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Specs for laptop/desktop acad carlson flavor?
Posted by nate-the-surveyor on August 6, 2021 at 3:08 pmMy laptop was plugged into the internet. Lightning struck the phone system. Parts were falling out of the modem.
There is such a plethora of specs.
Can anybody point me in the right direction? I need another laptop.
Thanks,
Nate
ncsudirtman replied 2 years, 8 months ago 12 Members · 23 Replies- 23 Replies
I’ve been looking at lap tops for my business. I would consider a Dell with I7 processor with 16GB DDR memory so that it can be upgraded to 32 GB easily. The mass storage these days is normally SSD, which may be a bit slower than a spinning drive. The system I may buy is linked below and is available through Walmart’s website cheaper than through Dell.
It’s as bad as the shampoo aisle at Walmart, which overwhelms me. I send my daughter to buy me shampoo.
Go to Google and ask successively:
Why do I need I7
Why do I need 32 gb memory
Why do I need 1 tb hard drive
and so on. Then read, read, and read; you’ll do fine.
- Posted by: @richardlhardison
The mass storage these days is normally SSD, which may be a bit slower than a spinning drive
I think you have that backwards. Also, the SSD is much more robust and better suited for the rough and tumble life of a laptop.
PSA:
NOT all laptops are infinitely RAM upgradeable.
More bus RAM allows more applications to utilize the bandwidth of the chip.
Think like this example: more RAM is like having more fingers to run through a filing cabinet drawer.
Hence why the cheapest laptops are running their max ram, and why the DTR (desktop replacement) or mobile workstation versions jump in price because they have server like components and can use ECC ram and be expanded to ridiculous amounts of Ram.
And cost a ton.
Boy howdy they get it done though, and will be powerho for several years.
Brad does have a really nice rig.
Curious for those using more recent Civil 3D – I??m using it for land development mainly these days with small survey data sets, larger existing & proposed surfaces with plenty of definition, moderate pipe networks and site layouts with X-refs & some items data sourced in. But my current desktop workstation is almost 5yrs old and definitely underpowered in a lot of areas (processor, ram & GPU).
I??m looking to buy a new desktop and I??ve decided I want 64gb of RAM & one of NVIDIA??s RTX cards (either a 2060 or a 3070 but I??m not gaming or doing any point clouds yet so I doubt the higher card helps me much). But on the processor I??m debating between an i7-10700k vs i9-10900k and I don??t know if it will make a significant difference between them? For what I??m doing I??m not entirely sure – but my current laptop has a hex core i7-9750 and it seems to handle most things fairly well – better than my old desktop with an older quad core intel xeon with just 16GB of RAM. Maybe I??m just rambling but curious for those with experience in this???
IMHO, the limitations of performance of Civil 3D are not related that much to hardware, except for a couple of things, but more with the tweaking of the settings of Civil 3D to minimize those awful instances of “regeneration” type issues slowing the thing down.
32GB of RAM and a reasonable graphics card is more than enough. Be wary of NVIDIA cards though as I’m sure I’ve read somewhere recently that AutoCAD based products don’t work well with some of them. The other must have is a SSD – this doesn’t speed up Civil 3D but it does speed up Windows and software startup and file operations.
Our “stock” Civil 3D computers have pcie ssd with a NVIDIA Quadro 4000 and 32GB RAM on an i7. The graphics card rarely gets used more that 3% although we do some heavy stuff.
Tweaking, is things like REGENAUTO, and contour labelling, and not displaying surfaces until you really need to, minimizing the number of viewports particularly those with surfaces ….
thank you sir for the input. I??d heard many say that Civil 3D doesn??t use hardware effectively. I think part of my problems stem from google chrome & streaming music while working on multiple surface files 30mb or more in size. I??m hoping between more RAM & a stronger processor that maybe my issues will abate. I??ve had a few blue screen crashes over the last couple months while doing all those activities haha
- Posted by: @richard-imrie
Be wary of NVIDIA cards though as I’m sure I’ve read somewhere recently that AutoCAD based products don’t work well with some of them.
I think the problem is more related to using gaming cards vs workstation cards rather than AMD vs NVIDIA. There could be subtle differences between the brands but the I think when using true workstation GPU that is AutoDesk certified you won’t be let down.
I will say the Cyclone works better with an NVIDIA card though.
Looking at Autodesk’s recommended specifications is illuminating. The only recommendation for processor is one of 3 Ghz or more, which is quite a low bar. The specs for GPU is rather high, and is really the only thing that would be anything more than run of the mill.
@norman-oklahoma
This is what I have found. I found little difference between a new i5 and i7 in running ACAD.
-All thoughts my own, except my typos and when I am wrong.@norman-oklahoma see my current laptop is a gaming laptop with 32gb RAM, I7-9750 and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660ti. C drive is on 512GB SSD but it??s been a great laptop this far for civil 3D
You’ve got the GPU covered, for sure.
My point is that bumping up the Ghz of the processor from 9900 to 10900 isn’t going to make a real difference. Go lower, perhaps much lower, and spend the money you save on RAM and GPU.
If you’re really going to get into the details, look at the ISV SERIES (independent software vendor certified) and see where or if your software is working with the computer manf. My guess is you’ll see Autodesk Carlson, Trimble, Hexagon (Leica) all have listings.
I thought I read carlson was recommending the NVidia cards, but the GeForce, not the Quatro
@norman-oklahoma really? see I had debated on getting either an NVIDIA RTX 2060 or maybe a RTX 3070 for the next desktop as I’m looking eventually at trying to process drone imagery. But as for the RAM yes I’m going to bump it up to 64GB and as for the processor it’ll be one of the 3ghz or faster ones you had mentioned – probably an i7 though seeing as that’s what most machines come with now for drafting purposes. found a few Dell XPS 8940 systems that I liked for decent prices actually
- Posted by: @jitterboogie
My guess is you’ll see Autodesk Carlson,
The fur will be flying on both sides if you miss out a comma like that.
@ncsudirtman Why not stream your music over your phone? Thats what I do. If I get a call the music stops and then starts back when the call is over, which is exactly what I want. When I get in the truck my music follows me when my phone connects via Bluetooth. If you are worried about data usage connect to your wifi. If you are worried about battery usage just keep your phone plugged in. I??m not sure streaming music is a cause for C3D issues but I find it much more convenient to use my phone rather than my computer.
Drone imagery is another kettle of fish. For that Pix4d recommends a fast processor and plenty of RAM. They do spec a GPU, but not quite as highly as CAD does.
@norman-oklahoma
Photogrammetry reminds me of what the old timers told me of processing static in the old days…start it when you leave at night.
I prefer cloud processing for that.
-All thoughts my own, except my typos and when I am wrong.
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