AutoCADderWednesday, February 11, 2009
AutoCAD 2010 gets more power from your CPU
The new AutoCAD 2010 should use the SSE2 extended instruction set in modern CPUs. This instruction set allows hardware-assisted (read: faster) computations of some mathematical functions and transformations which are quite frequent in CAD applications. Software source-code compilers have usually a simple switch for support of the SSE2 set.
The SSE2 set is supported in Pentium 4, AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron and higher processors. There is little chance you install AutoCAD 2010 (or any other 3D CAD) on a PC older than that.
I haven't seen any benchmarks on how much faster will a CAD software run with SSE2 enabled but this is one of the good ways to make a software faster.
But remember - if your AutoCAD installation is refused or you get "The application could not be initalized" erros, make sure you have a CPU with the SSE2 set supported and enabled.
The SSE2 set is supported in Pentium 4, AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron and higher processors. There is little chance you install AutoCAD 2010 (or any other 3D CAD) on a PC older than that.
I haven't seen any benchmarks on how much faster will a CAD software run with SSE2 enabled but this is one of the good ways to make a software faster.
But remember - if your AutoCAD installation is refused or you get "The application could not be initalized" erros, make sure you have a CPU with the SSE2 set supported and enabled.
Labels: AutoCAD 2010, CPU, SSE2
Monday, February 19, 2007
Do we need a new computer for AutoCAD 2008?
No and yes - it depends.
Autodesk recommends 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon CPU, 512MB RAM, 750MB disk space, 1024 x 768 graphics (OpenGL/DirectX) on Windows Vista, Windows XP sp2 or Windows 2000 sp4. This is not much more than the requirements for AutoCAD 2007. So if you are running AutoCAD 2007 you will probably run AutoCAD 2008 with the same speed on the same PC.
What is new is the 64-bit version of AutoCAD 2008. It can handle much larger data sets but it of course needs a stronger hardware. The increased requirements for AutoCAD 2008 64-bit climb to AMD Athlon, Opteron or Pentium 4 or Xeon with EM64T, 1GB RAM, 750MB disk space, 1024 x 768 graphics (OpenGL/DirectX) on Windows Vista 64-bit or Windows XP x64. Those planning to use the 64-bit AutoCAD will probably have to upgrade their old ACAD workstation.
Update: as Shaan Hurley just added - for conceptual design (3D) you will need: 3 GHz CPU, 2GB RAM (or more), 2GB free disk space (+installation), 1280 x 1024 x 32b workstation class graphics gard with 128MB RAM and OpenGL or Direct3D support (Direct3D only for Vista)
64-bit CADs will not be any faster, they will just have access to more memory allowing to process larger files.
Autodesk recommends 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon CPU, 512MB RAM, 750MB disk space, 1024 x 768 graphics (OpenGL/DirectX) on Windows Vista, Windows XP sp2 or Windows 2000 sp4. This is not much more than the requirements for AutoCAD 2007. So if you are running AutoCAD 2007 you will probably run AutoCAD 2008 with the same speed on the same PC.
What is new is the 64-bit version of AutoCAD 2008. It can handle much larger data sets but it of course needs a stronger hardware. The increased requirements for AutoCAD 2008 64-bit climb to AMD Athlon, Opteron or Pentium 4 or Xeon with EM64T, 1GB RAM, 750MB disk space, 1024 x 768 graphics (OpenGL/DirectX) on Windows Vista 64-bit or Windows XP x64. Those planning to use the 64-bit AutoCAD will probably have to upgrade their old ACAD workstation.
Update: as Shaan Hurley just added - for conceptual design (3D) you will need: 3 GHz CPU, 2GB RAM (or more), 2GB free disk space (+installation), 1280 x 1024 x 32b workstation class graphics gard with 128MB RAM and OpenGL or Direct3D support (Direct3D only for Vista)
64-bit CADs will not be any faster, they will just have access to more memory allowing to process larger files.
Labels: AutoCAD 2008, CPU, hardware, RAM, Vista
