AutoCAD on iMac 2010

Question

AutoCAD on iMac 2010

Hello everyone!

I'm a Mechanical Engineering student and I need to run software like AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor to do some course work. I currently have a Macbook Air (mid 2011) and it can handle AutoCAD in 2D mode, but then the program crashes in 3D mode. I was thinking of buying an iMac although I am in a budget (1,000 or so) to do my work. I plan to install either bootcamp or parallels in order to run Inventor since it is only available for Windows. I found a 2010 iMac for a decent price and I'm wondering if it could do the job?

Specs of the iMac

3.06 GHz i-3
8GB of RAM
and the graphics card I'm not sure

any help guys?

iMac

Posted on Feb 1, 2013 9:32 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Feb 1, 2013 10:25 AM in response to FlippidyFlipFlip

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities

Respecting to the MacBook Air, the difference with the Mid 2010 iMac will be enormous because of the graphic card (the MacBook Air has got an integrated card and the iMac has got a dedicated card).

If you want the best performance, I would recommend you the Mid 2011 iMac. It will be a little more expensive but it will do the job better (Intel Core i5/i7, a better graphic card, OS X Lion...), but if you don't want, the 2010 iMac can do the job

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Answer 2

Feb 1, 2013 10:27 AM in response to mende1

okay thank you so much! btw would you happen to know if I can add more than 8GB of RAM to the 2010?

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Answer 3

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Feb 1, 2013 10:30 AM in response to FlippidyFlipFlip

The Mid 2010 iMac supports 16 GB of memory officially, but you can install 32 GB. You can buy the memory in OWC or Crucial > http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/2010/DDR3_21.5_27

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Answer 4

Feb 1, 2013 10:31 AM in response to mende1

thank you, this answered all of my questions! have a great day!

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Answer 5

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Feb 1, 2013 10:35 AM in response to FlippidyFlipFlip

You are welcome

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