Autodesk® Inventor® is a powerful 3D modelling software for mechanical design, documentation, and product simulation. To run Inventor® smoothly, you need a workstation with specialised hardware. In this article, we provide tips on how to set up an ideal workstation for Autodesk® Inventor®.
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Processors with high clock speeds are best for 3D modelling in Autodesk® Inventor®.
Like most 3D modelling applications, Autodesk® Inventor® performs better with a faster processor clock speed. The clock speed determines how quickly a processor core can complete a task.
The number of cores and threads in your Workstation determines how many tasks it can perform at the same time. 3D modelling in Inventor® is a lightly threaded task, so it doesn’t require many cores or threads. Therefore, choosing a processor with a high clock speed is crucial for optimising performance.
We recommend choosing a workstation with a processor clock speed of around 5GHz. Our Intel® Core™ Workstation and AMD Ryzen™ Workstation ranges meet this requirement perfectly and offer high core counts for excellent modelling performance in Autodesk® Inventor®.
If you also plan to render or simulate on this Workstation, a processor with more cores and threads will help. If you need these enhanced capabilities, check out our AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO and Intel® Xeon® W workstations for solutions that deliver high clock speeds and core counts.
Professional Graphics Cards
Autodesk® Inventor’s modelling viewport relies on the graphics card in your system. We strongly recommend using a professional NVIDIA RTX (formerly Quadro) or AMD Radeon Pro graphics card.
Professional graphics cards are optimised for modelling applications and have advanced drivers for better performance and stability. They also have excellent reliability and impressive ECC graphical memory (VRAM) capacity.
For small projects, a graphics card with 5GB VRAM is sufficient. Larger projects will benefit from cards with 12GB+ VRAM.
What is the recommended amount of memory for an Autodesk® Inventor® workstation?
System memory (RAM) is essential for the smooth performance of your applications and projects. If you have too little RAM, your Workstation will use slower hard drive space as a substitute, which can significantly reduce performance.
We recommend 16-32GB of RAM for most 3D modelling PTC Creo workstations. More demanding tasks such as simulations and rendering will likely require more RAM (typically 64-128GB).
If you also use other applications on this system, you may need more RAM.
A good way to determine how much RAM you need is to check Windows Task Manager while working on your current system and Autodesk® Inventor® projects.
Storage Drives
Solid-state drives (SSDs) are the fastest storage drives available, making them ideal for primary storage drives. We recommend installing your operating system, Inventor®, and other applications, as well as your current project files, on an SSD.
There are two main types of SSDs used in workstations: SATA-based and NVMe SSDs. Both offer adequate performance for Inventor®, but NVMe drives are faster at a slightly higher cost.
Pairing your primary storage drive with a hard disk drive (HDD) or Network Attached Storage (NAS) for long-term storage is a good idea. HDDs and NAS are slower than SSDs, but they have much larger storage capacities at a significantly lower price per gigabyte.
