Engineer or architect, what processor do you need for AutoCAD?

Computers can be used to play games, to navigate, to edit and even to design different objects. One of the 2D and 3D design software is AutoCAD, which was released in 1982. Well, if you are a person who is going to use AutoCAD professionally, we are going to tell you which are the best processors that you can use. .

The truth is that this software is quite demanding, especially in 3D editing. You must bear in mind that the processor is important, but also the amount of RAM memory or the graphics card used. Using a processor with many cores and 8 GB of RAM does not make sense, there must be a balance.

what processor do you need for AutoCAD

AutoCAD Requirements

If we talk about programs for drawing 2D plans and 3D modeling , we are practically talking about this software designed by Autodesk. It has been on the market for many years and is currently considered the most complete and robust. Hence, it is widely used, especially to design electrical plans and for house plans, among others.

We must emphasize that the requirements are not too demanding. Of course, then we must take into account that the better the specifications, the more fluidity we will achieve. According to the official AutoCAD page, the requirements are as follows:

  • Processor: At least the processor must work between 2.5 GHz and 2.9 GHz . It is recommended that the processor works at 3.0 GHz or more
  • RAM memory: A minimum of 8 GB is established, although 16 GB or more is recommended
  • Graphics card: The minimum that a graphics card should offer is 1 GB of VRAM memory with a bandwidth of 29 GB/s and compatible with DX11. It is recommended that the graphics card has 4 GB of VRAM with a bandwidth of 106 GB/s and that it supports DX12
  • Storage: At least 10 GB of free hard drive space
  • Display: Minimum 1080p resolution display with true color. A high-resolution 4K display compatible with Windows 10 is recommended

Ideal processors for AutoCAD

As you can see, Autodesk does not specify a specific number of cores to use this software. They simply indicate working frequencies, which practically any AMD Ryzen and Intel Core processor easily exceeds. Then, the more cores we have, the better the final performance will be. We have chosen two very interesting options.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X

This is the best processor currently in terms of quality / price ratio . It has a total of 8 cores and 16 threads working at a frequency of 3.8 GHz and reaches 4.7 GHz in Boost mode. It has features that more than meet what is required of us to be able to run AutoCAD comfortably and smoothly. In addition, with a good gaming graphics card we will not only be able to model in 3D in a fluid way, but we will also be able to play after a hard day’s work.


Intel Core i7-12700K

We are now going with a processor that has an interesting advantage for AutoCAD software. The new Intel processors combine power cores, which enter when the load is high, and efficiency cores, which when the power cores are activated, help to perform certain tasks by improving performance.

This processor has 8 power cores (P-Cores) and 4 efficiency cores (E-Cores), with a total of 20 processing threads (only the power cores have processing threads). The E-Cores work at a base frequency of 2.7 GHz and in Boost mode they can reach 3.8 GHz. While the P-Cores work at 3.6 GHz and can reach 5.0 GHz.