uses, so if thats 64-bit and HT ill stick with the 2600K. What graphics card would you recommend.

EDIT - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130749

I was thinking that this card would be great for cad, its got a fair amount of CUDA cores and a good amount of memory, thoughts?

Nice!
Give him a 460 1GB if money is the issue. If not. grab a 5xx , prices have come down a little due to the new 6xx cards; gl

 

[Cerb]

Yes, hes in college so hes not working for any huge company, but he does get a good amount of work. Thats interesting that autoCAD is D3D, so a gaming card would perform just as well as a pro card

NV and AMD artificially make a point to optimize their pro drivers, and not their regular consumer drivers. But, if the work starts getting complicated enough that the display is choppy without a pegged CPU core, then you should think about a pro card with some performance. A gaming card, due to the drivers, will get less performance for what it is, but the raw GPU power tends to make up for it well enough.

IMO, a new $50-100 HTPC/gaming card would be plenty (there's nothing wrong with a GTX 460, if the budget fits it fine, though). IME, at least through SB, Intel's IGP is slow and glitch-prone, so a card is worth getting.

Also, nothing against Mushkin, but I wouldn't go with a Sandforce in anything I would have to support, unless it said Intel on it. With any SSD from this generation or the previous, performance will be enough. As a drawing becomes a project, in more than just the program's sense of things, AutoCAD can get limited by HDDs, and backups can take quite some time, with all the seeking. But, it's that move from a sustained <100 IOPS to >2k IOPS that matters. Even more thousands of IOPS aren't going to help much.

 

[Smoblikat]

NV and AMD artificially make a point to optimize their pro drivers, and not their regular consumer drivers. But, if the work starts getting complicated enough that the display is choppy without a pegged CPU core, then you should think about a pro card with some performance. A gaming card, due to the drivers, will get less performance for what it is, but the raw GPU power tends to make up for it well enough.

IMO, a new $50-100 HTPC/gaming card would be plenty (there's nothing wrong with a GTX 460, if the budget fits it fine, though). IME, at least through SB, Intel's IGP is slow and glitch-prone, so a card is worth getting.

Also, nothing against Mushkin, but I wouldn't go with a Sandforce in anything I would have to support, unless it said Intel on it. With any SSD from this generation or the previous, performance will be enough. As a drawing becomes a project, in more than just the program's sense of things, AutoCAD can get limited by HDDs, and backups can take quite some time, with all the seeking. But, it's that move from a sustained <100 IOPS to >2k IOPS that matters. Even more thousands of IOPS aren't going to help much.

I have never had any problems with sandforce so the mushkin is fine. Is there any way to download a modded driver that optimizes gaming cards for professional use? Or flash a gaming card to a non gaming cards BIOS? So he is mainly doing 2D now but i want him to be prepared for 3D later, so would you recommend a GTX 460/GTX480/ or Firepro V4900 for him?

 

[Cerb]

Is there any way to download a modded driver that optimizes gaming cards for professional use?

Technically, yes, but I haven't had any luck, the last few times I tried.

So he is mainly doing 2D now but i want him to be prepared for 3D later, so would you recommend a GTX 460/GTX480/ or Firepro V4900 for him?

If you want the, "yes, I have a certified card driver," a V4800 would be hard to beat. Why not V4900? Sure, it'll likely be 'recommended' within the year, but...

 

[Smoblikat]

Technically, yes, but I haven't had any luck, the last few times I tried.

Could you point me in the right direction so I can try out for myself.

 

[Cerb]

Could you point me in the right direction so I can try out for myself.

Google "softquadro".

Really, though, with AutoCAD, the gaming card is going to be as good 95% of the time. The main reasons to get a pro card would be for finicky applications (Maya, FI, is well known for liking Quadros), GPU heavy applications, or the off chance that you need support, and that they'd push you off for not having a certified card and driver.

It's hard to find a definite on the video card, because even integrated can be good enough, depending (Intel's drivers are still just not quite there). 99% of the time, you're dealing with wireframes and solids, and it's just not all that killer on the GPU, until it gets sufficiently complicated. But, as it gets more complicated, the CPU time used for any manipulation also increases.

IMO, just choose either pro or gaming (if it's a full version of the program, and the plan is to make money with this computer, just get a cheap recommended pro card, like a FirePro V4800 or Quadro 600, and be done with it)[/quote], choose a card that's not too slow, but not too expensive, and move on. It's just not worth worrying too much over it for AutoCAD.

 

[sgrinavi]

Another long-time AutoDesk user here -

For straight-up 2D CAD work

-Fastest dual core processor you can get
-As long as he is on a 64bit system 8GB RAM
-Spend the money on SSD for the program
-good solid 7200 RPM drive for the data, 750 GB - 1 TB is plenty.
-Cheapest video card you can find that's on the Autodesk certified hardware list

 

[Smoblikat]

Google "softquadro".

Really, though, with AutoCAD, the gaming card is going to be as good 95% of the time. The main reasons to get a pro card would be for finicky applications (Maya, FI, is well known for liking Quadros), GPU heavy applications, or the off chance that you need support, and that they'd push you off for not having a certified card and driver.

It's hard to find a definite on the video card, because even integrated can be good enough, depending (Intel's drivers are still just not quite there). 99% of the time, you're dealing with wireframes and solids, and it's just not all that killer on the GPU, until it gets sufficiently complicated. But, as it gets more complicated, the CPU time used for any manipulation also increases.

IMO, just choose either pro or gaming (if it's a full version of the program, and the plan is to make money with this computer, just get a cheap recommended pro card, like a FirePro V4800 or Quadro 600, and be done with it)

, choose a card that's not too slow, but not too expensive, and move on. It's just not worth worrying too much over it for AutoCAD.[/QUOTE]

Excellent information. I beleive youve just told me everything i need to know, thanks.

Another long-time AutoDesk user here -

For straight-up 2D CAD work

-Fastest dual core processor you can get
-As long as he is on a 64bit system 8GB RAM
-Spend the money on SSD for the program
-good solid 7200 RPM drive for the data, 750 GB - 1 TB is plenty.
-Cheapest video card you can find that's on the Autodesk certified hardware list

Perfect, im going to be getting a 2500K with 16gb RAM and most likely the V4900. THanks for all the info everyone.