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Building New PC - Alibre Hardware Recommendations

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Phil3

Member
I will be building a new PC in the next few months, and have two questions regarding CPU and GPU for Alibre Pro 2019 and potentially Keyshot or other rendering program. My models would be small, expecting under 100 parts. As an aside, same computer may be used for 4k video editing.

1) Best Processor: I know Alibre recommends a high clock speed vs many cores. For around the same price point, that would mean Intel over AMD, but Keyshot says they use all cores, so a plus for AMD. I was thinking of either the Intel i7-9700k (8 core/8 thread and higher clock speed) or the AMD 3700X (8 core/16 thread and slower boost clock speed).

2) Best Graphics Card: Do I need the nVidia Quadro or AMD Radeon Pro series cards? Both are costly. Recommendations? Seems like most anything other than very basic meets Alibre's requirements. Keyshot recommends a Quadro RTX 4000, which costs $882. Yikes! Do I really need that?

I expect to use 16GB or RAM, but will use 32 if warranted. ??? Monitor is 2560 x 1440, 25".

Thanks,

Phil
 
DavidJ

DavidJ

Administrator
Staff member
See updated information re graphics card on https://www.alibre.com/alibre-design-software-requirements/

Personally I use an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti graphics card with my 2560x1440 display. It was the most powerful card I could buy as a fanless design, and so far it seems to cope well. Max has suggested that a card slightly higher up the range would be preferred for a 4K monitor. The HOOPS engine requires a lot more from graphics card than the old graphics pipeline did.
 
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DavidJ

DavidJ

Administrator
Staff member
Keyshot - from what I can tell a higher spec card is needed to make best use of the new GPU mode rendering (from Kesyhot 9), but not for the CPU rendering.
 
T

Toybuilder

Senior Member
Functionally, you don't need to be at the bleeding edge in order to be productive -- unless you need real-time rendering all the time, I'd say save the money and spend it on the lunch you take while you wait for your computer to do the rendering! :)

Most of the time, the extra eye-candy doesn't do much for the actual modeling work that you're spending the most of your time on...
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
For Keyshot, the cores are useful just for viewing.... for a final look-over, you may be manipulating the model a good bit to see everything. every movement restarts the rendering, so fast rendering is good.

Your requirements are modest. Personally, I am done with desktops. I bought a Dell G3 15 3590, and am as happy as a clam in mud. Got it for a grand direct from Dell with Intel coreI7 (6 cores) 16 gB and NVIDIA GTX 1660 ti.

There is a slightly lesser G3 model that goes for around $700 from many sources.
 
bigseb

bigseb

Alibre Super User
Why not just go all out and get something from the top shelf (since everyone else seems to suggest min specs)? Its like horsepower in a car, you don't actually need them all but its good to know they're there.

Seriously though, choosing between Intel or AMD, they might seem very different on paper but I doubt you'd notice any lag on either irl. And if you gonna render a lot then more cores/threads is the answer. Graphics cards... I don't think AD is that fussy to be honest. As long as it can push that 2560 x 1440.
 
Hunter

Hunter

Senior Member
I'm very happy with my Lenovo Legion "gaming laptop" I bought end of last year, specs below in my signature (I added a bit more RAM, an SSD and a 6GB graphic card). I've owned Dell Precisions and HP ZBooks before, but I think I prefer the Lenovo. In terms of performance vs price it is the best I could source locally, although one Dell XPS came close. The Lenovo runs Alibre just fine (no issues so far).
 
Hunter

Hunter

Senior Member
JST said:
I HAVE TO run legacy, or I DO get that. But we use the same graphics card. Mine is in a Dell G3-15-3590
Click to expand...
I have to clarify... I do get that with that specific model. However, if I export the model as a STEP file, and then open it in Alibre, then it looks like below.
I assumed that the problem would be persistent regardless of the 3D model -- clearly that is not so. I've only ever seen it with that specific Alibre file, and as shown below, if I export it as a STEP file and reimport, the problem disappears. It's odd, yes, but I'm not worried about it any more :)
upload_2020-2-14_6-0-48.png
 
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