Laptop for CAD suggestions

[danielleK]

Hello.

Could I please get some suggestions on what laptop I can buy that would support CAD applications with a budget of £600-£700.

I know I can't go for quadro/FirePro Graphics cards or anything like that... But I would still like to make the best choice for that price point.

My main software: AutoCAD Architecture; Photoshop and Revit. With a bit of luck, I'd like to be able to use Lumion as well.

Any suggestion is much appreciated.
Thank you!

 

[bob hays]

Since at that price you won't get workstation cards, your best bet is to just find a solid laptop with an i7.

 

[Marius Tudor]

I've got the EXACT Same issue. I don't want to spend more than £700 either and I use the same Architecture Software.

Can someone suggest any ideas pls?

Is it better to go for a better over-all laptop with Integrated Graphics such as ThinkPad L540 or go for a cheaper version with a Dedicated GPU, but obviously a GeForce not a Workstation GPU for that money.

A lot of reviews and recommendations point me to ThinkPads from lenovo but the one closest to my budget (600-700) doesn't have a Dedicated Card - which worries me a little.

Hello.

Could I please get some suggestions on what laptop I can buy that would support CAD applications with a budget of £600-£700.

I know I can't go for quadro/FirePro Graphics cards or anything like that... But I would still like to make the best choice for that price point.

My main software: AutoCAD Architecture; Photoshop and Revit. With a bit of luck, I'd like to be able to use Lumion as well.

Any suggestion is much appreciated.
Thank you!

 

[Loukieb]

I have done a lot of research and I am stuck... I am looking at a laptop for use of 3D render applications like Lumion and 3ds max. I have been on Lumion's site and they give recommendations on graphics cards with the G3D Mark site. http/www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html. As I understand they use the test for 3d rendering and application performance tests but how does a Nvidia 780m outscore a 880m and 970m if its repose to be 3 generations old? I was looking at a lenonvo Y5070 with Nvidia 860m with 4gb ram and thought that would be great. But at $1400 in my country and scoring a weak 1648 outscored by GeForce GTX 480M and GeForce GTX 470M where is the problem? I feel like or the scoring is done unproperer or just done with no interest or nvidia are taking us for fools and just changing architecture but keep us at the same lvl of performance but making us pay more for drops of improvements. I cant afford a Quadro card as a Private person so why do we have this great software but hardware cant handle the the punch? For gamers you need a GTX X80 just to get a smooth frame rate for the generation of games and if you dare go GTX X70 you will get the drop in frame rate that you don't want even though you paid a arm and a leg for your machine.I understand that mobile card does not have same performance as desktop counterparts but we still pay allot of money for our machines. I travel allot but does not mean I cant plug my laptop in when I get at my destination. It just means I don't carry a large box and screen around. I dicided to get an MSI GT70 with Nvidia 970m 6GB as I could upgrade in 3 years time and make it more an investment as it look like we might have the Maxwell architecture for a while.

 

[lvedana]

Hello.

Could I please get some suggestions on what laptop I can buy that would support CAD applications with a budget of £600-£700.

I know I can't go for quadro/FirePro Graphics cards or anything like that... But I would still like to make the best choice for that price point.

My main software: AutoCAD Architecture; Photoshop and Revit. With a bit of luck, I'd like to be able to use Lumion as well.

Any suggestion is much appreciated.
Thank you!

If it helps, I have a Dell Inspiron 17 with an I7-3630QM, 8gb RAM and GTX 650M, Lumion 4.0 works a little slow, but it most depends on the complexity of your model. AutoCad runs slow at first, but after some minutes it gets fine (don't know why, but looks like it's the AutoCad 2014 that runs a bit slow)

If you get something with better spec than this you will be fine, with an SSD will make it work really better.