Autocad on a laptop

KlodaX

I'm looking to put autocad on a laptop but am unsure of the autocad requirements...

I've been advised :

Dedicated Graphics Card

Inspirin 6000

60 gb Hard Drive

64MB Graphics Card


forgetting about hdd and cpu for the moment .... with the laptop having shared graphics and I got 512 ram and shared out 64mb would this be enough? I know it wouldn't be for a game that required a 64mb graphics card ... I'm just thinking that autocad wouldn't be rendering the scene as much ... would I get away with the shared memory do you think?

daywalker

Generally shared graphics like intel extreme do not work well with CAD, you are better off getting the laptop with dedicated graphics like ATi or NVIDIA, which have their own faster memory seperate to the RAM of the laptop.

Nukem

AutoCAD what? which version. Are you doin 3D and rendering or just 2D plans ....etc....

just punch in autocad .... into google and it will bring up a sellers site and will have the min spec for it. If not try here

Nukem

hbxutd

You probably would be although it'd be safer to move away from shared memory, your battery performance will suffer. I have 2000i & 2005 on my Inspiron and it works like a dream. Spec is 128mb ddr ati mobility radeon X300 graphics card and 512mb DDR2 SDRAM single stick memory & 60gb @7200rpm.

stevenmu

You'll be much better off with a dedicated GPU. A lot of the nVidia cards for PCs can be software modified to work as a Quadro card which will give a huge boost to things like CAD. I'm not sure will it work for laptop versions or not, you could check the rivatuner forums to see.

po0k

Ram above all is key.

AutoCAD and MatLAB are whores for memory.

jozi

My boss uses CAD (R14 thou) on his laptop, not sure of the exact spec but its a P3 anyway. Never hear of him giving out about it. I dont know how much resources later varsion of CAD use.
He only does 2D drawing btw, house plans and the like

Jozi

preilly79

some laptops come with the 'pro' line of cards such as the nvidia quadro fx and ATI Fire built in. these are actaully very good cards. i have an ATI fire GL x300 in my laptop and im running Autocad2004 very well.

dell do a precision laptop which suits your needs perfectly, assuming budget can stretch. it's got a wonderfuly high rez widescreen which is a dream to use autocad with

lotsa RAM helps!

KlodaX

2D and 3D ... the laptop with shared memory is SOOOO much cheaper ... thats why I'm checking would it be worth taking the risk.

I'm really beginning to think with 3D graphics it wouldn't be .. .. hmmm... dunno

prospect

I have been advised by our reseller to avoid centrino and celeron chips when installing AutoCAD.
Not sure why though.

po0k

Dunno why he'd say stay away from Centrino, they should perform quite well for the task at hand, and even the lowly Celeron should be able to make quick work of 2D AutoCAD.

You don't *need* a workstation-class laptop, anything with a recent ATI or nVidia gpu can handle CAD-type work easily, and there are usually little driver hacks and tweaks available to tune it to more professional types of applications.

At least 512Megs of Ram, decent wedge of cpu speed and a Radeon 9600 or nVidia GoForce something-or-other will sort you out. Tune Windows XP (Turn off unrequired services) and you'll have a solid machine for CAD work.

Nukem

As long as your not doin 3D you should be fine - even if you have a shared gfx 3D will be ok(sluggish); rendering wont really be an option.
Centrino no good???? Dunno where thats coming from even a celey will run 2D quite ok. As said try get at least 512 RAM. Note as well that the might say 512mr RAM when its (2*256) not (1*512) and there is geanerally only two slots;so upgrading makes it more costly. Check www.shop4memory.com for cheap upgrades.

Nukem

stevenmu

Isn't centrino actually a chipset with integrated wi-fi that supports Celeron, P4 and P4M CPUs ?