Core i7 or i5 for Autocad 2015?

[fprico]

Hi,

I would like to know if there will be much differences between a core i5 and an i7 with the same clock speed for 3d modeling and documentation in Autocad, not for rendering. 

Thanks.

Fernando.

[pendean]

i7 and as close to or higher than 3ghz speed if you can: but the rest of your system needs to be up to par as well, since processor alone isn't a magic bullet.

[fprico]

Hi, Here I am talking about an i5 3.4 ghz and an i7 3.4 ghz. Which are the difference between this two that will make a difference in 3d modeling or documentation.

[dgorsman]

All else being equal, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference.  Other factors would be more important.

[braudpat · Accepted solution]

Hello from France

At the same basic speed, a Core i7 Seven will run (with ACAD 20xx on Win 32 or Win 64) about 10% faster than a Core i5, so you have to buy the fastest Core i5 (or Core i7) you can !?

The fastest Core i5 available today is the Intel Core i5 4590 which replaces the previous i5 4570 (ONLY 100 Mhz slower !!)

http://ark.intel.com/products/80815/Intel-Core-i5-4590-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_70-GHz

The fastest processor today for ACAD 201X is the latest Core i7 4790K !

http://ark.intel.com/fr/products/80807/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_40-GHz

It is faster than any Xeon processor because of its speed !!

For 3D with ACAD 201X, you need 16 Gb Ram (or more dependenig of the size/complexity of your 3D Models)

And for 3D the graphic card is important :

- The fastest card for ACAD 201X available today is the NVidia GTX 780 TI (3 Gb Ram)

For 2D a "small" graphic card with its own memory (1 Gb Ram) is enough ...

Please consider a fast SSD as primary disk and the fast SATA disk as secondary disk

Win Seven is better than Win 8.0/8.1 ...

[fprico]

Hi,

When you say that a core i7 is 10% faster for 3d modeling, which are the specs differences with the i5 that make this 10% more. It seems that Autocad is a single threaded application so with more cores will it go slowly?. Does Autocad take advantage of GTX video cards I have a gtx 460, I thought that Autocad benefits only from quadro cards.

Thanks.

[braudpat]

Hello from France

Often Core i7 and Core i5 are not running at exactly the same basic speed (+ Turbo Mode is sometimes a little bit different in term of range) ...

So with about the "same" Core i5 / Core i7, ACAD 201X is running faster between 5%-10% on Core i7 !

The best purchase today (for Core i5) is of course the "old" Core i5 4570 (because the "new" Core i5 4590 is only 100 Mhz faster !)

I confirm that the best choice for ACAD 201X is : GTX 780TI (3 Gb Ram) or the cheaper GTX 780 (2 Gb Ram)

YES YES they are Gamer cards but they are very fast with ACAD 201X ...

Unfortunately the NVidia Quadro card 20xx/30xx/40xx/etc are slower ... and they are very expensive !!

I am 57 years old and I am a "Geek/Fanatic" of ACAD (1.4/2.0) since 1984/1985 ... and I am a "specialist" in Hardware and in Workstation ...

HP / Dell / Lenovo / etc sales people say every day that YOU MUST BUY a high End Workstation to run ACAD (and many other CAD program) but it's FALSE especially with ACAD 201X ...

TODAY if I have to buy a PC (Motherboard Z97) for ACAD 201X, REVIT 201X, Inventor 201X, I will buy a PC with the latest Core i7 4790K (4.0 - 4.4 Ghz - 8 Mb cache) ! + 16/24/32 Gb Fast DDR3 Ram + GTX 780TI (3 Gb Ram) + Fast SSD + Fast SATA ...

And with a GOOD fan (For example the Noctua NH-D15), I will overclock the Core i7 4790K to 4.4 - 4.8 Ghz without any problem !!

... It's a overclocking of ONLY 10% ... very easy and reliable ...

You can dore MORE but you have to switch to Water Cooling, and it's more difficult ... but you can reach 4.6 - 5.0 Mhz basic speed (+ Turbo Mode !!) ...

So Good Luck for your future PC !

[fprico]

Hi,

Thanks, I ve read that Autocad is a single threaded aplication so its not better to have a fast core I3?

Regards

Fernando

[dgorsman]

Not quite.  There are differences between the i3, i5, and i7 in terms of cache size, memory access technology, and some additional features.  These don't directly impact on AutoCAD in that AutoCAD doesn't access them directly (everything goes through the operating system).  But there is a slight difference in performance between them when such programs are being used (less so between the i5 and i7 as between the i3 and i5).  The i3 is OK for messing around a bit, and its not like AutoCAD *won't* run with it, but its mostly for low cost desktops used to surf the internet and watch movies.

[braudpat]

Hello from France

Of course ACAD 20xx is not a multi-thread application but you will run simultaneously :

Windows Kernel, WinWord, Excel, IE/Firefox/Chrome with sounds and animations and maybe videos, Acrobat Reader, specific applications for your business, Videos, Images, and finally ACAD maybe on multi-DWG (SDI=0) , etc ...

So I will repeat >>>

The best purchase today (for ACAD 20xx) is of course the "old" Core i5 4570 (because the "new" Core i5 4590 is only 100 Mhz faster !) <<<

The Intel Core i3 are cheaper but a little bit are slower and have less cache than Core i5 (Quad cores) and the Core i5 4570 or 4590 has a Turbo mode of + 400 Mhz

If you want to buy a Core i3, the best choice will be the "old" Intel Core i3-4340 :  2 Cores - 4 Threads - 3.6 Ghz - 4 Mb cache

or better the "new" Core i3-4370 : 2 Cores - 4 Threads - 3.8 Ghz - 4 Mb cache 

As you wish ...

[fprico]

Hi,

Thanks to all, I would like to ask you is this pc ok or should I change something.

Core i5 3.4 ghz          
Motherboard Asus  B85m-G          

Memory Ram 8gb 1333 mhz   

Hard disk  500gb sata 3 hd 16mb wd blue   

Power supply 650W reals 

will it be better a core i5 3.2 ghz with an ssd or a faster processor i5 4670 i7 4770, with no ssd.

In that case which ssd brands should I choose.

Fernando.

[braudpat]

Hello

A Core i5 at basic speed 3.4 Ghz coud be the i5-4670 : a good choice (3.4-3.8 Ghz - 6 Mb cache)

The Core i5 4670k is the same version but easily overclockable ...

8 Gb is OK but if you plan tu use/design medium/large 2D/3D models, you will need 16 Gb !?

[fprico]

Hi to all,

So I have various options. I would like to know which one would you choose and why?

Core i7 3.4 ghz          
Motherboard Asus  B85m-G          

Memory Ram 8gb 1333 mhz   

Hard disk  500gb sata 3 hd 16mb wd blue   

Power supply 650W reals 

Core i5 3.0 ghz          
Motherboard Asus  B85m-G          

Memory Ram 8gb 1333 mhz   

SSD 256gb Samsung  

Power supply 650W reals

Core i5 3.0 ghz          
Motherboard Asus  B85m-G          

Memory Ram 8gb 1333 mhz   

Hard disk  500gb sata 3 hd 16mb wd blue   

Nvidia 750ti 2gb

Power supply 650W reals 

As it been said the high end video cards work very well with Autocad, What about the mid range Nvidia gtx?, I think I can install it with the gtx 460 that I actually have and use it both cards. An other question, Is the mother Asus  B85m-G ok for this combos?

[braudpat]

Hello

I estimate the 3.4 Ghz (Basic speed) Core i7 (4 cores + 4 threads) will run about 15-25% faster than the 3.0 Ghz (Basic speed) Core i5 (4 cores) 

I hope that the Core i5 has a Turbo Mode ??

A SSD drive can make the difference but a classic SATA HD is acceptable if it's a 7200 rpm/mn model !

A NVidia 750 TI why not ? ... A faster one will be better and more expensive ...

Have you noticed my remark about the Memory (8 Gb or 16 Gb) ?

[fprico]

Hi,

Thanks, This is what I think I am going to buy for 3d modeling (less than 100 mb files) and rendering:

Core i7 4790k

motherboard Asus h87m-plus.

16 gb ram

ssd samsung 250gb

gtx 460 (currently)

I am thinking of buying a gtx 760, but in that case I would have to take something of the list perhaps instead of an ssd buying an hhd or instead of 16gb of ram 8gb of ram. What would be the best option?

Regards

[braudpat]

Hello

For me, to have 16 Gb Ram is more important than to have a SSD !

So ...

[fprico]

Hi,

So you mean that the gtx 760 2 gb is more important than to have an SSD. Does the video card memory helps the ram of the computer, I mean with a 2gb memory of the video card is it necesary that much of memory ram. I have seen all my files and the larger files I worked with are of 75 mb. 

Regards

[braudpat]

Hello from France

Sorry for my US/English which is not very fluent !?

I said you need 16 Gb to be OK for a few years and today work ...

Then a GTX 760 2 Gb is OK

And you have money remaining, you can buy a SSD ...

[Anonymous]

Hello from England

I am in the process of buying a new laptop but i do not know which one to buy to suit the softwares that i intend on using the laptop for, the softwares are;

AutoCad2015

Revit2015

Sketch up

The laptops i have in mind are ;

1.Processor AMD A10-5745M GPU (2.1 GHz, 4 MB cache)

RAM 8 GB DDR3 (8 GB maximum installable RAM)

Graphics card AMD Radeon HD 8610G / 8670M Dual GPU (2 GB DDR3) Storage

1 TB HDD, 5400 rpm

(http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/hp-pavilion-15-n268sa-15-6-laptop-bla...

2.Processor Intel® Core™ i5-4200U Processor (1.6 GHz, 3 MB cache)

RAM 8 GB DDR3 Storage

750 GB HDD, 5400 rpm

(http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/hp-pavilion-15-n297sa-15-6-laptop-219...

3. Processor AMD A10 A10-4655M.

RAM 8GB

Microsoft Windows 8

Graphics: AMD Radeon HD7620G graphics card + Dedicated graphics card.

1000GB SATA hard drive.

(http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/1465998.htm)

I would really appreciate if you could tell me the BEST laptop out of the three mentioned above? whilst taking into account the softwares that i intend on using the laptop for .(Revit AutoCad, SketchUp etc)

Best wishes

[nrz13]

I would not recommend any of those systems for AutoCAD 2015.  I don't use Revit or Sketchup, so I can't comment on that, but I think they would be just as demanding.  Additionally, AutoCAD 2015 has some performance issues of its own and runs rather sluggishly even on very good hardware, which none of these systems have.

Tell us how you plan on using these programs:  field of work (architecture, engineering, etc.), type of work (3D, 2D, large datasets, etc.), typical size of your files (1MB vs. 100MB), etc.  It will be difficult for anyone to give you a good recommendation without first having this information from you.

AutoCAD 2015 is heavily dependent upon the processor, particularly the clock speed.  3Ghz and up is strongly recommended, particularly for 3D work.  A 5,400 RPM hard drive is quite slow compared to an SSD, which will affect OS boot times, program load times, drawing load times (for large files) and drawing save times.  If you're doing 3D work, you'll want to have a dedicated video graphics card.  Many people have had issues getting AutoCAD 2015 to read the dedicated video card on systems that have both onboard and dedicated graphics.  8GB may be enough RAM depending on what you're doing, but 16GB is likely the better starting place given your program set.