M17x & AutoCAD??

Im currently an engineering student. I need a laptop that i can use mainly for AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Alias, and mechanical. But would like to use the computer for some gaming and school as well... I've been looking at the M17x can anyone shed some light on how well the autocad runs on them?

 

Also if this system would even be the best choice of laptops?

 

i'm a mechanical engineer and i do use autocad 2d and 3d very frequently on my m17x. it handles it with no problem or lag.

 

did you go with just stock min specs or what did you upgrade?

 

those programs will run fine on a macbook air. m17x is way overkill but its nice to have the CPU power if you ever do renderings or complex 3d modeling.

 

my laptop specs are m17xr2 w/ 920xm, 8gb ram, xfire 5870s. a bit overkill for autocad. but if i use it mainly for gaming, but when i need to do work on it also. autocad is smooth.

 

I use autocad as well on my M17x R2 with no issues at all. Granted I got all the specs for gaming, so it may be overkill for autocad, but everything opens quickly and no lag on scrolling though the drawings or creating one.

 

I do a little bit of autocadd but I use it heavily for Revit architecture which give this comp a run for its money. I had an R1 with the QX9300 extreme cpu and 8GB 1333mhz ram with SLI 260m's.The R1 worked very well for it considering some of my projects used up to 98% of my ram. I actually just did a 14 hour rendering on it at 100% processing power and it held up great. I just had a lot of problems with the R1's graphics cards and it freezing up. I ended up getting it replaced by Dell with an R2. The R2 has the 940x cpu with sli 285m's and the 8GB of ram. This is my first week with and after doing some tests with it in Revit the Qx9300 seemded to be a little faster my guess is since it was able to OC all 4 cores to 3.8Ghz stabily. The 940x can only get all 4 cores up to 2.2Ghz even with factory OC and I dont feel like the turbo mode does much when the cpu is getting pushed at 100%. Overall I'm happy withthe way it runs the autodesk programs. Autocadd will be no problem for an M17x. However you may also want to look in to the dell 17in workstation laptop. That thing has some good power and you can run the nvidia quadro cards in it which have a lot of performace upgrades for the sutdesk programsa nd will be able to play games fine.

 

Revit supports hardware acceleration with gtx 260m?
I only ask because it's not even listed on the 2011 hardware list

I got an XPS 15 with 420M and revit wouldn't even let me force hardware :/

 

hi,
i am an engineer myself. i use CATIA / ProE / UG / KISSsoft / Ansys / Nastran /....

no problem at all. u won't regret it.

 

Thanks for the input everyone, my last question is about the r3. what is the difference between it and the regular m17x other than the possibility of 3d? and why is it so much cheaper? Ive been on the website and built both of them and even with the stronger processor and more RAM the r3 is still cheaper? So whats the difference?

 

Well the 260m is a Nvidia Geforce card. Geforce is Nvidias gaming division. Quadro is Nvidias professional series, thats why none of the autodesk programs will regonize any of the geforce card. Hardware acceleration only works with the Quadro cards.

 

Yeah I'm still trying to figure out why the R3 is so much cheaper as well. I know for starters the R3 offers the new I7 processors which comes with turbo boost 2.0 which is suppose to be pretty good. It has more memory options above 8Gb, which if just working with cad isn't going to make a difference. The 3D aspect is pretty cool but im not sure its going to work for the autodesk programs being that its a geforce card, even if it did seems pretty difficult on a design in full 3d. Other than those difference I can't tell you much more but maybe someone else could.

 

The R3 is in essence a replacement of the M15x more-so than the old M17x. It's most likely going to be their new mainstream laptop. It only supports one video card. The screen is W-LED only (not RGB LED). The chassis is a soft plastic finish instead of magnesium.

There is talk of an M18x coming out sometime that will support dual GPU's again.

 

alright guys Thanks again!! I think I may wind up getting the R3, thanks for all the help!

 

Yeah. That's what I was getting at.
If you plan to do any rendering or 3D operations with autodesk applications, alienware systems are not a great choice. The difference between hardware acceleration and not is like night and day.

From my own experience:
Rendering 15 second clip on software + i7 720QM in 3DSMax: 2 days
Rendering 15 second clip on QuadroFX 1800: 8 hours

@OP you can get a precision mobile workstation with a quadro fx 1800 (or 3300? can't remember) for around the same price as a decent r3 right now. There's a package available online for around $1000-$1200 off sticker price. At least on the Canadian site.

 

ok well ill have to check that out too... thanks

 

I too am studying Architecture. I bought an R2 with Radeon 5870 pecifically for running Revit Architecture 2011 and Archicad 13/14.

Revit does not support the video card so I can't use 3D Acceleration or Rendering... Archicad runs fine - because it's Open GL not Direct X. Autodesk really need to sort out their video card support.

Autodesk support the Radeon HD 3600, 4600 & 4800 series so why not the 5800 series cards for Revit? And why the reluctance to support laptop video card variants in this day and age?

I just wish I knew that Autodesk were so restrictive with their video support before I spent a lot of cash on a high spec laptop.

Otherwise it's great machine.

 

A majority of computers I've worked with Revit on it does not support their video cards. Just ignor the message and keep working. In my experience if you look at your performance while working in Revit you will notice your GPU load will be between 0-2%. It is mostly RAm and CPU based. In that stand point the R2 is a beast. I have an R2 with the I7 940xm as well as 1600 8GB of Ram which runs at 1333. However with SetFSB and Throttlestop I can get my Ram running at close to 1600 and the CPU running at 3.2GHz. So don't be upset about having a M17x.

 

fyi, the geforce gtx 200m series run about 3-4x more efficiently than the gtx 400m series in autocad/3dsmax/revit 2010/2011.

Autodesk are all about CUDA these days. I doubt you'll see any non quadro mobile cards on next year's hardware list, and the non quadro desktop selection will also shrink considerably. Same goes for Radeon/HD.

Anyway, it's quite possible - though not easy - for you to use FirePro drivers on your radeon hd. I'm running partial Quadro drivers on my gtx 460m and performance in cad/revit is through the roof. Because of this, using revit is like using sketchup right now in terms of fps.

 

see if you can softmod your AT cards to be FirePros then they will use the GPU accell. I run Revit on my wifes 8740W with the FP7820 reguarly

 

^^^^ a softmod would be nice (not sure how crossfire would handle it though)

Personally (I am in a similar boat) I am in the process of purchasing an 8540w just to get around this (work is paying for it )

D.

 

I'm junior designer , I'm using m17x , but if you think to travel around and show ur project to your client, don't get alienware & try Macbook. Alienware is desktop replacement.

Honestly , if you are designer or engineer with alienware will spoil your image from your customers lol.

 

Engineers and Clients frown on the MBPs even more than the Aliens.... if thats the case get a Clevo unit or an Elitebook.

My wife is an Architect and cabinet maker and no one could keep a straight face at her " crapbook pro " she hauled around on occasion

 

^correct. I'll be more happy if they show up with an Alienware.

 

Did you just staight up install the quadro drivers off the nvidia website with no issues with your geforce card. And you actualkly get better performance out of it. I currently have 2x285m's and if this works I will be looking into it.

 

No.
Have to modify the .inf and add/replace(some) files from latest verde drivers.

 

Im not familiar with modifying drivers at all could you give me some instructuions or send me your files? I would really qppreciate it I use my m17x 90% of the time wiht Revit

 

it's a little too complicated to explain, really. There is some info on the laptopvideo2go.com forums (make sure to also read the hybrid graphics section by nautis). My drivers don't work properly, so I wouldn't advise using them. Can't open the CP to mod profiles, and I still can't find where the profiles are being stored - and some programs aren't detecting the nvidia card (3dsmax for sure, except while rendering with iray/vray).

If i get them working properly i'll hook you up

 

Alright I'll check it out. Thanks for the info and yeah let me know if you make any headway on yours.

 

Well from what I've read so far it seems that the the 285 is unmoddable. The last card was the 8800GT that could be soft modded

 

If you want to know which cards can be modded to others, look up nvidia graphics cards on wiki, which lists all of their stats.

What you need to look at is their architecture (example: GTX 460M uses the GF106 architecture). If you find another card with the same architecture, it can be modded in theory.

 

lol maybe the client is bad manner , but i'm not "rotton apple crapbook" fans either.

dell , Alienware all the way

 

Ok Autodesk got back to me about my video card, on Friday actually. Been busy with the weekend and only just checked my email (lolz).

They said:

Did as requested and watched the dxwebsetup.exe, download all the old dx versions from 2005 thru 2009. Can only assume that they needed some old software/drivers that doesn't exist in the DirectX released with Windows 7.

So if you are having problems with your Alienware M17x and Revit, try the link above.

Please note!!! I'm not running crossfire, only 1 5870 card.

Now I'm very happy with my "Desktop Replacement", which I've carted all the way from Australia to Denmark via New York.

?? lol ??, What you gonna run Bootcamp on your MacBook so you can run Revit? Or have 2 laptops and xfer data between them
I'd rather have one machine and be able to switch between my apps instantly in a demo/discussion thanks.

 

AutoCAD should run fine. I have it running on a pentuim 4 system
with 9800gt

 

You should have no problem running autocad, I have a similar setup and I can easily run solidworks and pro/E on mine.

 

what you mean? I'm just referring its easy to carry and design to compare with m17x. I'm not comparing with OS. Please post before you read my quote.

 

You should also download another directx file
Download details: DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010)