GPU for CAD recommendations

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woodson

227 posts

Master Geek

#304490 8-May-2023 18:12

I'm planning on building a PC for some who use Archicad (25/26 and plans to use 27 by the end of the year, once released). Recommended GPU specs for Archicad 26 appear to 4GB VRAM DirectX 11, going up to 8 GB VRAM DirectX 11 for higher end stuff. Here's the kicker, where things get a bit 'muddy' for me. The person I'm building for also mentions wanting to use the Redshift rendering engine whose recommended GPU specs are "NVIDIA GPU with CUDA compute capability 7.0 or higher and 10 GB of VRAM or more. We recommend NVIDIA Quadro, Titan, or GeForce RTX GPU"

When they mention RTX cards, does that mean standard Nvidia RTX models, or the workstation specific models (previously Quadro?)

Would really appreciate any recommendations from anyone running similar Cad version/rendering engine. 😊

Andib

1297 posts

Uber Geek

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#3073910 8-May-2023 19:20

GeForce RTX are the gaming cards, what was previously Quadro are now just ‘Nvidia RTX’ e.g rtx A5000

If the budget allows I would recommend sticking with the professional cards (unless the system is going to be dual used for gaming) as the Quadro drivers are generally better optimised and certified for CAD vs games.

Another benefit is if you ever need vendor support, take it from experience first level support love to point to the uncertified (GeForce) card being the cause of all problems and close your tickets before the investigating.

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woodson

227 posts

Master Geek

#3073999 8-May-2023 19:37

@Andib

Thanks very much for the reply. Is there a huge difference between the T series cards and the RTX A series cards? I.e. Leadtek NVIDIA T1000 8GB vs. Leadtek NVIDIA RTX A2000 6GB.