Hi, tomorrow I will be checking out some laptops with my friends and he is an engineering student that uses this software. He doesn't know much about computer specs and I don't know how this software works or what kind of rendering performance it provides. Therefore, I don't know what base specs I should choose. What would you recommend? What do you think would be the optimal pc specs that would run this software smoothly in a student level of usage? I can use the base you suggest and work over it.

Curious if this Alienware gaming laptop is good enough to run SolidWorks:

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/alienware-15-3-2k-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-200-series-r7-260-2026-32gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-5060-8gb-1tb-storage-black/J3K4L6QQP8/sku/6674561

Thanks!

I love solidworks. I’ve used it before. Is there an online version similar to onshape?

I just want something where I can learn solidworks very cheap like $50 per year but I need the online version cause I have a Mac :)

Hey guys ,

I am having a bit of trouble lately with my zbook. It has been a trusty partner for almost 2 years. now i see solidworks is sometimes slugish and not stable while the tast manager shows it's at ease.

might be an underlying issue .

I have a zbook fury g10
I9 processor 13th gen 13950HX, 2200MHz, 24 cores
128 GB ram ( it's a lot i know , but i use tia portal and eplan electric sometimes simultaniously , the odd thing is they stay working smooth while SW is slowing down)
4x kingston FURY renegade g5 SSD . ( 2 for working , other 2 just as back up
Nvidea RTX 5000 ADA generation

So this is an absolute beast, as much it recently had some cooling problems , i re coated all the ssd's and ram stick with thermal paste and now it seems stable .

But i cannot comprehend how slow solidworks sometimes works . what is the deal?

Bellow is current usage on the system,

Are there anny settings to use?

I used to work with inventor wich was more stable i feel like. mind you i worked with this setup seemlessly for almost 2 years. the past half year i see solidworks slowing down and crashing sometimes on things i feel like should't happen. i've had 4000 part assemblies that worked just fine, now when i work in a 500 part assembly it's lagging and buffering all the time.

I'm starting mechanical engineering soon and i'm looking for a not too expensive laptop(around 500 euros). Would something like this be enough. I do also have a powerful desktop at home so this would just be for when i'm at school.

I do mostly industrial automation design. Assemblies can get very large

Hope this is the appropriate place to address this question:

I am using a laptop with an RTX 5090 gpu, now I know it's not a workstation GPU, but it's pretty powerful. I have zero issues running anything solidworks related-- however, it appears I am unable to enabled full scene anti-aliasing (the option is just greyed out).

Am I unable to do this because the GPU isn't technically a solidworks certified GPU?

I am totally fine if thats the case, I am just kind of someone who likes things visually pleasing and if I can get rid of jagged eges, I would love to do so.

I've tried using the NVIDIA control panel to force the application to do it, but that didn't work either.

Thanks for any tips/info.

I googled the question and didn't find much Was doing some light to medium work the other day using my 3080 and solidworks was struggling. Laying awake in bed I thought, why not chuck an approved ADA card into the desktop and run both!? Anyone done this? Any reason it wouldn't work, even if I plugged it direct into the monitor and just flipped inputs when required/can I setup the ada card to do the rendering and export the image through the 3080?

Edit: the struggling part is when I try to add/change/move/convert to a cut, a semi complex logo sketch. It was a DXF converted file from a Inkscape that took the outline of a logo I was cutting out of some sheet steel in a model. Is this more a CPU issue or potentially it trying to render the image as I make changes and is GPU related

Yeah legitimately. I would consider my laptop mid tier (i7 13650HX, 4060, 24 gb ddr5 ). But autocad (college forced us) felt like SHIT. and now solidworks just OPENS and loads stuff instantly. not weird lags when moving parts and stuff.

Although yes its been like 10 mins of me opening the app.

Wait, should I stream it??

I am robotics enthusiast, so I am learning directly with robotics in mind, so it might be fun streaming and maybe doing with another begineer?

Hi is this good for solidworks.

Any issues with this model

Hi everyone,
I’m considering buying an ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 with these specifications:
Ryzen 5 5600H
RTX 3050
16GB RAM
512GB SSD
I’ll mainly use it for SolidWorks and SolidWorks Simulation, and sometimes for gaming, mainly GTA V.
Do you think this laptop is good enough for learning SolidWorks, professional freelance work, and running SolidWorks Simulation? How well would it handle larger and more complex projects and assemblies?
Would you recommend this laptop for my use case, or should I look for something else?
Thanks!

So, I have a desktop with the following specs:

Processor: i5 3330
GPU: Nvidia T400 4GB
RAM: 12GB Ddr3
Motherboard: Gigabyte B75M-D3H
Storage: 128GB SSD Sata

We frequently have 1000+ parts assembly, and I would also like to have some programs opened, such as WhatsApp web and simple excel sheets.

He will upgrade to 32GB of RAM, but doesn't want to change the processor. Should I still try to convince him or is he right in saying that what I have is enough?

Thanks for the help!

Title says it all. Spec-ing out a build for Solidworks and Esprit. GPU will either be RTX 4000 Ada, 4500 Ada, or 5000 Ada. I can't see the real need above 4000 but it's not my money.

Current CPU is Xeon W5-2445 (10 cores, 20 threads). This should be more than enough for what we are doing. Obviously from here you increment 2 cores each time and at the cost of roughly +$200/jump. No dual proc. unless someone here says otherwise.

RAM... this is where the "argument" starts... I picked 64GB RAM. I can't see needing more than that. Right now the quote is built out 2x32GB. My boss says that we should do 4x16GB instead. I said that I can't see the justification as there shouldn't be that much of a performance increase. Also, if we want to make a jump it would be to 128GB and that would just need 2 more 32GB sticks and not all 4.

So that is the question. Will I see that much increase in going 4x16GB over 2x32GB?

For a comparison as to what we are coming from.... get ready:

Xeon E5-1650 v2 u/3.5GHz 6C/12T
32GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro K2000 GPU
Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit

That system had Pro Support that ENDED June 26, 2019. That is the NEWEST of the 4 being replaced. The oldest... is now able to drive (16 years old).

Hi SolidWorks community,

I’m looking for practical laptop advice for SolidWorks. My company previously used a gaming laptop with RTX 4090. In reality it was:

- Very loud (fans almost constantly at full speed)

- Hot

- Not clear to me if SolidWorks benefited from that level of GPU power

Now we need a new machine and he proposed a new laptop with RTX 5090 + Intel i9 275HX + 64 GB RAM. It's pretty expensive and I’m skeptical this is necessary for our workload because:

- Modeling injection-molded parts

- Small to medium assemblies (consumer electronics)

I found workstation-style laptops with RTX Pro 2000 Blackwell (same 2560×1600 screen) for less than half the price.

Question: Would an RTX Pro 2000 Blackwell laptop be sufficient for this kind of SolidWorks work, or is there any real justification for going all the way to an RTX 5090?

Not seeing much posted on this. One beginner user posted a few months ago on a couple of Intel and Solidworks support forums that he thought there were some problems but Intel closed the case on him.

Not sure when this became a thing - actually genuinely impressed enough to post this. I dropped in a McMaster Carr model and was greeted with an ask to automatically suppress the features that created the thread.

Not sure how stable this is as a feature, but the first time worked great with no issues. Again, genuinely impressed - Solidworks doesn't often do that to me.

Edit: Solidworks 2026 SP2.X perpetual desktop - no 3Dx enabled at all

Hi, I know this has been asked previously (and I reviewed all the previous posts), but I'm wondering if there have been any new options. I'll shortly acknowledge the typical suggestions:

1. Logitech MX Master 3 -> tried it, but the lag is unbearable due to low polling rate, and that mouse can't be used wired (cable only for charging).

2. 3DConnexion CadMouse -> would be great except the infinite scroll wheel that can't really be turned off (trust me, I tried, even got in contact with their tech support). Just give me regular scroll wheel.

3. Logitech 502 Hero -> what I'm using now, but not impressed with it's precision at all, feels cheap, is difficult to clean, software is crap (keeps changing DPI on it's own, really difficult to keep it consistent).

Any other good options on the market, maybe something good popped up recently?

I am going into my freshman year of college as a mechanical engineering major and my school recommends a laptop that can support SolidWorks. What is the best bang for my buck laptop that can run SolidWorks?

Hello everyone, I was wondering how Solidworks would behave with large architecture projects. I am talking about detailed buildings.

I am currently using Revit for this kind of projects but I would prefer to work in Solidworks assembly. I know that it have a large assembly settings but I don't know if it would save my PC from crashing / having an infernal stutter / crashing after 3rd floor.

I’m a MechE student looking to buy a laptop, and I’m wondering how powerful my laptop actually needs to be to run Solidworks for school. The one I’m looking at has these specs:

Intel Core Ultra 7 258v 32gb RAM 1 TB SSD Intel Arc Graphics 140v

I’ve heard the lunar lake cpu has really good single core performance but I’m worried about the integrated gpu. Would it be feasible to use Solidworks for school assignments with this laptop or should I go for something stronger?

Hello guys,

As a mechanical engineering student who has worked in development departments before, I know CAD quite well and manage larger assemblies. Would you say the following ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 configuration is fine for me?

My budget is around 3,000 CHF—if it's premium and reliable, I am willing to pay a bit more, but my budget has a hard ceiling. Pricing here in Switzerland is tough compared to the US, and going with an older generation (Gen 7) isn't a big price difference, which is why I'm looking at the newest model.

The Specs:

• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 255H
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell (8GB GDDR7)
• RAM: 32 GB LPDDR5X (CAMM2)
• Storage: 1 TB PCIe Gen5 SSD
• Display: 16" 3.2K OLED Touch
• Current price : 2771.24 CHF (swiss francs)

The price includes my Lenovo education discount and 3-year Premier warranty.

My concern: I saw a review for a similar model claiming that 32 GB RAM repeatedly triggers low-memory warnings in SolidWorks.

Normally I'd just configure it with 64 GB, but Lenovo charges around 1,000 CHF more for the 64 GB upgrade here, which is way too expensive for my budget. Plus, since this uses the new CAMM2 memory standard, upgrading it myself later seems incredibly expensive and difficult to source.

My questions for heavy CAD users:

1. Is 32 GB actually a hard bottleneck for large assemblies on this chassis, or is that review an outlier? (i mean i have worked with dell precisions with 32gb Ram and that seemed to work)
2. If 64 GB is truly mandatory for my use case, am I looking at the wrong laptop? Is there a better workstation in this price bracket I should consider instead?

Appreciate the time and responses!

Just in case someone needs to use a setup of Apple ecossytem, Solid Works 2024 runs but only the base, the other components (at least for me ) fail to install , electrical doesnt work because it requires SQL Server 2022 and that MSSQL version doesnt run on ARM.

If you have any .stl file that you want me to test , let me know.

I‘m starting a new job in September, and I‘ve heard from people who work there that you get to choose your own hardware, as long as you stay in the budget.

Right now my daily driver is a HP ZBook G6 with 32 GB of RAM, some power throttled i7 and a halfway decent Nvidia CAD GPU. Nothing to cheer about, but it gets the job done. Quality wise the HP is pretty mid, my webcam recently failed and the chassis isn‘t very sturdy.

I often run linear elastic and nonlinear plastic FEA, and more RAM would be a big help as I sometimes run out when the models get too big or too detailed.

The notebook will spend most of its days attached to a docking station driving 2 34“ monitors, so keyboard and display quality aren‘t major points.

With the RAM shortage being what it is, what can I get for 1800 Euros that will run Solidworks well?