CPU upgrade for FEA, Matlab and CAD, rendering occasionally

Question

CPU upgrade for FEA, Matlab and CAD, rendering occasionally

MateuszM (Mechanical)

(OP)

18 Dec 20 19:17

Hello,

I've started PhD studies recently in Mechanical Engineering. The topic is highly connected with FEA (Ansys) and some Matlab. And I work in CAD on daily basis (Solidworks) so I'd like to upgrade my PC. I'm wondering which CPU should I take. Currently I'm running i7-6700K 4C/8T, but it's time to upgrade I think.

My possible choices:

Ryzen 9 3900X/XT - past generation, but still 12/24 and quite fast.
Ryzen 9 5900X - better than 3900X, but almost 50% more expensive and availability is very low;
Ryzen 7 5800X - 8/16 in price range of 3900X, is the Zen3 worth the price comparing to 3900X?
i9-10900K - 10/20 - comparable in price to 3900XT and 5800X, but I consider it more gaming than utility CPU, maybe I'm wrong?
i9-10850K - same as above, but lower bin, cheapest in this list. The concerns are the same as in the case of 10900K.

Maybe someone has one of those and uses it in similar tasks? Or amybe someone has seen relaiable benchmarks in FEA and CAD software?

By the way - due to the limited budget, workstation CPU's such as Xeon, i9-10xxxX or Threadripper are not taken into account. This is mainly home PC.

Thank you in advance.
Kind Regards
Mateusz

SSCon (Mechanical) · Answer 1 · 2020-12-23 00:36:31

SW performance is based mostly on single thread performance so the below benchmark is representative for SW performance (at least for Intel chips).

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

For FEA work it really is dependent on the software and no. of cores/ gpus available in your license.

dik (Structural) · Answer 2 · 2020-12-31 20:13:00

Quote (Currently I'm running i7-6700K 4C/8T, but it's time to upgrade I think.)

Only part of the info required... I would have thought the 6700K would be adequate... not speed demon, but adequate. What RAM do you have DDR? and amount and latency?... preferably 16GB...

Quote (i9-10900K - 10/20 - comparable in price to 3900XT and 5800X, but I consider it more gaming than utility CPU, maybe I'm wrong?)

Gaming CPUs are OK... everything you need... same with graphics card... just be careful with the monitor, though...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 3 · 2021-01-01 01:02:26

Processor Passmark X-Plat TDP
i7-6700K 8947 16869 95
i7 1065G7 8992 16540 25
ryzen 5 4500u 11272 18395 25
i7 1165G7 11604 22628 28
i7 10750H 12691 25619 45
ryzen 7 4700u 13808 21664 25
ryzen 5 4600h 14916 21757 45
ryzen 5 3600 17859 33001 65
ryzen 7 4800H 19139 26971 45
i9-10900K 24101 51130 125
ryzen 7 5800X 28702 54435 105
ryzen 9 3900X 32869 67298 105
ryzen 9 3900XT 33028 67679 105

Heavy duty gaming processing is done in the graphics cards, which is why GPUs are suddenly the go-to processors for things like AI and array processing. Nevertheless, the issue is how much does your compute needs depend on raw processor power vs. memory and I/O bandwidth. According to Passmark, anyway, the Ryzen 9s are way faster, and for the same laptop at Costco, the AMD processor-equipped ones have the faster CPUs. I've got a bit of a dog as a CPU, but it perked up a bit with 32GB of RAM, so if your processing is memory hungry, more RAM!

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CPU upgrade for FEA, Matlab and CAD, rendering occasionally