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    Autodesk Revit Architecture

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    Member
    Posts: 3
    Registered: ‎11-27-2012

    Suggested hardware for Revit?

    288 Views, 3 Replies
    03-01-2013 10:01 AM
    I am wondering if my machine is not in my best interest to keep. I would like a computer that can do the real-time ray-trace renderings in 2013 Revit, and also in 3DS Max Design. I currently have an all-in-one computer, which I realize does not allow me to upgrade graphics cards & CPU's like a tower would. I'm not much of a computer person. So, I don't know a lot of the technical specs. What are your recommendations for the best type of computer regarding this?

    Anyways, this is what I have, as far as I know:
    Gateway All-in-one
    21.5" monitor
    i3-2120 Dual Core processor
    6GB memory
    1TB hard drive
    Windows 7
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    Valued Mentor
    AJA14
    Posts: 333
    Registered: ‎11-01-2011

    Re: Suggested hardware for Revit?

    03-02-2013 12:31 AM in reply to: brandino

    Hi. I can't really say that your machine will not work, but I can tell you this. The best outcome we got from Revit or 3DMAX was when reverting to i7 around 3.0 GHz, 16 GB RAM, and 2GB dedicated VGA (Nvidia, ATI, and a third one I don't remember).

    Regards.

    Ali Al-Hammoud
    Structural Design Engineer
    MZ & Partners Engineering Consultancy
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    Active Contributor
    Posts: 49
    Registered: ‎12-22-2008

    Re: Suggested hardware for Revit?

    03-02-2013 09:36 AM in reply to: brandino

    for the CPU 
    I would suggest get one with high GHz number. a quadcore is good. But I personally don't think you need hyperthreading (basically treating 4 cores as if they were 8) since Revit isn't good in parallel-computing. 

    every time i update a family etc. the CPU only uses 25% (1 core). So rahter spend your money on GHz instead of multithreading. Unless money is no object, then do both. This single thread behavior is one of the things I hope to be better in 2014, But I wouldn't hold my breath. It seems many IT fols spend a lot of money on server hardware workstations with even multiple CPUs, while most of Revit still works on one core only. 

     

    i have a 3.5GHz quadcaore at work and I'd rather have a 4GHz dualcore for Revit for this exact reason.

     

    16GB cost around $70, so this is a no brainer. If you had 6GB so far I doubt you need 24 or 32 GB. It really depends on the plattform, if you use a more expensive tripl-channel platform, then you go in 12GB, 24 GB etc. If you use a cheaper dual channel platform, you go in 16GB, 32 GB etc. 

    Autodesk says 8GB is MINIMUM, the same way Mocrosoft says 512MB is MINIMUM for windows 7. At minimum double the minimum recommendation. 

    If you keep computers a long time, buy a board with 4 expansion slots so you can upgrade to 32GB if you ever need to. But at that time you likley want to repalce everything else anyway. 

     

    On graphics card I can't say much, but use one of the approved ones and if rendering is your main goal, the 2GB recommendation from above sounds good. Maybe someone more a graphics expert can tell. I'm not sure what rendering you do, but much can be done in the cloud by autodesk server if you have many renderings. 

     

    For harddrive an SSD (Samsung is most reliable, Intel too) is a must imho. 

     

    Except for the graphics card you can build a $800 Revit machine that will run circles around any of those Dell workstations for $3000. 

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    Contributor
    Posts: 14
    Registered: ‎03-06-2013

    Re: Suggested hardware for Revit?

    03-06-2013 07:17 AM in reply to: kschindel

     

    I agree with kschindel Get the best CPU you can, higher GHz and a lot of RAM, I have 16 GB's and I will use 99% of it just rotating some of my models, Revit is a RAM HOG so get as much as your Motherboard will hold. I would suggest a Quattro FX Video card if you can afford it or you can get these new gaming cards with 4GB's of RAM on them but you may get some fractal distortion when viewing in 3D view. I used an Nvidea GTX 470 with 1.5 GB RAM and it worked just fine. I had a 180 MB file and it was a little slow but worked.

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