This post is our second annual comparison of startup speeds between the latest version of AutoCAD and previous versions.
The result: Once again, the new version of AutoCAD starts slower than previous versions.
Here is a table of the tests that I performed this year:
| Cold Start | Warm Start | |
|---|---|---|
| AutoCAD 2002 | 1.87 seconds | 0.27 seconds |
| AutoCAD 2005 | 3.00 seconds | 1.44 seconds |
| AutoCAD 2008 | 5.6 seconds | 0.89 seconds |
| AutoCAD 2011 | 7.90 seconds | 4.28 seconds |
| AutoCAD 2012 | 6.86 seconds | 2.66 seconds |
| AutoCAD 2013 | 8.57 seconds | 3.40 seconds |
These tests were run on a different computer from last year. I omitted some of the previous versions of AutoCAD to save time. You can see the slow increase of startup times with each new version.
Interestingly, on this computer AutoCAD 2012 does load faster than AutoCAD 2011. The main difference between this computer and last year’s is that it has an SSD hard drive. So, if you are running Windows 7 and have an SSD hard drive, AutoCAD 2012 is faster to start than AutoCAD 2011. But, AutoCAD 2013 is slower than both of them.
Last year’s results, including the testing method, are available at this post.