AutoCAD on an Intel X3100?

I'm attending an architecture program starting this fall semester, and I need to be able to run AutoCAD (2D and 3D) on my notebook.

It comes with the Intel Integrated X3100 graphics card.

Now, I understand that Intel is notorious for horrible performance in the graphics department, however I also understand that the X3100 has some substantial advantages to it, especially with the release of the new drivers.

My question: How well will the X3100 run AutoCAD 3D? Painfully slow? With decent speed?

If it helps, the computer has a 2.0GHz Centrino Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of RAM.

Thanks for the help,
Peter

 

Have you already bought the laptop with the X3100? I would say to get a dedicated card if you haven't. But I will bump this up for you, because I am not that knowledgeable on the subject.

 

Might be a tad slow.

 

Just a tad?

 

Did you read this Autodesk page on hardware requirements. However, it pre-dates the X3100. AutoCAD needs OpenGL support.

I think the real issue is the complexity of the AutoCAD 3D models which you are planning to develop. As they get more complex (and we are talking of thousands of elements) then the benefits of a suitable dedicated GPU will start to show. Also, whereas people are looking for games to get redraw rates of 20 frames per second or more, I suspect that 2 frames per second would be acceptable with CAD.

There are few benchmarks which measure OpenGL performance. Cinebench is one, and some NBR reviews include the result of the Cinebench benchmark. I attach the Cinebench results which I have measured.I think the important result is the Graphics benchmark and the OpenGL speedup. Top of the pile, as would be expected, is the T7200 + ATI X1700. However, the relatively humble T5600 + Intel GMA950 is still 1/3rd of its speed. If Dell would send me my M1330, I can test the T7100+X3100 combination (which I hope would be better than the GMA950).

I hope this helps,

John

 

it will be better than the GMA950 but by how much is the question and the drivers may not be good enough at the moment.

 

John, thanks a lot for the detailed reply. I'm waiting on a T7300+X3100, so I guess this means I'll be alright (at least that's what I want to hear ).

I think a lot of people automatically assume it won't work because it's Intel. I went to three local electronic stores yesterday (Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City), and two of the three said that I'll be fine with CAD. I guess only time will tell.

Thanks again, and keep me posted on that Dell.

 

Hello NinjaNoodles, I´m in your very same situation...

Could you share your experiece here?
How well did your X3100 run Autocad 3D?
How many faces/elements did you reach to have in your models?

Thanks.

 

Autocad does not really use much graphics power, its mostly cpu based.
When you get to rendering programs such as flamingo, penguin, rhino, revitt and 3smax, you will want a graphics card which can do opengl.
I am happy that I bought a quadro, it flies through remderings much faster than the integrated nvs140's which the t61's have. everyone in my class at rpi has the t61, so I have a huge advantage in rendering times.

What school are you going to?
I know its not RPI, we dont use autocad here.

K-TRON

 

no , get a laptop with a dedicated card that can handle autocad 3-d , if you don't you will get errors and crashes
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servle...=AutoCAD-R17.0&prod=AutoCAD-R17.1&os=1&os=256

 

best buy circut city ?? they want to make a sale , they don't care if it works down the line ! ask some students that are taking or have taken the course what you NEED , don't go by if it meets minimum standards as that will not be to your advantage . minimum requirements are just that , the minimum you should aim for is reccomended requirement and above to get decent performance

 

well same here, you will need a decent graphics card to work in cad. you state you will have to work in 2d and 3d, you will need a graphics card that does improve viewport performance.

i´m studiying architecture in germany for some years now ( graduated the 1. diploma, going for second diploma).
when i´m not studiying i´m working for architecture bureaus donig the competitions for them, including design and visualisation.

for architectural models you will need a lot of performance, it´s not like playing a game with optimized polygons, it´s raw power you need for a lot of geometry.

and i state this again, since i read this again in this thread, RENDERING IS DONE BY THE CPU, not the graphics card. ( sorry for shouting, it´s just meant to saying it out loud, no offense)

sorry to be a pain in the ass, but penguin and flamingo are plugin renderer for Rhino, which is a 3D modeller and 3dsmax is one of the few( or the only ? ) modeller and animationtool, that is running in D3D.

 

Gelato works in DX , but that's about it for the big tools.