AutoDesk Inventor Graphics Card advice

[srm37T6KNN]

Hello all,

I am PhD student who needs to use Inventor. I am about to buy a new laptop to use both in the lab and run Inventor but I need some advice on what graphics card would be the best option. 

I have a limited budget, don't want to spend more than £600. The project will be pretty limited to only maybe a dozen parts per assembly.

Specifically how does the Intel HD Graphics 620 handle the software? Many of the laptops in my price range carry that card and i was wondering how it holds up.

Thanks for your time and advice.

[CCarreiras]

HI!

It will work... but don't expect great performance.

Also, your way of modeling will be an important factor, so,

Avoid too much links between files,  lost files etc. Use a Project file to help on this.

When modeling, keep looking to the red cross and resolve any problem that occurs.

And good luck for you project. 

[philip1009]

Do you mean more than 600 for the video card or for the whole system?

[srm37T6KNN]

The whole system. It not the best budget but anything more would dig in to my travel budget. If it is totally necessary then I don't mind spending more.

[philip1009]

The Intel HD graphics will work with Inventor, it's just not the best since the Intel gpu is more for media than for 3D graphics, if you can spend a little more and get an Nvidia or AMD video card, you will get better 3D performance.  And no, you don't have to get the "pro" level Nvidia or AMD cards, a regular geforce gtx 1000 series or Radeon RX will work just the same.  The only reason to get a pro card is for the extra ton of ram or for very specific workflows that you won't be using with only a dozen part assemblies.

[CCarreiras]

Between AMD and Nvidia, i advise you to choose nVidia.

In my experience, they are better, regarding Inventor use (and Autodesk in general i guess).

[leowarren34]

Any Nvidia will work better as cuda is a great advantage against AMD, however for a GPU you will looking at atleast £700+ but it'll be capable of more. However if you're working with simple geometry and only a dozen parts the IGPU should be fine.

[dgorsman]

The Intel "GPU" is built in to the processor (it's not a separate device) and shares system RAM.  So don't skimp on that either if you go that route.  While you can kinda-sorta get away with using an on-chip GPU, you want a dedicated GPU if your coursework actually depends on Inventor (i.e. this isn't something just thrown in).

And yes - it's worth sacrificing a "travel budget".

[leowarren34]

I would recommend as a GPU a 1060 6gb as a minimum but a 1070+ or a quadro would be vastly better and definitely worth spending extra on.

[CCarreiras]

Keep in mind the budget.... only the nvidia Quadro card will cost about 500$...

[leowarren34]

An older lower end quadro will do just as well as quadros are excellent at 3d cad for their price.

[CCarreiras]

A Quadro card, typically comes in workstations, not in "Home" PC's. If you know a workstation below the 1000$, tell me... maybe i will buy it!! 

[philip1009]

The Radeon Pro WX series are pretty good cards, especially compared to quadro in terms of price.

[leowarren34]

I think we have gone off course as good luck trying to get a quadro or fire pro in a laptop below £1000 let alone £500, I think a GTX1060 would be more than adequate on a quad core with 8-16gb of ram.

[srm37T6KNN]

Great thanks a lot for all the advice guys! I have now does some more looking and have picked out a laptop with a Nvidia graphs card! 

Thanks again!

[Frederick_Law]

Inventor ran well on my Dell E7240 i7-4600 HD4400 graphic.

Assembly with around 100 parts.

Shaded with edge doesn't display properly some time.

Some laptop with nVidia graphic actually has 2 graphic controllers: nVidia and Intel.

You'll need to change some settings to get Inventor to use nVidia graphic.

[leowarren34]

You can disable the IGPU in the graphics accelerator.