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Thread: Solidworks on a Surface Pro?

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    Default Solidworks on a Surface Pro?

    Morning,

    I am in the market for a new computer and have always like the idea of the Surface Pro. When it comes to computer spec's, I have very limited knowledge so I am hoping that one of you can help me out. Do you think a Surface Pro would have enough juice to run Solidworks? I will likely be upgrading to SW 2018 but don't want to purchase an under powered machine that will get laggy running bigger models. I am assuming this is an older model but if it would work, it seems like a great price:

    https://www.visions.ca/catalogue/cat...BoC6SsQAvD_BwE

    Thanks all!

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    i5 8GB ram and no GPU. Doesn't seem to be a good candidate. You need Surface Book before you have access to mobile tier of Nvidia GPUs.

    What are you running it on now? Are you happy with that?

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    That laptop is not a good deal IMHO. It is coming up on 3-year-old entry level hardware, and I find it very hard to believe it ever sold for $2449 with those specs - for less money than that you can buy a high-end 15" laptop with 6-core H series i7, 512GB PCIx4 SSD, dedicated GPU, 16GB RAM, and 4K 100% Adobe RGB screen if you want it.

    I took a quick look and it seems like Solidworks is a 3D CAD program, they recommend 8GB of RAM at the absolute minimum, a powerful GPU with at least 4GB RAM, and the software can take advantage of multiple cores/threads for some tasks like rendering. IMO that Surface Pro would be woefully inadequate. It has a half-assed mobile class GPU, the bare minimum RAM, and a low-end 2-core processor that is over 3 years old.

    In my opinion you should be looking at something like an Dell XPS 15 or Asus Zenbook Pro 550GE each with the 8th gen 6-core i7's (don't bother with the i9 in a laptop chassis), Geforce 1050Ti 4GB GPUs, 16GB of RAM, and a big PCI-E 3X4 SSD. Lenovo makes dedicated workstation laptops with Quadro GPUs which would probably be ideal but then the price/size is getting a bit nuts.

    What is your budget? And do you want the foldable/touch screen style?
    Last edited by Mitsu3000gt; 07-31-2018 at 09:19 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Xtrema View Post
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    i5 8GB ram and no GPU. Doesn't seem to be a good candidate. You need Surface Book before you have access to mobile tier of Nvidia GPUs.

    What are you running it on now? Are you happy with that?
    That one he is looking at is actually a surface book with the 940 GPU.

    Overall though, it’s going to be a bit weak. Will it run? Yes. But don’t expect much.

    Also the screen is way too small to do any cad work imho. Interface would take up half the screen.
    Originally posted by Thales of Miletus

    If you think I have been trying to present myself as intellectually superior, then you truly are a dimwit.
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    guessing who I might be, psychologizing me with your non existent degree.

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    Quote Originally Posted by killramos View Post
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    That one he is looking at is actually a surface book with the 940 GPU.
    Nvidia has two types of discrete mobile GPUs, their M series and also their full on GTX models made for notebooks which are only a hair below the desktop versions. This is the former, and is still very weak.

    It's a 940M (the lowest end), which is not the same as the equivalent GTX GPU and is not massively better than the Intel integrated graphics (roughly 50-70% better overall which isn't saying much compared to Intel's HD520 iGPU of the same generation). It also doesn't support Direct X 12. It is better than Intel's horrendous iGPUs but don't confuse it with a non-M class notebook GPU.

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    Definitely weak, was just pointing out to extrema that he was actually looking at a surfacebook.

    A lot of this really depends on what you are doing in solidworks. I have seen people do the basic stuff for school on ultra books, if it’s actually for real work you will want something better. But then again if you are doing this professionally you probabaly know that.
    Last edited by killramos; 07-31-2018 at 10:09 AM.
    Originally posted by Thales of Miletus

    If you think I have been trying to present myself as intellectually superior, then you truly are a dimwit.
    Originally posted by Toma
    fact.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yolobimmer View Post
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    guessing who I might be, psychologizing me with your non existent degree.

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    Thanks guys, I currently have an older Dell 17" Laptop and hate how big and bulky it is and how long it takes to start up since new. I like the idea of the foldable touch screen style so I could take it with me to meetings ect. I would be willing to spend up to probably $2000 on new laptop.

    As far as screen size, I do most of my real design work at a desk with an external monitor I just like the idea of the portability and touch screen tablet style. Might be better off to just but a desktop for the office and a cheaper tablet to work in excel and word ect. if I want to do some work while watching TV or just on the couch at home.

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    Quote Originally Posted by s_havinga View Post
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    Thanks guys, I currently have an older Dell 17" Laptop and hate how big and bulky it is and how long it takes to start up since new. I like the idea of the foldable touch screen style so I could take it with me to meetings ect. I would be willing to spend up to probably $2000 on new laptop.

    As far as screen size, I do most of my real design work at a desk with an external monitor I just like the idea of the portability and touch screen tablet style. Might be better off to just but a desktop for the office and a cheaper tablet to work in excel and word ect. if I want to do some work while watching TV or just on the couch at home.
    You will ALWAYS be better off with a desktop, both performance wise and value wise if you decide to go that route. For $2000 you can build a monster of a PC.

    For laptops though if you want a convertable touch-screen style your best bets so far this year are going to be a Dell XPS 15 2in1 with the 8th gen Kaby Lake G i7 CPUs (Very powerful integrated AMD Vega graphics that perform right in between a GTX 1050 and 1050Ti) or an HP Spectre X360 15" which is basically the same thing but from HP.

    If you are OK without the full 2in1 style, for right around $2000 you can get a 2018 Dell XPS 15 (9570) with 6-core 8th gen i7 H series, 256GB PCI 3x4 SSD, 16GB RAM, 1050Ti 4GB GPU, matte screen & huge battery. The direct competition to that is a 2018 Asus Zenbook Pro 550GE which personally I prefer the look of.

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    Thanks! I'll check them out.

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    Too bad you are looking for a portable, otherwise this 17" with Nvidia 1060 6GB is right up your alley. Cheap too, slap another 8GB dimm in there and you have a beefy workstation.

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/de...%3aoverviewtab
    Last edited by Xtrema; 07-31-2018 at 12:31 PM.

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    It really is a shame Nvidia bullied so many manufacturers out of using Kaby Lake G. That would be the PERFECT solution for 13-14" Laptops where they are too small to cool a full sized GPU, but still want to offer full sized GPU performance. Now if you want a decent form factor and good specs along with a decent GPU you are pretty much forced into the $2000 15" category.

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    Dell has a 24 hour sale on right now and you can get $500 off certain XPS 15 models. If you pick the right model and use code $150OFF$1700PC:

    i7 8750H 6-core
    512 GB PCI 3X4 M2 SSD
    16GB 2666Mhz RAM
    1050 TI 4GB
    1080p matte display w/100% SRGB
    97Wh battery

    $1749 - pretty tough to beat that right now IMO

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    Exactly what I paid for my last gen one a month ago, not a bad deal at all.

    Would be a mobile CAD beast.
    Originally posted by Thales of Miletus

    If you think I have been trying to present myself as intellectually superior, then you truly are a dimwit.
    Originally posted by Toma
    fact.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yolobimmer View Post
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    guessing who I might be, psychologizing me with your non existent degree.

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    Quote Originally Posted by killramos View Post
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    Exactly what I paid for my last gen one a month ago, not a bad deal at all.

    Would be a mobile CAD beast.
    thats a nice laptop, i would like an upgrade. i run inventor no problem on a 3rd gen i7, 16gb ram, 512 ssd, 650m. rendering is slow compared to my p5000 desktop but other than that it keeps up fine with 500+ part assemblies

    autocad's 2019 runs on surface pro no probem
    Machining, Fabricating, Welding etc.

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    I know a bunch of guys running surface pros for their 3D BIM programs, but I don't think they're doing any heavy work on them. I have a MBP running bootcamp windows 10, it's bee great overall, but as soon as the Surface Book get's a 3-4TB HD, I'll be making the switch over.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jlude View Post
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    I know a bunch of guys running surface pros for their 3D BIM programs, but I don't think they're doing any heavy work on them. I have a MBP running bootcamp windows 10, it's bee great overall, but as soon as the Surface Book get's a 3-4TB HD, I'll be making the switch over.
    BIM and all the different ACAD's will run but Revit won't afaik. My older N56VZ I use to work from home with using Product Design & Manufacturing Collection 2019 with most work being done in IV. Just copy back and forth my unpublished iparts and project folder, anything that is mapped to the project. Works great.
    Machining, Fabricating, Welding etc.

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    This deal is back on right now if anyone was on the fence:

    $1749

    DELL XPS 15 9570 (Spring 2018)
    i7 8750H 6-core (4.1 GHz Turbo)
    512 GB PCI Gen3 X4 M.2 SSD
    16GB 2666Mhz RAM (2X8 GB)
    1050 Ti 4GB
    Thunderbolt 3 (4 PCI lanes)
    1080p/FHD matte display w/100% SRGB
    2X2 AC WiFi
    Bluetooth 4.2
    W10 Home
    97Wh battery

    CODE: $150OFF$1700PC

    Total savings $500 (from $2249)
    Last edited by Mitsu3000gt; 08-10-2018 at 11:01 AM.

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    I appreciate all the feedback guys! I am not quite ready to pull the trigger yet but hopefully within the next month and will update this thread when I am.

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    Here's another idea- I have a Dell Studio 17 1747 that I bought maybe 7 years ago. It runs solidworks right now but is a little laggy and crashes on big models. Would it make sense to just upgrade this one? It it still a nice machine.
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    Thanks!

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    Quote Originally Posted by s_havinga View Post
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    Here's another idea- I have a Dell Studio 17 1747 that I bought maybe 7 years ago. It runs solidworks right now but is a little laggy and crashes on big models. Would it make sense to just upgrade this one? It it still a nice machine.
    Thanks!
    In my opinion no - that is 9 year old hardware and it's probably not even possible to make significant upgrades anymore. At best you could increase the RAM and add a slow SATA SSD, but the CPU/GPU is just so dated I wouldn't bother.

    That XPS 15 deal is on until August 21st as best I can tell. I don't think you are going to be able to beat that all things considered if you want something portable and powerful. Also if you can live with 256GB of storage it's only $1599. Just for fun I looked and the closest equivalent Macbook Pro with slower RAM and a much worse GPU is $3,559 LOL.
    Last edited by Mitsu3000gt; 08-13-2018 at 11:24 AM.

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