Processors

[Sirius2]

With the Majority of non specialist computers (ie home/home office style)here in the UK now using the AMD "Sempron" chips, does anyone know if they are suitable for CAD usage - such as Inventor, ProE, Solidworks Solid edge etc?.

For example on the Inventor site it says AMD Athlon.....but they dont always keep upto date. The Semprons are realtively new and the majority of decent cost priced computers now come with that chip. The clock speeds are good at say 2,500mhz or whatever, but is it a feeble chip?

I know the Durons and Celerons arent an option, as they have been round for ages and always have been pretty cut price. I cant see anyone saying that they (semprons) are suitable, but I cant find anything that says they arent either.

For example if the small firm I work for needed new computers and a new 3d modeller, would it cut the mustard - or evn install? as it may not meet minimum requirements when it dtects your hardware upon setup....

Thanks

Sirius2

 

[MadMango]

I think it greatly depends on if your chip is a Socket A or Socket 754 configuration. From what I have read the Socket A Sempron is very similar to the Intel Celeron while Socket 754 is closer to the AMD64 performance. So a Socket A Sempron might not be the best thing for CAD.

In the end, it's the graphics card and not the processor speed that will you net you the highest performance gains when dealing with CAD software.

There's a fairly nice review of the AMD Sempron chip here and here.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
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[buzzp]

The AMDs are supposed to be compatible with any Intel chips. As such, I don't think your software is going to care one way or the other. I have used the atholon chip with AutoCAD in the past with no problems. I am sure ProE will install fine as well. In any case, it is best to ask the vendors of any known problems with their software and AMD processors. My guess is, they do not care.
If the AMD lines you mentioned are not suitable, is it because of the max speed of these processors or did the software vendor mention these? If the speed is adequate, I think they would work finem, too.
I can't imagine anyone designing software that would not work with AMD chips since they are basically interchangable with the Intels of the world. This would limit their market. Personally, I like AMD's since they are equally as fast with lower cost. Intel is placing a nice adder on theirs for their name.

 

[GregLocock]

I've run a wide variety of engineering software, including ProE on my Athlon. No probs with compatibility.

Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[Sirius2]

Cheers guys.

I use an Athlon at home here, and its been great so far. However what I was wondering is on many "minimum spec" sheet it gives say atleast pentiumIII or pentium 4 or AMD Athlon range of processors....none of the others like Duron, Celeron, Sempron, the more 'budget' chips get a mention at all, so I suppose thats what I was wondering - whether they are upto it and if so, why doesnt it show up on the minimum spec list.

Its pre empting a bit really, cos I envisage sometime in the near future some new computers needing to be baught, and also a move to some sort of 3d package this year sometime (in my opinion we can not carry on in the old 2d system we have and remain competitive)....so, if we need to get some sort of mid range modeller such as Inventor/SW/SE or whatever if it would actually work on those chips.

Like at the moment we are on PentiumII 255mhz or something really weak in comparison to modern standards. Theres one PC thats an Athlon thats a bit newer, but the bosses still insist on using windows 98se as they are a bit tight that way. We had some demo' Cds sent last year and they wouldnt even entertain installing because it fell below requirements.

I suppose I have visions of the same happening with the Chips as did with Windows 98se and stuff last time. The graphics was a 64DDR spec card btw.

Anyway, I was just curious becuase if some good bargain PC's come up it would be a shame to pay a lot of money only to find its not actually a good move to run CAD software on.

Thanks again

Sirius2

 

[MadMango]

Be careful on operating system selection as well. I know currently SolidWorks only supports XP and Win2k, they have dropped all other OSs.

I think the Socket 754 Sempron is going to work well with all CAD systems.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?