Similar to Julian, I run a m.2 1TB 960 EVO with external spinners for backups / archives. The m.2 drive is extremely fast but it was expensive (but worth it)
I’m not sure how quickly you need to buy your new PC - though it’s looking more and more like a few months wait might be worth the wait.
Nvidia just announced ‘RTX’ - which will allow real-time raytracing in it’s next generation of cards. It looks like some kind of crazy voo-doo if you google some examples - essentially real time cinematic quality renders. If it actually does what Nvidia promises - ‘rendering’ won’t be a thing anymore.
Intel will also release CPU’s that are resilient to the meltdown and spectre bugs sometime later this year. Software patches have been reportedly killing CPU performance by sizeable amounts - 10% at a minimum in most cases. So waiting will definitely be worth it, if you can afford to.
Has anyone had experience with the new i7-8809G with Radeon RX Vega M graphics?
Unless you are rendering, any modern laptop is going to run it no problem. You will basically hit a level where it makes no difference with the specs unless you are running an engineering or high powered gaming laptop and can really push the polycount.
Otherwise, anything in the £500-2000 range is going to be pretty much the same for models up to a few hundred MB.
The specs seem a bit lackluster, especially if any rendering is in the works. Beats my ultrabook, though.
If I have a choice, I still wouldn’t touch anything with AMD or Intel graphics.
What graphics card then?
Depends on what you are using to render (software), what type or rendering you are doing (animation, clay models, volumetric etc) and at what size etc (print, 4k, 8k).
I’ve got two laptops (one mid range and one high range) but I would not do commercial rendering on either, just proofing.
My desktop was half the price of the cheapest laptop and about 6 times as fast! So all depends on the use case really. If you are just do small renders it’s fine, animation or larger size you probably want a desktop.
If you are using a GPU renderer you want to look at a gaming card, mainly CUDA enabled GTX line. I have two 6GB GTX 980ti in my desktop PC and it runs like a dream.
I have a 16GB Quadro in one of the laptops, and while it cleans up my PC card in modelling it’s pants at render time and it was double the price of the desktop.
At present I rarely do full-scale rendering, mostly because it is so slow and my clients do not really want realistic renderings. In fact I far prefer to print them out in black and white and hand render them.
On the other hand, if I had a really good machine, I would be inclined to use a full-fledge rendering machine. So if I had something that would at least let me get a better taste of the rendering capabilities, that would be great.
As I said earlier in this conversation, I am coming from a Mac environment and have resigned myself to the Win10 world, There are just overwhelming choices and I don’t want to throw away good money. Something that I can expand on will be fine. Some have even suggested an amplifier that I just plug a basic laptop into. At this point I do not use a laptop, but I want something I can use at work and then take back home without a lot of hassle. I don’t do much SU at home, but I do a bit of writing.
That would suggest you should get a desktop as you will struggle to meaningfully upgrade a laptop unless you invert heavily in one with changeable RAM/GPU and they are rare.
Perhaps look at getting a PC workstation for the office and a chromebook for home to write with and use light models.
I don’t think Chromebooks can run SketchUp Pro, only the free (online only) version. Thus no work related models can be (in terms of licensing) run on the Chromebook.
Maybe not then, but any laptop 500 pounds or over will be fine running the desktop version, more so if you are not rendering.
low-end laptops in this price range do typically use an integrated graphics subsystem which is deffinitely not recommendable for SU, always try to get hold of a system w/ a dedicated nVidia GeForce GT(X) graphics card at least if you can afford or doing professional stuff.
Yep, that’s why I suggested OP get a desktop with upgrade-able GPU for the office and a cheap laptop for home since he is mostly using it for basic models (no rendering) and writing when not in the office.
You can get a super powerful PC desktop and a laptop with change to spare rather than a Gaming/Engineering Laptop (especially if you want to be able to swap out desktop GPU’s and RAM).
OpenGL issues of e.g. an integrated intel HD graphics common for cheap notebooks are not limited solely to a rendered display output. The e.g. current slow selection tool issue under Win 10 is related to flaky intel HD driver revisions too.
Thank everyone for their comments–I’m still not through, though. With all the emphasis on gaming laptops, I’m wondering what the drawback would be in a higher spec’d gamer for SUP. I know the nVidia Quadro is wonderful for cad, but laptops spec’d with them are generally larger, heavier, and more expensive (workstations).
Since the new Coffee Lakes are now announced, I’m just wondering…
I have a Dell Precision 7720 with a 16GB Quadro in work and it runs SketchUp like a dream as well as more serious CAD like Catia, Alias and Rhino. My laptop is actually pretty slim compared to the the old Dell laptop workstations, it’s a bit smaller than an Alienware gaming laptop. Work laptop: Precision 17 Inch 7720 Workstation: LED-Backlit Display | Dell USA
It’s seems to be super powerful running a 2k Dell monitor and a 22" Wacom Cintiq at the same time, as well as running Photoshop and SketchUp at the same time with no slow down.
At home I have a desktop PC with two MSi 6GB 980ti’s (but only using one at the moment) that handle the same size models as my work laptop but can also utilise the CUDA cores for GPU rendering, something the Quadro can not do so well. Also my PC is about £1000 cheaper than the laptop.
I would vote for the gaming laptop, as then you can future proof a little bit if you need to render. But they are mighty expensive, I would not get one myself (I would get a desktop and laptop combo).
In practice there is no difference whatsoever in the CAD performance of a similarly specced Quadro or GeForce card (number of CUDA cores, memory…). Inside they use very similar technology, but the Quadro costs 3 times more (Compare, for instance, a GeForce 1080Ti to a Quadro M6000).
for SU a Quadro has no advantage (= burning money), go for a dedicated GF GT(X) and you’r done.
If you really still want to buy a “workstation” notebook despite all the warnings about throwing money away, absolutely do not get one with lesser graphics than the Quadro M2200. The “smaller numbers” might be OK for photo editing and 2D light CAD but not 3D.
Ditto, also if you do get a gaming laptop keep an eye on Ars Technica (website) deal of the day section typically updated once per week. They collate all the current deals with Dell, Asus , MSI etc.
Ed: Dealmaster: Get an Apple Watch Series 1 for $149 | Ars Technica
There was a Dell this week with a 4GB 1050ti for only $700