Macbook pro 16" advice

SketchUp
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Hi SU community!
I am considering purchasing a new macbook pro 16”. The specs are as follows. Questions: 1) Is this more than adequate for running SU? 2) Should I upgrade to 1TB storage? I am new to SU and will be using it for interior design work. I am not very tech-y so keep advice simple please. Thanks in advance!

2.6GHz 6‑core 9th‑generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz
16GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
AMD Radeon Pro 5300M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory
512GB SSD OR 1TB SSD storage

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That should be more than addequate to run SU. It’s not far off the specs of my current mac!
Screen Shot 2020-04-14 at 9.22.56 AM
Of course… I do covet that extra inch of screen!!

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It’s one of Apple’s best machines, and their single best laptop they’ve made to date. It’ll be just fine.

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Thank you! Is it necessary to add the 1TB or will the 512GB be sufficient?

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I just got a 16" MBP.

  1. It runs SketchUp 2020 just fine so far.
  2. There’s no general answer about how much SSD you need. That depends entirely on how much stuff you plan to keep live on your disk all the time. You would need thousands of large SketchUp models to fill 1TB. Likewise photos.
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Besides my Win-PC I often use my 2017-Macbook which has the same specs as Aaron´s Macbook. SketchUp works great (Architecture), even with two 27"-4k-Displays connected to the Macbook.

SSD: Do you want to use the Macbook only for working with SketchUp? If so, then I think 512 GB would be enough. But if you also use it for all other stuff, like Photos, Videos, downloading ITunes-Movies etc. I would recommend 1 TB.

Also I would recommend a 3d-mouse from 3dconnexion. It´s awesome to work with.

EDIT:
Strange: In the German Apple-onlinestore, they only sell the 16" Model either with 2,3 Ghz (Turbo up to 4,8Ghz) oder 2,4 Ghz (Turbo up to 5,0Ghz) CPU. But both models with 1 TB SSD Storage. 512 GB isn´t available.

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Here’s my specs. I opted for 2TB, but then I have a lot of Adobe and Apple apps that take up space. One big advantage of SSD is the time to boot up, or to launch apps. Opening or saving large documents will be quicker too.

I don’t think SSD will make a noticeable difference to how smooth SketchUp seems to be running. RAM and VRAM will help there.

Screen Shot 2020-04-15 at 8.20.38 AM

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Note that macOS doesn’t report the Radeon graphics unless you have something running that uses them - for example SketchUp.

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Good catch. I had SketchUp open, but the AMD details only appeared went I went into Graphics Card Details.

Screen Shot 2020-04-15 at 9.53.56 AM
Screen Shot 2020-04-15 at 9.53.56 AM988×384 143 KB

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It’s a fantastic machine, you will be happy. However, like all Macbook Pros of the last few years, it is not upgradeable, components are fixed in place. For this reason I would opt for the 1tb SSD right now while you still can. You can never really have too much storage, and if you do run low later you are out of luck, there is no way to upgrade in the future.

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Thank you! This was very helpful.