topic Re: Buying a new pc purely for Fusion 360? Help please.... in Fusion Support Forum

Buying a new pc purely for Fusion 360? Help please....

salesSS33M — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:00:23 GMT

Hi,

I'm currently working on a Dell Inspiron computer. Its only a year old.. but its far to slow for Fusion 360.

I have been using Fusion 360 for a good 6 months and I love the program... but it freezes a hell of a lot, crashes and I loose a lot of time sat twiddling my fingers... so i'm looking for a new pc..

I do some rather large designs, with many components, so i'm looking to get something that will work and work at the correct speed, without kicking me out and freezing etc..

I don't know much about pcs.. or what everything means.. so i'm hoping you can all help me.

I am looking at the following.. It's a bit of an invesment, but i'd rather do it once and get it right. It will be purely for this program. The rest of my work I will do on Dell...

Please can anyone tell me, if i'm heading down the right route. I'm sure that there are less expensive ones that "may" do the job.. but I would rather spend a bit more and guarantee myself that this will work...

ACER ConceptD CT500-51A Desktop PC - Intel® Core™ i9, 1 TB HDD & 1 TB SSD, White

Unlocked Intel® Core™ i9-9900K Processor
RAM: 64 GB / Storage: 1 TB HDD & 1 TB SSD
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 8 GB

Technical specifications for ACER ConceptD CT500-51A Desktop PC - Intel® Core™ i9, 1 TB HDD & 1 TB SSD, WhiteOVERVIEWTypeOperating system

Desktop PC

Windows 10 Pro

PERFORMANCEProcessorRAMGraphics cardStorage

- Intel® Core™ i9-9900K Processor
- Octa-core
- 3.6 GHz / 5.0 GHz
- 16 MB cache

64 GB DDR4

- NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000
- 8 GB GDDR6

- 1 TB HDD (7200 rpm)
- 1 TB SSD

CONNECTIVITYWiFiEthernetBluetoothUSBVideo connectionsAudio connections

- Intel® dual-band AC WiFi
- 2x2
- Up to 1730 Mbps

Gigabit Ethernet port

Bluetooth 5.0

- USB Type-C x 1
- USB 3.1 x 5
- USB 2.0 x 4

DisplayPort x 3

3.5 mm jack x 3

SOUNDSpeakers

MEDIADisc driveMemory card reader

FEATURESMouse / trackpadKeyboard

GENERALColourBox contentsDimensionsWeightManufacturer’s guaranteeSoftware

White

- Acer ConceptD CT500-51A Desktop PC (DT.C03EK.00D)
- Power cable
- User guide

439 x 204 x 476 mm (H x W x D)

13.6 kg

3 years

* Full version of Microsoft Office not included
* Full version of anti-virus / internet security not included

Office 365 (30 day trial)

Re: Buying a new pc purely for Fusion 360? Help please....

ryan.bales — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:18:28 GMT

That computer would be fine. However i do want to stress that we do not know the specs of your current computer and comparing them would be the best. Also what are you using it for (large assemblies isn't specific enough as its more the detail than the size or how they are constructed.

Much of what appears to be performance problems in Fusion 360 can be traced to workflows or intent. I would hate for your expectations to be set that this computer is going to be flawless or near too that if you've got a problematic design or workflow.

Re: Buying a new pc purely for Fusion 360? Help please....

g-andresen — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 16:00:17 GMT

Hi,

1. I can only support the statement by @ryan.bales and before deciding on a new PC, one should find out the causes for low speed and crashes.
My experience is that often too complex (and imported) and not fully defined sketches cause problems.
2. First and foremost is the CPU speed.
The number of cores is almost irrelevant.
3. the graphics card is completely oversized in my opinion.

Fusion is geared towards Direct X, while the Quadro cards are optimised for Open GL

günther

Re: Buying a new pc purely for Fusion 360? Help please....

salesSS33M — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 17:06:56 GMT

Hello,

Thank you for your reply. I currently have a Dell Inspiron 3470 Intel Core i5-9400 processor with 8gb of RAM and 1TBB HDD. It wont let me post much more info on it as copy and paste as it says im flooding the post with same type of post..

As for the design, I have attached a couple of pictures of the latest one I have been working on where I have had the most issues.

Also, even when doing small parts. If I am running Fusion and I then swap to my emails to do some other stuff, my pc in general just is so slow..

Do you think my current PC is too slow?

Re: Buying a new pc purely for Fusion 360? Help please....

HughesTooling — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 17:30:26 GMT

8Gb of ram might be a problem but the picture of your timeline sets off big alarm bells, all those capture positions will hit performance. You should be able to build your design using only joints, in all the time I've been on the forum I've only seen one or two cases where capture position was needed and used correctly.

Mark

PS please paste pictures, don't attach.

Re: Buying a new pc purely for Fusion 360? Help please....

ryan.bales — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 17:50:43 GMT

Yeah i agree with @HughesTooling. The detail on some of the features also would put a large strain on opened RAM size and GPU performance. its a lot of data to cache every time you orbit and move or make any changes requiring compute and regeneration.

Re: Buying a new pc purely for Fusion 360? Help please....

lance.carocci — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 02:46:46 GMT

Dell Inspiron 3470 Intel Core i5-9400 processor with 8gb of RAM and 1TBB HDD

The processor is sufficient, and even an HDD wouldn't slow Fusion down that much once it has started up. I echo what others say about RAM - more is going to help with particularly complex projects, especially if you're like me and multitask with 200 browser tabs open.

Your graphics card might also play a part, though only up to a point - integrated graphics are sufficient for basic modeling, but detailed patterns and large assemblies can slow things down where a mid-range dedicated card would help, while high-end and workstation GPUs probably won't see as much benefit as their price would warrant.