The Effect of Hardware Upgrades on Maximizing Productivity in SOLIDWORKS

As a professional SOLIDWORKS user, how often are you upgrading your hardware? Every 3 years, every 5 years or more?

You might have heard that the recommended hardware upgrade frequency in the CAD industry is 3 years and questioned the validity of this recommendation relative to the expected ROI (Return On Investment).

The TriMech Large Assembly Consultants put this assumption to the test, by comparing the performance of a 3-year-old professional DELL workstation equipped with NVIDIA video card and the most current one when opening a large assembly in SOLIDWORKS. Since the specs were very similar (almost the same CPU frequency and entry-level professional video cards) we were not expecting huge differences in performance.

What a surprise when we recorded significant time savings during both the assembly opening and graphics computation phases! We asked ourselves: What could be the cause for this huge performance improvement?

Scott Hamilton – Global Industry Strategist at DELL, Don Breda – Senior Alliance Manager at NVIDIA and Alin Vargatu – Large Assembly Consultant at TriMech share the results of their latest research and confirm or dispel the most common myths related to specking professional CAD workstations, like:

• Everyone knows that SOLIDWORKS is single threaded, so the only important factor for performance is the frequency of the CPU. The CPU in my old PC has a higher frequency that what is available in the latest workstations. Why would I upgrade?
• SOLIDWORKS just needs a certified GPU, so buy the cheapest available. I heard that there is almost no gain investing in a higher-end video card. Is that true?
• I can build my own PC much cheaper than the cost of a brand-name professional workstation. Will I miss anything performance-wise in SOLIDWORKS?

Not all system configurations are right for every engineer, so drilling into what tasks and components of SOLIDWORKS you are using is important. That’s why Dell and TriMech have worked with SOLIDWORKS to recommend ‘easy button’ configurations for everything from SOLIDWORKS PDM, through SOLIDWORKS Professional, SOLIDWORKS Visualize, and SOLIDWORKS Simulation packages.

During this on-demand webinar you will learn:

• The best time to upgrade your hardware
• Common myths related to specking professional CAD workstations
• Where TriMech clients can find exclusive savings of up to 50% for professional workstation

Additional resources:

Upgrade Your Hardware and Software for Maximum Productivity in 2023

TriMech Partners with Dell/NVIDIA for Better Software Solutions

Save on Dell Computer Products with TriMech