Top 10 Best Laptops for Autocad [2021] – Buying Guide

Your laptop should be the one that fulfills your needs in every way. If you are in any way attached to architectural design or 3D modeling you must know the importance of AutoCAD in your work and you definitely need a laptop that supports AutoCAD in terms of processor type, a number of cores and threads, display, performance, battery life, and many other specifications.

If you want a laptop for some regular use it’s very easy for you to pick one as the market is full of a good budget and a wide range of specifications laptops. But when choosing your AutoCAD your laptop must support the software

All laptops don’t have the best processor for this job. So you need a powerful one to carry out your work properly. Plus the cost is a feature that affects our every decision.

So the cost of the laptop must be in your allotted amount. So it’s the combination of best choices that will add up and make your work-life easy

Here we are going to give you a detailed review of everything you need to know before choosing the right laptop so that your chosen one is best for you.

Requirement

Buying the perfect laptop for AutoCAD you must be aware of that what the basic requirements are and what are the best options while buying a laptop. We give you a clear chart so you can decide the minimum and maximum requirements under your budget to buy a laptop for AutoCAD.

1) Acer Nitro 5

• Intel Core i5 9300H processor
• 8GB Ram
• GeForce GTX 1650 Graphic card
• 256 PCIe SSD Hard Drive
• 6” FHD 1080p IPS Display Screen
• 07 lb
• 5 hours Battery Time

If you are a game junkie and you want a laptop for yourself then Acer Nitro 5 is your best friend because of the specifications it provides. If you are low on budget and you want to fulfill your gaming craving as it is a great laptop in the medium price range.

Its screen is quite wide 15.6” and its IPS LED-backlit gives you a great clear picture with a united pixel. The fun thing to mention here is that it has got ALEXA.

This means now you can move around doing other chores and Alexa will work instead to set your alarms, check weather updates, keep track of your commitments, check the news for you and update you with game scores. Alexa is now your personal assistant with this laptop.

It’s one of the coolest features of is Nitro Sense Key. With the use of one-touch, you can give any command you want. If you want to locate anything you can use the highlighted arrowhead key and WASD.

If you are done with the 8day and want to enjoy an epic gaming experience red-backlit keyboard is here for you and you can just lay back and have fun.

Out of the world, sound0 experience can be attained with the Acer True Harmony sound system that provides you both high-quality sound with powerful range.

As for AutoCAD software to work to the full extent, it has a 9^th generation Intel Core i5 9300H processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics card with 4GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM that can provide proper speed, graphic support, and efficiency for AutoCAD software.

The processor can get enough support from 8GB DDR4 to work quickly. AutoCAD needs a lot of space so 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD is available plus one hard drive pay to load HDD.

Acer has a Cool Boast technology installed for device cooling and fan speed gets turned up if the heavy load of work heat up the laptop

2) ASUS TUF Gaming A15 Gaming Laptop

• Ryzen 5 4600H processor
• 8GB DDR4 RAM
• GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card
• 512 GB PCIe SSD Hard Drive
• 15.6” 144 Hz Full HD IPS Display screen
• 4.85lb
• 3 hours Battery

This is a new ASUS TUF versatile gaming laptop you can buy right now. It is a perfect combination of top-end AMD Ryzen APU with a healthy dollop of NVIDIA turning Graphics silicon. This is the medium weighting device.

The eight-core of Ryzen Zen 2 processing is able to offer the sort of CPU performance AutoCAD and 3D artists will dream for with ultra-speed SSD also playing its part.
A 90Wh battery and 7nm CPU will ensure a good battery time of 3 hours with your heavy-duty AutoCAD applications running.

Its Graphics support of 1650 4GB GDDR4 is great for clear presentation and the view is distortion-free. It has a durable military standard construction MIL-STD-810H. It has 20-million keystroke durability with an RGB Backlit keyboard. This is a great feature for AutoCAD as it needs a quick and longer use on the keyboard.

It has a great Wi-Fi feature with Gigabit Wave 2 Wi-Fi 5 that gives you a strong connection with the internet. It has a dual-fan with self-cleaning and anti-dust technology that helps keep the system at a steady temperature and extent its active life.

Read more: Top 10 Laptops for College Students in 2021

3) Acer Predator Helios 300

• Core i7- 10750H processor
• 16GB DDR4 RAM
• NVIDIA RTX 2060 Graphics card
• 512 GB PCIe NVMe Hard Drive
• 6″ full HD 120Hz IPS Display screen
• 07 lb weight
• 6 hours Battery Timing

As we have mentioned gaming laptops we can directly relate them to AutoCAD complementing laptops. As AutoCAD is a very heavy software it needs a strong powerful processor, quality SSD support along with heavy RAM.

This Acer Predator Helios 300 is perfectly designed the way both gamers and engineers require. RAM of this Acer Predator got 16GB of DDR4 RAM. It helps in acceleration of the processing speed and your laptop’s performance is overall increased. This RAM helps your AutoCAD work efficiently

This laptop is heavenly for AutoCAD users as it has a huge 256GB of memory that saves all your data. Acer Predator Helios has dedicated 6GB of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Graphics card for extraordinary graphics.

The battery life of 6 hours is great for AutoCAD users as they have to work long hours without interruption. This is only possible with help of lithium polymer batteries.

The Display is great at full HD and brightness with flawless contrast ratios. But still not the over the top accuracy of colors. The keyboard is very user-friendly and comfortable with a refresh rate of 144Hz. 15.6” screen is a good size to view everything.

The sound system is though one weak point in this laptop.

4) CUK ProArt Studio Book Pro 17

• Core i7 9750 H processor
• 64GB DDR4 RAM
• NVIDIA RTX 3000 Graphics card
• 2TB PCIe SSD Hard drive
• 3″ Full HD IPS Display screen
• 6 lbs Weight
• Around 2 hours

Asus ProArt Studio Book Pro 17 is a great Desktop replacement for creative professionals. Being a part of the ProArt series it is not only beastly in specifications it also has impressive looks.

This factor is a great one for creative people. It is the perfect marriage of Intel 9th generation core i7 processor, NVIDIA Quadro RTX Graphics, and precise Pantone-validated display.

This ProArt studio book pro 17 runs on an Intel Core i7-9750H processor and NVIDIA RTX 3000 Graphics card and 64 GB DDR4 RAM. This gives the laptop speed, best Graphics results, and great efficiency.

2TB PCIe SSD hard drive is going to give a complete AutoCAD experience to the user. Here you can Photoshop, process, and load images faster than ever. It has lithium batteries that are going to last around 2 hours as it drains too quickly on heavy applications.

The Speaker system is great at full volume with little to no distortion. Overall in looks, this laptop looks like a piece of art

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5) New Microsoft Surface Book 3

• Quad-Core Intel i7 processor
• 16GB RAM
• 256 GB SSD Hard Drive
• NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1660 Graphics card
• 2 lb weight
• 15” Screen Display

Microsoft Surface Book 3 can claim to be the ultimate windows powered laptop. This detachable 2 in 1 laptop certainly offers the blend of unique features, operating mode flexibility, computing power, and portability of any Microsoft PC.

Additional locking mechanism for keyboard base, powerful Graphics processing, multiple cameras, and batteries makes surface book 3 the ultimate devices for buyers who can afford and unlock its full potential

The quad-core intel core i7 1065G7 CPU with 1.3 GHz base clock speed, 16 GB of Memory, a 256 GB SSD, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 to handle Graphical output.

All these features give great power and graphical support with efficiency to this beast of a laptop. It comprises 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports one USB type C port.

It has a beautiful screen resolution. AutoCAD work gets the best results as a Graphic support key.

6) Alienware M15 15.6″ Gaming notebook

• Intel core i7 9750H 6 Core processor
• 16 GB DDR4 RAM
• 512 GB SSD hard drive
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
• RGB ALED display
• 15.6″ screen Display
If you want a laptop that’s great not only performance-wise but also aesthetically Alienware M15 is your go-to choice. Its average price makes it a treat because its specifications are great for AutoCAD work.

It’s an Intel Core i7-9750H 6-core processor whose turbo frequency is 5.4Hz. Added DDR4 RAM of 16 GB makes this laptop multitask effortlessly. Heavy software management and rendering become an easy thing.

15.6″ of Full HD and 144 Hz of higher refresh gives you a life-like display. Extraordinary NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Graphics co-processor with 6 GB of dedicated Graphic Memory ensures smooth simulation of AutoCAD. The gameplay aspect is very smooth and fast as well.

RGB LED alien FX lightening and anti-ghosting technology for attractive aesthetics are available on this laptop. Battery time of 4 hours is quite good and helps with uninterrupted AutoCAD work.

7) Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15” Laptop

• AMD RYZEN 3250U processor
• 4GB DDR4 RAM
• Radeon Vega 3
• 128 GB PCIe NVME SSD hard drive
• 15.6” HD TN Disp6
• 3.97 lbs
• 7 hours
• Windows 10 home

It is powered by the latest processors of AMD Ryzen 3 3250U. Multicore processing power provides extended Bandwidth. You can use multiple applications at the same time. It works fastest due to this beast processor.

Radeon Vegas 3 Graphics gives great resolution to AutoCAD software. It has a 15.6″ screen Display and narrow side bezel audio is a great combination of audio and video. It delivers great visual effects and perfect for AutoCAD.

128 GB SSD hard drive provides great storage space and with the help of 4 GB DDR4 RAM it’s a perfect combination to work within AutoCAD to store all your data. In this laptop windows, 10 is installed by default.

It provides a physical shutter for your webcam to give you an extreme level of privacy. It gives you great Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for staying connected.

Check Best Compersion Dell vs HP

8) Microsoft Surface Pro 7

• Intel Corei5 processors
• 8 GB RAM
• Intel HD/ Iris Display
• 128 GB- 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD hard drive
• 12″ IPS 2736×1824 Display screen
• 1.7 lb and above
• +11 hours
The surface pro 7 is an update from surface pro 6. It has a great processor and finally a USB-C port. One annoying factor is that the keyboard has to be bought separately.

Microsoft surface pro7 has launched 3 different versions. Intel 10th generation i3, i5, or i7. I3 is for lightweight usage but mostly people prefer core i5 and i7 as they are more capable.

It finally has included a USB-C port. The touch screen is 12.3″ on the diagonal with 2736×1824 resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio. It is sharp, vibrant, and responsive to touch which is its unique feature.
The surface pro is a great choice when it comes to portability. It has plenty of features that help with AutoCAD. If you are seriously thinking of 3D modeling Surface Book pro 7 is your greatest pick.

This laptop proves that a thin and lightweight laptop can be as powerful in working as others. It has a great battery of 10.5 hours and just in an hour 80% plus charging is a great feature for AutoCAD workaholics.

9) Acer Aspire 5

• 10th generation Intel core i5
• 8GB RAM
• Windows 10 home
• 8GB DDR4 Memory
• 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD hard drive
• NVIDIA Geforce MX 250
• 5 hours battery
• 99 pounds

Acer Aspire 5 is the most economical and well-built laptop you can find for AutoCAD and similar 3D modeling software. It provides you with a powerful 8th generation Intel Core i5-8256U processor with unmatched performance and sublime speed. This is essential for the smooth running of AutoCAD software.

Acer Aspire 5 comes with a 15.6″ screen with a max resolution of 1920×1080 Pixels this means a guaranteed colorful and clear display. Its weight is very light only 4 pounds. It has a great battery life of 9.5 hours. This is great for AutoCAD users who need long working hours.

Another great feature is Acer blue shield which prevents your eyes from fatigue and strain. For Graphical perfection, Radeon Vega 8 Graphics coprocessor allows great running of AutoCAD.

DDR4 SDRAM and enormous 512 GB SSD are additional features that are going to help you in processing AutoCAD. With all these impressive features the price of this laptop is heavenly and the running of AutoCAD is smooth and interruption-free.

10) ASUS VivoBook k571 Laptop

• 9th generation Intel core i7 processor
• 8GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
• 256 SSD hard drive with 1TB HDD
• 6″ Screen Display
• 7 pound

Vivo k571 is one of the best systems for AutoCAD software. The 9th generation Intel Core i5 processor is extremely powerful along with 8GB RAM and cherry on top is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 design.

The double stockpiling structure of this powerful laptop gives you a great edge. Double convenient option of 256 SSD and other one is 1 TB HDD internal Memory allows you to download larger files

It has an ultra-fast Display with an IPS level panel and a 120Hz refresh rate. It has anti-blur Motion and smooth gameplay is possible.

It has a built-in cooling fan feature that prevents the laptop from getting heated and doesn’t interrupt your AutoCAD working.

It has a great sound system and even at the full sound it doesn’t have any distortions and the sound is perfect. Overall sound quality is great.  No need to attach external speakers.

Things you consider while buying the laptop for AutoCAD

You need different things to combine perfectly for a laptop. Keeping this in mind these are some important things you need to consider while buying a new laptop for AutoCAD.

Fast Processor

The laptop industry is full of options. You can get the highest specifications and the priciest laptops as well as average specifications laptops with a nominal price range.

Having a great specifications processor is a key for many laptops in working-class people
In order to get high-quality performance on AutoCAD, you need a heavy duty processor in your laptop to work smoothly. While buying a laptop for AutoCAD you must go for a Quad-core processor with a high clock rate and 2.5GHz is the minimum capacity for the work.

Recently in the market, you can get an octa-core or now even a Hexa-core processor which is designed to manage the work of heavy software like AutoCAD. Depending on your spending capacity you can buy Intel i5 or if you can then i7 would be the perfect choice for working smoothly on AutoCAD.
One should always try to buy a processor of your need in a reasonable range that will give you the value of money.

RAM

The importance of a RAM is like the memory in your brain. The more your brain can retain the efficient you can work. The same goes for laptops.

The bigger the Memory space the better but only for those who need such huge memory requirements. If you don’t have big files to save and work on average RAM will work great for you
While using heavy software like AutoCAD, MATLAB, or other 3D base software you need 16GB RAM.

Although they can run on 8GB RAM with a quad-core processor for professional high 3D tasks minimum of 16GB RAM is what you need to Alienware M15 is a great example of AutoCAD supportive laptop with 16GB RAM that makes it count high on laptops we need while Microsoft surface pro7 has 8GB RAM which is also good for AutoCAD software to work.

Storage

The AutoCAD software needs 7GB space on your hard drive but while buying you should be aware that most of the laptops have dual memory these days one is SSD and the other is HDD. Due to fast speed and advanced technology, an SSD drive is highly recommended. As for the primary disk, 256GB is sufficient but you must have 1TB or 2TB storage capacity if you are working at a professional level.

Display Screen

Your choice of the display size and quality is very important while buying a laptop for AutoCAD. You need to consider all the aspects such as display colors, brightness, Resolution, and Contrast ratio to choose the right display screen for you. AutoCAD’s latest software needs a minimum of 1920×1080 screen resolution.
Talking about the screen size of a laptop is you need 15 inches minimum display for good quality of colors and resolution. It will work fine on 13 inches screen too but your eyes might hurt after a session of work, so for professional purposes, it’s really good to have a minimum of a 15 inches display.
CUK ProArt Studio Book Pro has a 17.3” screen size which gives you the best display while Alienware M15 has a Display screen of 15.6″ which is also a good option.

Graphics Card

AutoCAD requires high-quality screen resolution which is helpful in the 3D work performance. Most of the laptop has a simple graphic card but most for gamers have HD graphic card to play high definition games. Before buying the laptop for AutoCAD work you need to make sure that you have a good graphic card.

Cooling Panel

While you are working on a high-speed processor with good clocking speed and due to your heavy software usage like AutoCAD overclocking is needed to run the processor on turbo mode which will result in overheating of the machine.

Buying a new laptop for AutoCAD you must find a good cooling panel to keep your device at a normal temperature while working or it can harm your device parts. Most of the laptop offering cooling and cleaning systems within the laptop to keep them cool and clean properly.

BATTERY

The battery in a laptop is an essential part. You need a great battery that provides you long backup time in order to efficiently manage your work at AutoCAD.

As AutoCAD is a huge software and needs a heavy processor it means If you have a sub-standard battery in your laptop it will get drained in minutes. And that will directly affect your time Consumption if you don’t have electricity access.

Good battery saves you a lot of time as you can work uninterrupted on your laptop without it shutting down.

The minimum requirement for a good battery is that it should work for at least 3 to 4 hours and maximum great laptops are providing us with 7 to 11 hours of battery time.

Good battery life is very important as well. Depending on the usage of your battery and charging patterns battery life varies. Good battery life is 1 to 3 years. Lithium polymer batteries are the best in this regard.

A lot of laptops in the market are providing great battery backups. Upton 10.5 hours of all-day battery time by MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO7 is one of the best while ACER ASPIRE 5 and Lenovo Ideapad 5 gives 5 and 7 hour battery time respectively.

All in all the choice of a laptop is highly driven by its battery time and proves to be a great feature you cannot ignore

Cost

Cost is one of the most important factors you have to consider in order to choose a laptop for AutoCAD. If you have occasional work of modeling 3D designs then you shouldn’t speed big bucks on a laptop

But if on the other hand architectural work and design are your regular assignments then you must spend a good amount on finding a heavily equipped laptop that is going to give you value for money.

Microsoft surface pro7 is one of the high priced ones with all the great features you need in AutoCAD software while there are a lot of laptops that provide you budgeted cost but good features Lenovo Ideapad is one of the examples.

Conclusion

We give you a detailed review regarding which laptop to choose for AutoCAD. The choice must be a combination of a fast processor, big RAM, good display quality, long battery, and cooling panel to keep your laptop safe from overheating. A fast-running processor with big RAM will run AutoCAD smoothly.

In the top 10 laptop options, I suggested if you ask the best one in my opinion that it definitely would be Acer Predator Helio 300. With Core i7 10750 processor and 16GB DDR4 RAM, this laptop is a treat to complete any task on AutoCAD. It also provides 15.6 inches display with NVIDIA RTX 2060 Graphics card which gives the real colors HD display. Last but not least 512GB hard drive is enough to store your data and 6 hours of battery backup makes this laptop ideal for the professional level of AutoCAD.

Hopefully, you will have a clear idea of buying the right laptop for AutoCAD. Most of the laptop you will see are pretty costly, the real art is to find the best laptop according to your requirements and under your budget.

Happy Buying.

FAQ’s