Since its release in 1982 as a desktop app for drafting and prototyping, AutoCAD has come a long way, with up to 20 updates to the original version. This article looks at the best laptops for AutoCAD 2023 that you can get right now.
AutoCAD is used by artists, engineers, architects, graphic designers, and other professionals. Its popularity spans the engineering, architectural, printing, and fashion industries. Thousands of professionals rely on AutoCAD for preparing 2D and 3D designs of prototypes, plans, schematics, blueprints, and samples of products or architectural structures.
Presently, there are over 8 million licensed users of AutoCAD, and the number is growing. The app has a standard edition and a student edition which are quite cheaper to procure.
Comparison table for the best Laptops for AutoCAD 2023
Last update on 2023-11-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Last update on 2023-11-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
- Comparison table for the best Laptops for AutoCAD 2022
- How to get the AutoCAD 2022 trial?
- Required hardware specifications for AutoCAD 2022
- Best laptops for AutoCAD 2022
- MSI P65 Creator
- Dell XPS 15 7590 – Best Value Laptop for AutoCAD
- Asus ZenBook 14 – Best 14″ Laptop for AutoCAD
- HP Envy – 17t – Best Touchscreen Laptop for AutoCAD
- LG Gram Business Laptop – Best Battery Life
- Acer Swift 3 – Best Budget Laptop for AutoCAD
- Apple MacBook Pro 16 – Best Mac Laptop for AutoCAD
- Microsoft Surface Laptop – Best Convertible
- ASUS ProArt StudioBook 17 – Best RTX Laptop for AutoCAD
- ASUS VivoBook S17
- ASUS ExpertBook – Best Lightweight Laptop for AutoCAD
- Lenovo ThinkPad E15
- Buying Guide for best Rated Laptops for AutoCAD 2022
- Concluding Thoughts
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How to get the AutoCAD 2023 trial?
AutoCAD is available as a subscription software, and you can subscribe monthly, yearly, and triennially. The subscription costs are as follows –
- Monthly at $210
- Annually at $1,690
- Triennially at $4,565
To download a working trial of AutoCAD 2023, click on the button below.
The download is about 4GB and will remain functional for 30 days. After the trial, you must sign up for a subscription in order to continue using the app. AutoCAD is a professional application, and as such, the cost is justified to a large extent. However, there are other applications that offer similar functionality, at a reduced cost.
This article looks at the best laptops for AutoCAD 2023 and will guide you in making a choice of which laptop to use. We will look at laptops for any budget, whether you want a budget laptop, or have the money to spend on a high-end workstation laptop.
Required hardware specifications for AutoCAD 2023
Before we proceed, let’s look at some basic hardware requirements for AutoCAD. AutoCAD is basically a drawing tool, but it can also render models in 3D. In simple terms, AutoCAD utilizes the system hardware in two ways, active and passive. In active mode, AutoCAD utilizes the processor for rendering the models, whereas, in passive mode, the graphics card is utilized for displaying the models as they are created and manipulated.
In selecting the best laptop for AutoCAD 2023, here are the most important components to consider, and how they are utilized in AutoCAD for the best performance.
Processor
On the Autodesk website, they recommend a processor with a clock speed of 2.5Ghz and above. The app also does well on multi-core processors. Most of the modern processors will run appreciably well on AutoCAD, with minimal performance issues. You can opt for an Intel or AMD processor laptop with respect to this.
RAM
AutoCAD requires a minimum of 8GB of RAM and a recommended RAM of 16GB. It doesn’t matter whether the RAM is DDR3 or DDR4, although most laptops released in the last couple of years have DDR4, which is faster than DDR3.
Graphics Card
Your laptop must have at least a 1GB graphics card with support for DirectX 11. This is the minimum specification. For the best performance, your graphics card should have at least 4GB of memory. Most modern GPUs have at least 4GB of RAM, including most of the models in this review.
It is interesting to note that AutoCAD doesn’t require workstation-class powerful graphics cards in order to function effectively. Any basic GPU with just 1GB of RAM will do just fine, which of course includes integrated graphics. However, getting a high-end Laptop is great especially if you plan to use it for other things, such as video editing and transcoding, apart from AutoCAD.
Display
AutoCAD requires a full HD display but also has support for 4K displays. Almost all current generation of laptops have full HD display and so this is not really a big deal.
Storage
Your system should have at least 6GB of free disk space in order to install AutoCAD. The app occupies quite a sizeable disk space. It is not recommended to run AutoCAD on limited disk space to avoid running into performance issues.
Other things to consider include having an active network connection for activation and licensing, a pointing device such as a mouse, a browser, Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7 or later, and DirectX 11.
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