CAD Workstation (ArchiCAD)

[guenther Malek]

Hi guys,

 

i was asked to recommend a CAD workstation (ArchiCAD) and was wondering what makes more sense to go for:

 

1.) Refurbished Dual-Xeon Six-Core + Quadro4000(2GB) , 24 GB RAM for EUR 890,-

or

2.) BrandNew i7-7700 + GTX1050Ti (4GB) , 16 GB RAM for EUR 1.230,-

 

i tend to oldfashioned but it´s been over ten years i did classic CAD so

i am not up-to-date with new hardware is capability...

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by guenthermalek

[numerobis]

I would say definitely the 7700 for CAD. Much higher single core performance and better efficiency (energy consumption, heat, noise) and the X5670 is almost 7 years old tech without support for current standards like M.2 SSDs or even enough SATA3 and USB3 ports. And it is a used system with aged components (PSU, board, fans). If it is only for CAD and you're on a budget i think you could go for an i5 instead of the i7. The 7600K has almost the same or even better single thread performance and is a bit cheaper. The "problem" at the moment is the high RAM and SSD prices.

 

Passmark X5670, 7700, 7600K: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=1307&cmp[]=2919&cmp[]=2905

Passmark 7700, 7600K, 7700K: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2905&cmp[]=2919&cmp[]=2874

 

Do you need the HDD? And which OS is included?

 

Here are some configs incl. 2TB HDD and without OS:

 

i5-7600K: https://geizhals.de/?cat=WL-798175

 

i7-7700K: https://geizhals.de/?cat=WL-798207

Edited May 5, 2017 by numerobis

[Francisco Penaloza]

Yes, I also would recommend to get a faster CPU instead dual Xeons.

For CAD you just need a faster CPU, most of the CAD app are single threaded any ways. Get a decent amount of RAM 32 Min and get a good OpenCL/GL Card, that 1050Ti is a little in the wimpy side. A Quadro P2000 will have better performance on OpenCL/GL than that GTX.

 

If you are doing any type of rendering, then things change, then you need a Quad or Six Core i7 or Xeon will play a better role, but if it is just CAD, then the above machine will perform better.

[Dimitris Tolios]

The i7-7700 will blow the old X5670 pair out of the water, with double the single threaded performance.

The Quadro 4000 is also a bit archaic at this point, and although ArchiCAD is openGL, I would pick a modern GTX over the Q4000 easily.

[numerobis]

https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/technotes/video-cards/recommended-video-cards-for-archicad-20/

[Nikolaos M]

Archicad was my main CAD software many years ago. The TS won't need anything fancy for a gpu. I used to work with an old i5 and it's igpu with no issues, but my models were very simple back then. I agree with Dimitris.

 

Thanks for the link Numerobis. Some numbers in these charts just don't make sense to me. The 1080 worse than the 670 in some scenarios... Is it a driver issue or the newer Pascal architecture is not fully supported by some CAD programmes?

 

If I had to choose one of these two builds, I would definitely go with the 2nd one. If it was possible though, I would build this rig with custom parts of my choice.

Edited May 4, 2017 by nikolaosm

[Stephen Thomas]

Archicad does utilise multi-threading, and not just for rendering, so I would go for the i7. Currently multi-threading used for:

 

-2D drawing in case of projected 3D elements, and other special cases,

-Generation of Sections and Elevations,

-3D generation, loading and saving,

-Drawing updates,

-Background conversion of opened 3D based windows,

-Placing PDF files as drawing (visual feedback when positioning the drawing),

-Rendering,

-File saving with data compressing option,

-Managing Autosave.

[numerobis]

Nikolaos, yes the numbers are very inconsistent. I would also think that this could be a driver issue. And the Pascal based Quadros are still missing. I would also say that a GTX should be enough. But i think the main question is the budget for this build...

[Francisco Penaloza]

Honestly if you only can choose between those two options I also go with the i7 machine, it will feel over all faster.

 

Having said that and without any intent of starting other senseless debate between Quadros and GTX, for this specific task, ArchiCAD there is not much difference between the old Quadro 4000 and the new GXT 1050Ti, it is all open GL, not fancy Direct X or Cuda cores involved, actually the 'lines' in archiCAD will perform better with the Quadro, for reasons explained on the graphicsoft website it self.

but again please do not start the war again. The point here is that specific software will have better performance with a faster CPU that a combo of several CPUs at lower speed.

 

To Guenther Malek; as mentioned by other you may get a better deal building a machine your self or some one else building it for you for about the same money of the old Xeon pre build you are showing here.

Edited May 5, 2017 by fco3d

[guenther Malek]

Thank you everybody! That helped me a lot.