Any CAD users out there? 170EM GPU questions

I'm looking towards buying a 170EM in the next few months. I will be using this for college, (engineering student) the normal every day stuff, as well as some gaming here and there.

My question is mainly on the GPU. Has anyone run something like Solidworks or Inventor on a consumer card like the 675m? I'm curious if I can wait for the 680m and go with that for a while until I really have a true need for the pro card. IE, when I'm a much more advanced CAD user. I have to imagine the CUDA cores on the consumer cards still give a decent boost to the CAD programs. I just wonder how they do with the actual rendering work. Again, I have to imagine for the first 2-3 years I wont be doing anything to crazy that would require a lot of rendering power. But this is just a guess, I'm hoping someone out there can help me out a bit that has been through this scenario.

Thanks in advance!

 

The 680M should be able to handle Inventor oh so good.
I have never tried or seen Solidworks in action so I cannot speak on that programs behalf, also the 680M should do you well for the gaming to come for the next 2 - 3 years

And yes those CUDA cores are going to triumph when working with such programs

I myself am learning engineering with a little twist, but I can surely tell that the 675M and 680M are more than enough to run these programs.

As you mentioned gaming, you wouldn't want to consider Quadro cards would you..? They are basically made for things like this (just not for gaming ) and they are expensive as hell

 

Gaming is a lesser concern. If anything my thought is that I will go with the 680m to save some cash now, and have the ability to game as I'd like and then when the next gen of pro cards come out, by that time I'll be more then likely at a point where having one may be of use. Hopefully it will still be compatible with my 170EM so I can do a quick GPU and heatsink swap and be good to go. Not to mention possibly still having that gaming GPU laying around if I do get the gaming itch.

Basically if the general opinion was that trying to run any CAD program on the 680m vs the Quadros was a useless endeavor - I would rather bite the bullet up front and get a Quadro and sacrifice gaming. I'm much more worried about my schooling and any uses it may prove for eventual internships/co-ops then I am my leisure time gaming!

 

You will do fine with either a 675 or 680. I'm in the architecture program, I use CAD, Rhino, and have not found any problems with the my card which is a 580 (a near equal to a 675).

 

Thanks... about the only debates I have left in my head are weather or not to spring for the 90% gamut screen, if I should stay at a 3820QM or upgrade to the 3920XM that I'm a little drooly over... as well as if I should do a single 256GB SSD for now and then get another 256GB later, or go right to a dual 128 gb RAID setup. Some said RAID on SSD should be put off until trim is operational.

None of these decisions are really huge in my mind, and will probably mainly boil down to if I wanna spend like 2600 or closer to 3200 when said and done.

No matter how I go I'm looking for something where with a simple GPU upgrade, (as long as the format doesn't change) I'd be able to use this thing for many years to come.

 

For now. SSD's in RAID slices up and ruins the SSD's slowly, that is without TRIM support in RAID. No need for that.

I would advice to go for the 3820QM as the price jump from 3820-3920 is giant and with the money you pay there, you could easily outperform by getting a perfectly well Gamut screen and some very fast RAM.

That will indeed be sufficient for several years to come.

 

I have a driver posted up @ the Clevo Driver Thread. It's the Intel 11.5 RST which supportsTRIM on RAID SSD configurations.

 

As far as I know it's a BETA release just don't want to say something that might damage such a well crafted SSD.

 

It may be a Beta now, but by the time I make my purchase that should no longer be the case. I'll probably be buying in late September.

3820QM, Dual RAID SSD's, 1866mhz ram, and a nice display.... hmmmmm...

I can't imagine how quick that thing would be

EDIT:

I can't imagine how quick that thing WILL be!

 

Since there seems to be a lot of cad experts in this thread, would anyone mind telling me how the 7970m or amd cards in general handle cad applications? Mostly running 3ds and inventor. Want the gaming performance, but don't want to sacrifice too much on the professional front.

 

I have run inventor on the old HP towers my school has (at least 6 years old) and my home computer which is a custom build and has a GTS 250 in it. I haven't had any problems, although very complex items have been a bit punishing. Any of the newer 660+ nvidias should do fine. I don't know about the 7xxx series though.

 

I'm not an expert. I work sometimes in Inventor. You do not need to buy a Quadro card. GTX580M/GTX675M doing exceptionally well.
If you are working on an external display, note that some AMD cards (HD6970M) does not support Dual Link.

 

Do AMD cards support hardware acceleration sufficiently or would I be much better of with a 675? External isn't a huge deal. I will be connecting to an external 1920x1080 display, potentially 2, but if I understand correctly, that's well within the parameters of single link (and they're both equipped with displayport). I guess my big question is how well autodesk supports hardware acceleration on AMD cards.

 

I use 3DS MAX on a regular basis and have noticed that yes autodesk supports AMD cards but only in DirectX render modes, on OpenGL they tend to not perform well. Also for rendering nvidia cards are much much better due to the support they get from autodesk, Mental Images has now been acquired by nvidia and in that Mental Ray is now CUDA accelerated, using 2013's new features which is nVidia iRAY you get near-realtime renderings all without taxing the CPU. Any 8000 series and up nvidia card will do fine wihtout any trouble.

 

So, bottom line, is the loss in gaming performance worth the gain in cad performance? Let's say my primary concerns are large multi-part assemblies and I don't mind waiting overnight for a render, would nvidia still hold enough of an edge for me to forego the gaming performance of the 7970m? Sorry for kinda hijacking this thread, just seemed like the right place to get my questions answered.

 

Both the P150 and the P170 are being delivered by some vendors with the Nvidia Quadro 5010M ... but it's horrifyingly expensive. Upgrade from GTX 675M comes to around 1000 Euro.

 

We won't know for sure if it's a sacrifice until we see the true power of the 680M. But for now, yes. It's definitely worth it, work > gaming

 

You actually aren't losing much in terms of gaming performance UNLESS you prefer to ultra every settings in a game, or want silk smooth visuals. AMD has a very strong card right now, no doubt about it, but quite frankly nvidia is the better option if you intend to favor work before play, No need to go Quadro as you aren't doing any compute work, CAD applications are working more than adequate off the GTX600 series, and there are always new drivers popping up every half a week (betas) to support new functions in an app.
I wont tell you to go team green or team red, but I will tell you from experience that the green guys have more support on professional applications as they strive to keep those prestigious customers happy.

 

not a huge tech geek, but doesnt amd have their own special line of professional graphics card? Also wouldnt they adapt some of that tech to their future/ just released gpu's? I'm team green but i dont want amd to be misrepresented. However from what i've read here, it seems that nvidia is over all better for those types of programs. Also the screen upgrade is a must, so glad i spent the money on it.

 

They have alright.... not sure if they've got one for the mobile market, I don't think so

For the sake of simplicity I will just link this performance comparison. Performance Comparison in AutoCAD between NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 and AMD FirePro V5800 | FireUser Blog

 

they do, you just have to look for workstation notebooks

 

The AMD cards are not suitable for the offload of Adobe CS5 suites and Autodesk software. To get the most out of Autodesk in a mobile chassis you would want to use a Quadro card. But the 675 and upcoming 680 will be a sweet second place.

Take it from an ex-3D rotoscope guy =)