Workstation consultancy for architects and engineers
Revit, SolidWorks and AutoCAD each have different hardware requirements. We explain what to look out for when choosing a professional workstation.
Architects and engineers work with demanding 3D software on a daily basis. Yet we regularly see firms using hardware that isn’t optimally suited to their software. The result: sluggish viewport performance, long rendering times and frustration.
The three pillars of a good workstation
1. The right GPU
Not every GPU is suitable for professional CAD software. NVIDIA RTX Professional (formerly Quadro) and AMD Radeon PRO cards are ISV-certified for software such as Revit, SolidWorks and AutoCAD. This means that the drivers have been optimised and tested for these specific applications.
A gaming GPU may have the same technical specifications, but it lacks the driver optimisations for professional software — leading to graphical artefacts, viewport issues and crashes.
2. Sufficient memory
Large BIM models in Revit can easily use 32 GB of memory. For complex assemblies in SolidWorks, we recommend at least 64 GB. And if you have multiple projects open at the same time — which is almost always the case in practice — 128 GB may be advisable.
Where possible, we use ECC memory. This automatically corrects memory errors and prevents crashes and data corruption during lengthy calculations.
3. Fast storage
An NVMe SSD is standard nowadays, but not every NVMe drive is the same. For workstations, we recommend drives with high sustained write performance — important when saving large project files and generating renders.
Our recommendation
There is no one-size-fits-all configuration. A workstation for an architect who works primarily in Revit looks different from that of a mechanical engineer in SolidWorks, or a visualisation specialist in 3ds Max.
Tell us what software you use, how large your projects are, and how many monitors you want to connect. We’ll put together a proposal that fits your needs perfectly. Get in touch.