Performance Questions!

[Roda2017]

I am a sophmore taking basic autocad and revit courses. I am in the need of a laptop that will be able to run autocad and revit at considerable rates (not too much lag or crashing) I am wondering if there are any specific brands that I should look into or not look into. And if so, any suggestions on SPECIFIC laptops would be greatly appreciated! By the way, I will only be viewing laptops in a reasonable price range of $1000 or maybe up to $1100. This is soley to get more work done at home but also to practice and gain more experience through the program. I appreciate any responses!!!

[pendean]

That's not enough money to get you what you want in a laptop: what are you using now for a laptop?

[Roda2017]

I'm not using anything. I am using a desktop at the moment. It is a good
computer but outdated. What's the minimum requirement ($) for a work
station laptop?

[murray-clack]

i7 Processor and 24GB of RAM at the very least and a top notch video card (and most likely the laptop will have a solid state harddrive)

[dgorsman]

That's a little overboard for a student laptop, IMHO.  With some bargain hunting such as Dell's refurbished models $1100 should net something usable.  You want a reasonably modern processor in the 2-3 GHz range along with at least 12 GB (16 is preferred) RAM and a dedicated video card.  I won't list specific models - that kind of legwork should be left to the OP.

[nrz13]

What are the specifications of the computers you are using Revit and AutoCAD on at school?  Do those computers perform well for what you are trying to do?

I don't use Revit, but for beginner AutoCAD, even 3D, 8GB of memory would probably be alright, although 16GB would give you more room to grow.  There are not any laptops remotely near your price range that I know of that support more than 16GB of memory anyway.  Additionally, you'll want the fastest clocked Intel i5 or i7 you can afford, as AutoCAD is a very processor-heavy program and this will make a big impact on performance (note that for most tasks, AutoCAD can only utilize 1 core).  A solid state drive is highly recommended, but not required, especially if you have more memory.  And of course you'll want a decent dedicated graphics card.

[gguevarra]

I agree for that budget you should be able to get something fairly decent to get what you need. I think it's good that you are asking daily users their opinions on this. But if you trust it, the Autodesk website lists minimum / typical computer requirements to run AutoCAD and Revit. If anything, Black Friday and After Holiday sales are coming up, so you might be able to find a pretty good deal on something. One thing to remember is to think long and hard about what you want your laptop to be capable of handling short term and long term (long term being a handful of years which is basically how long laptops last nowadays).

[Roda2017]

Okay. Thank you all for your imput. I will be sure to tweak my bugdet a few
hundred dollars more. I appreciate all the help!

[itbemedg]

Also, one way to save some money is to make sure the computer you buy is upgradable to 32GB Ram - you can buy it with say 8 GB installed and buy the RAM elsewhere online and install it yourself.

[dgorsman]

Desktop, yes; however the OP specified a laptop which are notoriously difficult for user upgrades.

[steve216586]

I found this on the AutoDesk site as System Requirements. No minimum or premium, just system:

Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology, AMD Opteron™ processor with SSE2 technology, Intel® Xeon® processor with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology, or Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology

• 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended)
• 6 GB free space for installation
• 1,024 x 768 display resolution with true color (1,600 x 1,050 recommended)
• Internet Explorer 7 or later
• Install from download or DVD

Additional requirements for large datasets, point clouds, and 3D modeling (all configurations)

• Pentium 4 or Athlon processor, 3 GHz or greater, or Intel or AMD dual-core processor, 2 GHz or greater
• 4 GB RAM or more
• 6 GB hard disk space available in addition to free space required for installation
• 1,280 x 1,024 true color video display adapter 128 MB or greater, Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, Microsoft® Direct3D®-capable workstation-class graphics card

RAM

I'm not sure why everyone is so emphatic that you need 8+ GB RAM with potential to go all the way to 32GB RAM? I'm sure 4GB RAM will handle all your drafting needs.

PROCESSOR

Again, not sure why other users are keyed in on i7. an i5 is fine.

GRAPHIC CARD

Laptops are notorius for lacking in this department. There just isn't enough space for a good one let alone the cooling capacity for anything with high end performance. My suggestion is to take what you can get, as long as it is compatible with AutoDesk products.

I did a quick search:

$600 Sony Vaio - Intel Core i5-4200M 2.5GHz Haswell dual-core processor, 14" 1920x1080 (1080p) touchscreen LCD, 6GB RAM, 750GB hard drive, 802.11n wireless, DVD burner, Bluetooth, 4-cell battery, and Windows 8.1 64-bit.

or if you want "brand" name:

$920 DELL - Intel Core Haswell i5-4310U 2GHz dual-core processor, 14" 1366x768 LCD, 8GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, DVD burner, 802.11ac dual-band wireless, Bluetooth 4.0, fingerprint reader, 6-cell battery, and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (with a free, optional upgrade to Windows 8.1)

Either one of these, or similar, will fulfill the system requirements for even large datasets, point clouds, and 3D modeling (all configurations).

Don't worry, as you grow in your career, you will undoubtedly gain salary, where you can upgrade to a premium device with 128 GB RAM by then. 🙂

[Roda2017]

How does this laptop sound? It is a Lenovo Y40 model.

4th Generation Intel Core i7-4510U Processor (2.00GHz 1600 MHz 4MB)Operating systemWindows 8.1 64Display14.0" FHD LED AntiGlare Backlight (1920x1080)GraphicsAMD Radeon R9 M275 4GBMemory16.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600 MHzHard Drive512GB SSDOptical DriveNoneNetwork CardIntel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160BluetoothBluetooth Version 4.0WarrantyOne yearBattery4 Cell 48 Watt Hour Lithium-IonSupported FeaturesMotion Control

[dgorsman · Accepted solution]

Should be functional.  You should check the version of AutoCAD and Revit you intend to use for compatibility with Win 8.1.  Some older versions don't play well, so you might need to get a downgrade to Win 7.  Otherwise, happy trails.  🙂