Trying to decide which computer would be best to purchase. At the moment I use a MacBook Pro 13” M1 2020 which does work relatively well. I am updating due to passing on my existing laptop and would like to hear advice on which Mac book would work best for sketchup. I am a light user but do produce rendered drawings for presentation - using some download images from the warehouse. Any advice appreciated. Thanks
What are you using to render - VRay? Twinmotion? Enscape?
Just the basic as in Layout I don’t import it into any other program
So you just use the vector or hybrid rendered viewports on layout, you don’t render scenes to make them photorealistic on sketchup right? If that’s the case I would get the M4 14” cause it has a fan hence better cooling, if you were using rendering engines like vray or enscape I would suggest an older generation machine but with more gpu power, for the tasks you make the m4 basic chip is more than enough.
Yes thats right, just the vector and hybrid viewpoints. The MBP M4 14” over the MBA M4 15”? Thank you
I moved from a 16" MacBook Pro to a 15" MacBook Air M2 24GB in 2023.
The 14" MBP & 15" MBA are much closer in price/weight than the 16" MBP, so ignoring those factors, the main difference I see with the MBA is that when it is under load, the CPU gets hot, and as there is no fan all it can do is throttle the CPU to let itself cool down. So when you are doing a lot of things it can be frustratingly laggy, and you don’t get the audible clue of the fans kicking in to realise what is happening. I’ve installed an app in the taskbar that shows temperature, so now if I see it slowing down and running hot I know I just need to wait and stop doing stuff!
Apart from that I’ve been very happy with it, and most of the time I don’t run it under that much load, but if you’re doing a lot of visualisation it may be a factor.
With the MBP you do get the option of upgrading to the M4 Pro CPU for $400 or M4 Max for $900, which you don’t have on the MBA.
The higher resolution screen on the MBP is likely to help a little in SketchUp as long as you have good eyesight, on my MBA when using the internal screen for SketchUp there’s not much space left when a few tool windows are open.
Dan
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