Need advice on a new computer build for Inventor.

[zma1013]

So the company I work for is buying me a new computer for the Inventor program I use and they've given me this list showing me the specs.  It's Windows 7, 16GB ram, Intel Core i5-4570 3.2 GHz processor, and Dual AMD Radeon HD 8490 1GB graphics cards.  It all looks good but I'm not sure about the graphics cards.  Are these the correct type for Inventor processes?  Will this work with 2013 and/or 2014 version of Inventor?

[mdavis22569]

I have an I7 and I'm good with my 16 gig's of ram Everything looks good ..except the card. I'm not familiar with it enough to say it will or won't work. At best try it out... If you get issues, adjust the settings. If you still get issues, then suggest a new card..

[mdavis22569]

Will it be a 7200 rpm HD or SSD? if you can get the SSD then do so

[LT.Rusty]

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@zma1013 wrote:

So the company I work for is buying me a new computer for the Inventor program I use and they've given me this list showing me the specs.  It's Windows 7, 16GB ram, Intel Core i5-4570 3.2 GHz processor, and Dual AMD Radeon HD 8490 1GB graphics cards.  It all looks good but I'm not sure about the graphics cards.  Are these the correct type for Inventor processes?  Will this work with 2013 and/or 2014 version of Inventor?

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i5-4570 will be okay if you're not doing a lot of simulation / rendering / or [redacted] that will actually be multithreaded.  If you're doing any of those things with frequency, you might look at the i7 instead of the i5.  If you're just doing modelling and drawings, the i5 will be just fine.

Get a better graphics card, though, and get a single one not a dual setup.  For AMD cards, the second digit indicates overall market segment, and having a 4 there means it's a low end card.  The 9 in the third digit means that it's not quite scraping the bottom of the barrel.  It's ... the top of the barrel scrapings, if you will.  The first digit is the generation of the card.  The fourth just takes up space.  Get something that's got a number XYZ0, where X is greater than 4 (preferably 7+), Y is 7 or higher, and Z is also 7 or higher.  The first digit - the X from above - is probably the least important one in this case.  It'd rather have a 4870 or a 4890 than an 8490.  (In fact I do - I still use my 4870's, which were the absolute tip-top pointy end of the spear back in August, 2008, rather than get a low end card that will have worse performance.

Also, like I mentioned above, get a single card solution.  Multi-card setups like SLI or CrossfireX are entirely at the mercy of the software programmers, and I've never seen any benefits in Inventor from using Crossfire on my machine at home.  (Of course, ever since ... 2009?  2010? I also haven't seen any ill effects.  It used to be that Inventor wouldn't even run unless I disabled Crossfire.) 

Multi-card setups can be great in certain games, but the thing that a lot of people don't realize is that it doesn't actually give you the capability to do more ... it just gives you the capability to do the same thing twice as fast, and even then only if supported by the software.  You won't be able to run at any higher resolution than you could with a single card, but you MIGHT be able to calculate the frames quicker.  Maybe.