tonyj Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 Hi all. I need a bit of advice and hoping someone can help. The company that I work for are in the process of purchasing a new laptop that will be running autocad 2012 in 3d. The models can be fairly big with over 5000 solid objects in one drawing and a file size of 150gig. I was looking at an Acer Aspire 5755G intel core i7-2630QM with 8 gig of ram and apparently has a build in graphics card that has 2gig of memory. I am wondering would this 2gig of memory on the graphics card be pulled off the 8gig of ram on the machine? and also how would this machine be for viewing large models in shaded mode? Any advice would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 You expect to work on a 150GB drawing on a laptop that has 8GB of RAM? Good luck with that. Laptops used as CAD workstations should have a dedicated graphics card. Do not rely on an onboard graphics chip because at some point when it becomes overwhelmed it will start to steal resources (i.e. - read "tap physical RAM") and your system will either slow to a crawl or lock up altogether. I'd look at one of the mobile workstations that Xi Computer sells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyj Posted November 23, 2012 Author Share Posted November 23, 2012 ReMark thanks for replying. Actually I didn't mean to say a '150 gig' drawing I meant to say a 'a 150 mb' drawing. I was also thinking of getting a seperate graphics card with its own memory of about 500mb or 1gb. The processor that I am looking for will be an i7 with a clock speed of 3g/hz. The last thing I want to do is buy something that I will regret, it happened to me with the last two machines that I bought. I will look into the mobile workstations that you mentioned. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Even a 150MB drawing may give a laptop some problems. The largest drawing file size I've worked with has been 38MB on a desktop system (see the specs under Computer Details to the left). Your drawing would be four times the size. So give some thought to the specs you would need for a laptop. I would look at nothing less than 16Gb (maybe even 32GB) of RAM and a graphics card with 2GB of videoRAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyj Posted November 23, 2012 Author Share Posted November 23, 2012 Thanks ReMark I will give that some thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD Mather Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 ReMark thanks for replying.Actually I didn't mean to say a '150 gig' drawing I meant to say a 'a 150 mb' drawing.... You should never have a file that large. Look into xrefs and break things down into logical sub-assemblies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nbkwbn1 Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 My company typically uses 70-100Mb Revit files because "thats the accepted workflow..." which is serious . we have some pretty heavy duty machines , and they easily get boggrd down. Like Remark said; i just got a desktop from Xi that is fantastic ; i7 6 core @ 4GHz 16Gb RAM, Invidia Quadro 4000 vid card, SSD etc. I dont regret the cost for a minute, especially if you run the latest sw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ajcraig99 Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 Does it have to be a laptop? If so, a dedicated GPU is a must, To get decent power in a laptop you need to spend $2500 and up. and its not going to be very portable and battery life will be shocking. Most laptops need to be under clocked to control heat, so the Nvidia GT540m will be about 30% slower than the desktop version, and same with the processor. in a desktop you can easily run an i7 @ 4.5ghz with the right cooling. Basically if it doesn't have to be a laptop, you can cut the budget in half and still build a far superior machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 I'd be interested to know where you (Ajcraig99) found that tidbit about laptops re: under-clocked to control heat. Can you cite the source please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkent Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underclocking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzframpton Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 My company typically uses 70-100Mb Revit files because "thats the accepted workflow..." which is serious . we have some pretty heavy duty machines , and they easily get boggrd down. Like Remark said; i just got a desktop from Xi that is fantastic ; i7 6 core @ 4GHz 16Gb RAM, Invidia Quadro 4000 vid card, SSD etc. I dont regret the cost for a minute, especially if you run the latest sw. 100MB+ AutoCAD file is much different than a 100MB+ Revit model. I work in both programs every day and a 100MB Revit Model is definitely in the good zone for performance. However, in AutoCAD, this would be a nightmare at times. The two program's file size are not directly comparable in my opinion. Not trying to stir the pot, just wanted to give my perspective is all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ajcraig99 Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Most info on the link rKent posted. The "m" in GT540 means 'mobile'. So because of space restrictions a more compact cooling system is required, for that to be viable a lower clock speed and normally less voltage is used. Same with the CPU, tiny little cooler compared to even stock desktop intel coolers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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