My Step Dad has asked me to build him a new PC for running AutoCAD 2009 on XP (and eventually Win7). He'll be mostly doing 2D work but he's started to do quite a lot of drawing/rendering in 3D. Quite complex stuff, but certainly nothing as detailed as drawing an entire engine or aircraft. I've decided to go for a package with an ASUS P5Q Pro MoBo, Q9400 Quad Core and 4GB of RAM. I'm just wondering what GPU to go for. I really can't see the need for a top end GTX 295 or even a 9800 GX2 considering what he's doing. I thought maybe a 9500 GT with 1GB RAM would do the job? Considering that card is about £60 I could even SLI a pair for added power if need be later on. Does this sound like a good set-up? Any suggestions?
A 9800GT will be just fine if he is not doing heavy duty rendering. IMO, though, ATI has better dual monitor support if your dad does CAD with dual monitors, which I do at work and it is soo much better than a single monitor. Something equivalent to the 9800GT is an ATI 4850.
Wouldn't you be better off with a Quadro/FireGL card? They're specifically designed for CAD/3D workstation stuff.
I didn't realise Nvidia did a low end Quadro FX; I thought they were all £1000+. The Quadro FX 570 is about £130 but only has 256MB onboard. How is that going to conmpare to a 9500 GT with 1GB (or an SLI'd pair)?
My understanding is that unless he's doing lots of hardcore 3D stuff, it'll mostly be CPU-based calculations anyway. Please don't take this as fact, though, I'm really not an expert.
Some of the GTX yes, but they changed that. Also, quadro isn't worth it unless he is doing hardcore 3D calculations (such as fluid dynamics in a storm drain) on top of rendering. Otherwise a consumer graphics card will work just fine.
Yes, a bog standard graphics card will work for standard drawing (and by bog standard I mean like a 64mb GeForce 4 lol). You don't need a fancy gaming card. I've built machines for architects with old, basic graphics cards that ran fine. That said, a CAD-specific card would be nice. Yup the Quadros are good, and the ATI FireGL. Oh, and don't forget Matrox still do cards that are suitable. http://www.cadpointdirect.co.uk/webstore/customer/home.php?cat=252 If in doubt, talk to Autodesk. They don't make the hardware, so they're not going to be biased.
Thanks for the advice everyone. I think we'll go for a 9500 GT at the moment and see how that goes; I'm sure it'll be totally fine for the moment. If he does start doing very complex stuff and the cash really starts flowing, I'll get him to splash out on a Quadro FX 5600. I just need to let my Mum recover from seeing the price of AutoCAD 2009 first (£3150 ex. VAT). I thought she was going to have a heart attack.
I've sold 8600GT, 9400GT, 9800GTX and some Quadro cards to the Power Station in my city for CAD use, they've reported that the 9400 is more than enough for what they use - I guess that's what it comes down to. I'd probably play it safe and got for something like a 9600GT, they are pretty cheap nowadays.
