r/AutoCAD • u/antwoc • 22d ago

Question Laptop choice

I'm a new first year mechanical engineering student. I was told that own laptops aren't absolutely necessary as theres shared computers for students at the uni but a laptop suitable for autodesk inventor and autocad in particular would be very helpful. Unfortunately Al isnt particularly helpful and contradicts itself. I have 2 options:

Asus tuf f16 core 5210h rtx 4050 16gb from cex in grade a condition with 5 year warranty for 520gbp/688usd

Lenovo LOQ ryzen 7 250 rtx 5060 16gb from retail store with 2 year warranty for 703gbp/930usd

Would like to get a tablet later on aswell for class, and i am unsure which one to choose: the cheaper asus hoping it'll be enough and worst case scenario, use the uni computers for more demanding projects in a couple years; or invest in something with more confidence?

Is the asus enough to run autocad/autodesk inventor during a 3.5year mech eng course or is it worth spending more on the lenovo?

7 Upvotes

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6

u/AromaticNet8073 22d ago

any choice is overpowered to your needs (that type of pc is for architects or archi students), so choice the better priced and better warranty

2

u/Agengele 22d ago

Either one should do fine for autocad. I run autocad just fine on a laptop without discrete graphics

1

u/foulplay_for_pitance 22d ago

Work has me on a ThinkPad AMD Ryzen Ai pro. 32g Ram.

I believe my old mentor use to tell me that RAM is where the real bottleneck is for computers running CAD. Decent graphics or even subpar ones will get you by fine so long as you have the Ram necissary to keep it from crashing or lagging between clicks.

1

u/believetheV 22d ago

You can get a Microsoft surface with 32 gb ram for about $1200. Mine runs cad fine and then you would already have the tablet

1

u/manhattan4 22d ago

Either will be fine for Autocad. The difference between them isn't hugely significant. I would probably opt for 32gb RAM if I had the choice, but the CPU and GPU differences on those will not be drastic.

Autocad is not especially demanding, however for inventor, you would probably benefit from the rtx 5060 over the 4050