Hi, I am pretty new to SketchUp pro. I have a basic HP Laptop with 12 cores and an Intel based graphics card (Inter(R) UHD Graphic). No dedicated Graphics card. I am tasked to create large 3D models and struggling with response time of the commands and rendering. I used to work on AutoCad Inventor and the system used is a Dell Precision-Workstation. Can anyone suggest if Dell is an overkill for SketchUp pro or a System that can Handle Large Sketchup Pro Models without lag?
Hello,
There are two issues to focus on.
1st, Hardware: Of course the more powerful the better.
and since you say you are new to SU
2nd, Modeling Techniques: That can make a world of difference in how fast your SketchUp model is to work with.
Starting with Hardware:
As far as I know, you want a laptop with the fastest single thread processing speed you can afford for SU modeling purposes. Such as an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX
You can see how others rank here:
If rendering is your bottleneck versus modeling, depending on the rendering software requirements, you may need either a CPU with many cores and/or a strong GPU.
Here are the highest ranked GPUs
As far as RAM, 32GB to 64GB is usually plenty, but if your models are outrageously large, maybe you need 128GB.
Also make sure the computer has a fast SSD. That can make a huge difference in overall system performance.
For laptops, cooling is a huge factor. MSI seems to have some of the best performing laptops mainly because they make them fairly large with good cooling. If portability and aesthetics is a priority such as for presentations with clients, then Razer may be something to consider although with inferior cooling they actually seem to throttle back the overall performance to limit over-heating.
Now moving on to technique:
Being new to SU, you can learn a lot from this forum. A brief summary would include:
- Model only to the level of detail needed for your final output.
- Be careful with 3D Warehouse imports. Many models have way too much detail or have super large image materials applied.
- Use the free SU Image Resizer plugin to batch reduce image sizes. This is huge, I was able to reduce some of my projects from 128Mb down to 60Mb with this tool alone. The performance increase was very noticeable.
- Use CleanUp3 tools to merge faces and reduce geometry.
- Use components versus groups for identical features such as columns or light fixtures. Components stores one copy with multiple location information where as if each entity is its own group, all the geometry of each entity is stored slowing the model down.
- Use Tags to organize groups so you can easily isolate things you are working on by turning the other tags off. When geometry is off it speeds SU dramatically.
- Use Scenes to create Tag settings for what is on or off.
- Use a light weight style with just edges and no profiles or other features under edge settings.
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- make sure shadows and fog are off while working
- Use “Hide Rest of Model” when working inside groups or components, I create a shortcut to be able to toggle this on and off as needed.
the list could go on and on.. but hopefully that helps.
Good luck
What’s your budget, your specific needs, like are you going just to model, or create documents and renders also? What platform is of your preference? Windows or MacOS?
Benchmarks are ok to have an idea of the hardware performance but it won’t show in the real life, personally I think that Passmark is not the best place to check benchmarks, Geekbench and Cinebench benchmarks are more trustworthy, specially Cinebench 24 that is optimized for x86 and arm architectures.
If you ask me, I would buy right now with my eyes closed, the M4 Max Mac Studio, it has the fastest cpu core and unbelievable multi core and gpu, it’s one of the most powerful machines right now. If you have a lower budget the M4 pro Mac Mini is amazing as well. If you prefer Windows, AMD CPUs are better than intel right now, there’s a new cpu for mobile devices the Ryzen 9 AI Max 395, it has great cpu performance but the best is the integrated gpu, it has the performance of a discrete gpu, of course it won’t match a 4090 or 5090 mobile but it also costs a fraction of a machine with those gpu’s.