Best Laptops for AutoCAD-12 AutoCAD Laptop Recommendations For Freelance CAD Designers

Last Updated on November 28, 2022 by Chimezie Chidi

Do you want to buy a laptop that works perfectly for your CAD designs?

I have put together the 12 best laptops for AutoCAD for your Freelance CAD projects.

There’s nothing better than a laptop made for your project. However, when you sit down to work and only witnesses’ things like the horrors of rebooting — trying to navigate across programs without setting your laptop on a hanging spree and watching programs crash again and again until the laptop decides to quit on you.

Save yourself those troubles by buying a laptop that promises efficient workflow, speed, and reliability.

As a freelance architect, designer, or engineer working with CAD software applications, this is critical to the success of your projects.

Save yourself the traumas of getting a laptop with more headaches. You are dealing with heavy equipment that needs lots of power, RAM, processor, and GPU for rendering, so you can’t take any chances.

In this article, I will be listing some of the best laptops for AutoCAD that will give you all the power you need.

Some of these products are gaming laptops, which means they are designed for heavy workflow, but pretty expensive.

Some others fit the minimum requirements but are just budget-friendly designs, you can consider.

Ready to buy the right equipment? Read On!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and purchase an item, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. See my Affiliate disclosure page for details.

Table of Contents

AutoCAD Laptop Requirements-What to look out for when getting a laptop for AutoCAD?

Just like every other design software out there, you can’t run AutoCAD on a low-grade laptop.

You need a laptop that can provide sufficient space for the design software to run efficiently.

When you cut corners, you might end of ruining your laptop or getting frustrated trying to make the software work effectively.

However, different versions of AutoCAD have specific systems requirement. You must also bear in mind that these requirements are just the minimum requirements but to run your program efficiently, opt for something higher than these requirements.

Bearing in mind the latest system requirements for the most recent AutoCAD versions, there are things you should look out for:

Features for Windows

Processor: To run AutoCAD, you need a processor that runs fast. Currently, we have the 8th Gen Intel Corei7 processor, but you can still use other lower processors depending on the AutoCAD version you are using. However, you can use a 2.5 -2.9 GHz processor although it is recommended that you use 3+ GHz processor.
RAM: AutoCAD on its own comes with a lot of multitasking, primarily if you work on 3Ds Max and other design programs at the same time. Therefore, you should ensure that your RAM is pretty large. You can use an 8GM RAM, but it’s recommended that you use a laptop with 16GB RAM.
Graphics Card: You don’t need the great graphics card used by gaming laptops, but you must have a standard graphics card that can handle your rendering projects.
Storage Space: AutoCAD recently released a cloud and online CAD software, but if you can’t afford that, you must consider having enough storage space in your laptop. However, you also need an external hard drive to store your work as well. Without looking at space required for storing your files, your AutoCAD will require about 6GB of disk space.
Display: Your Systems display is very important as well for AutoCAD. You need a 4K display or Full HD display with resolutions up to 38040 X 2160 for a better visual experience. For conventional displays lookout for 1920 X 1080 with True Color.
.Net Framework: DirectX111 is recommended, but you can work with.NET Framework Version 4.7 or later

Features for Mac

CPU: 64-bit Intel Core Duo CPU can serve, but it’s recommended you get 2GHz Intel CPU
Memory: 3GB RAM is great, but 4GB or above is recommended
Display: The best is 2880 X 1800 with Retina Display, but you can make do with 1280 X 800 display with True Colour.
Operating System: Apple macOS Sierra v10.12 or later; High Sierra v10.13 or later; Apple macOS Mojave v10.14
Model: If you would rather work on a Mac, then you should look out for Apple MacBook 5.1 or later, MacBook Air 2.1 or later, Mac mini 3.1 or later,

Additional laptop requirements for 3D Modelling, point clouds, and large datasets

AutoCAD recently released specialized toolsets such as AutoCAD MEP, AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD Plant 3D, AutoCAD Map3D, etc.

To run those tools, you need up to 12GB Diskspace and 16GB Memory alongside other specific requirements.

Click here to find out more.

AutoCAD Laptop Requirements-What to look out for when getting a laptop for AutoCAD?

Features for Windows

Features for Mac

Additional laptop requirements for 3D Modelling, point clouds, and large datasets

Concluding thoughts

Apart from the features listed, what other unique specifications do you want in a laptop?

By Chimezie Chidi

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