Graphics Workstations for Inventor

Understand Inventors’s hardware requirements and pick the perfect 3XS Systems graphics workstation for your project

What is Inventor?

Inventor is a Computer Aided Design (CAD) software application that architects, engineers and construction professionals use to create precise 2D and 3D drawings of parts, assemblies, and drawings with manufacturing and production in mind. Inventor contains thousands of standard, intelligent parts, symbols and features within its specialised toolsets allowing the automation of annotations, layers and bills of materials all from the same familiar Inventor interface.

What makes the best workstation for Inventor?

Although there is no one ideal workstation for Inventor, this page will guide you through the most important factors to consider. The best place to start is your intended usage of Inventor - simple 2D models will work well on a lower powered workstation whereas large 3D models will require more powerful hardware. Similarly you should also consider whether Inventor will be used standalone or whether other design or rendering packages will be used in your workflow - the below recommendations and guidance focus primarily on the requirements for Inventor software alone, so you may want to read other application pages to understand how systems specifications may be impacted if multiple software applications are used together.

What CPU should I choose for Inventor?

Whether you work with 2D or 3D models, Inventor will benefit from CPUs with a high frequency and high IPC, so CPUs with lots of cores will have little benefit as the application is predominantly single-threaded. Considering these parameters we recommend AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel Core Ultra 5 CPUs for entry-level Inventor systems, Ryzen 7 and Core Ultra 7 for mid-range systems and Ryzen 9 or Core Ultra 9 CPUs for high-end systems. These processor families offer clock speeds required but retain value for money.

What GPU do I need for Inventor?

As we’ve stated Inventor is a software application that relies on CPU for the majority of tasks so a basic GPU will suffice if working with 2D models - such as an entry-level NVIDIA RTX. When using 3D models, especially larger ones we would recommend a higher specification GPU, such as an NVIDIA RTX GPU, to cope with the more complex graphics, but as Inventor doesn’t rely on GPU memory very much there isn’t much need to invest in a card with large memory.

In both cases, we would recommend a professional-grade NVIDIA GPU, as although their consumer counterparts may offer similar performance on paper, they will not be officially certified for Inventor, so you may struggle to get support from the GPU manufacturer or Autodesk should you encounter a software issue.

How much RAM is recommended for Inventor?

The minimum RAM capacity that we recommend for Inventor is 16GB. As previously stated, if you require several models open alongside each other, or other applications open together then increasing the memory to 32GB is probably wise. Likewise, if you opt for a higher-end CPU, it makes sense to match the RAM to the CPU capability for a more powerful system all round.

What storage does Inventor need?

We always recommend using an SSD for the boot drive that will host your OS, Inventor itself, and any active projects you are working on. The high speed of SSDs allows your system to boot, launch applications, and load files many times faster than any traditional hard drive. Alternatively, as your work projects increase you may want to consider a second SSD or higher capacity HDD - depending on your budget - so your OS, Inventor and live projects benefit from SSD speed, but your archived work uses the HDD where speed isn’t a necessity and costs can be lowered. Another archive solution could be to employ an external NAS device allowing sharing and RAID protection.

When it comes to deciding on drive capacity, this will very much depend on your number of files and the model sizes. You should also consider the space required by other applications and their associated files too.

Recommended Inventor Workstation Specifications

Workstation specifications
	High-End	Mid-Range	Entry-Level
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 / Intel Core Ultra 9	AMD Ryzen 7 / Intel Core Ultra 7	AMD Ryzen 5 / Intel Core Ultra 5
RAM	32GB	32GB	16GB
GPU	NVIDIA RTX	NVIDIA RTX	NVIDIA RTX