No, a graphics card is not required to run AutoCAD. AutoCAD is CPU-intensive rather than GPU-intensive. The recommended VRam for AutoCAD is 128MB, which comes standard on practically every computer.
PC Hardware Recommendations for AutoCAD Computers
Autodesk, like most software companies, maintains a list of system requirements for various versions of AutoCAD that can be used to check that the hardware in your system is compatible with AutoCAD.
Most “pc needs” lists, on the other hand, tend to cover the required hardware rather than what gear would truly provide the optimum performance. Furthermore, some lists may be out of date, feature old hardware revisions, or just offer sub-optimal gear.
Because those listings can be unreliable, we’ve conducted testing to discover which hardware performs the best with AutoCAD. Based on our testing, we have created our list of suggested AutoCAD hardware.
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Processor (CPU)
When it comes to CPUs, two major requirements define a CPU’s capability:
- The frequency has a direct impact on how many operations a single CPU core can perform in a second (how fast it is).
- The number of cores refers to the number of physical cores of a CPU (how many operations it can run simultaneously).
The ability of a program to take advantage of many CPU cores determines whether a higher frequency or larger core count is faster. In the case of AutoCAD, the majority of the software is only single-threaded, meaning it can only use a single CPU core.
As a result, our usual advice when selecting a processor is to go with the highest frequency. For current-generation CPUs, that would be Intel’s Core i9 12900K or i7 12700K, both of which have high clock rates and a large number of cores (for multitasking, etc).
2D Regeneration and Mental Ray rendering are the two exceptions to AutoCAD’s single thread constraint (source). 2D regeneration is not a particularly intensive activity, therefore it should not be a factor in CPU selection, but if you perform a lot of rendering with Mental Ray, you may want to select a CPU with a greater core count. In this scenario, we propose taking a look at our numerous Rendering workstations.
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Graphics Card (GPU)
The video card is responsible for showing the 2D and 3D models on the screen in AutoCAD. Only 3D models require anything more than a basic GPU, thus if you will only be working with 2D models, you should save money on the GPU and spend that money on a faster CPU, SSD, or more RAM.
We recommend utilizing a workstation NVIDIA Quadro card in any case. Mainstream GeForce cards can theoretically provide higher performance for your money, but they are not officially certified for use in AutoCAD by Autodesk.
As a result, we strongly advise utilizing a Quadro card in any professional situation to ensure that you can obtain full Autodesk support if you ever have a software issue.
When working with a 3D model, the faster the video card, the better the performance (in terms of frames per second). However, we discovered that, unless in severe cases, using anything faster than a mid-range NVIDIA Professional card provides little to no perceptible boost.
The RTX A4000 is a good starting point, but for many users, especially those who work in 2D rather than 3D, it may be overkill.
AutoCAD also consumes relatively little VRAM, so there’s no reason to spend money on a card with a lot of VRAM only for AutoCAD.
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Memory (RAM)
While the precise amount of RAM required will vary depending on the size and complexity of the model, we generally recommend a minimum of 16GB for all of our systems.
AutoCAD (with Mental Ray rendering) has relatively low RAM requirements, with Autodesk recommending only 8GB of RAM.
However, given the low cost of RAM and the fact that most customers use more than simply AutoCAD on their PC, we believe that 32GB is a good starting point.
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Storage (Hard Drives)
With SSD prices plummeting, we almost always advocate utilizing an SSD as the primary device that will house your operating system, AutoCAD, and any active projects you are working on.
Because SSDs are so quick, your system can boot, start apps, and load files several times faster than a regular hard drive.
However, SSDs are still more expensive per GB than traditional drives, therefore we recommend keeping a secondary traditional hard drive in addition to a primary SSD for long-term storage.
If you can afford it, having multiple SSDs (one for the operating system and AutoCAD, and another for active projects) in addition to a bigger traditional drive for storage is even better.
Final thought
Do you need a GPU for Cad? Well, we now hope that this question that was running through your mind has finally been solved in our guide today.
Running the Autocad program on your machine does not require a GPU. This is as because Autocad is CPU intensive and not GPU intensive.
We hope that this guide was helpful to you and please do not forget to comment in our comment section below, we would love to hear from you.