Macbook Pro Specs can't handle the Workload

My first visit to this forum, It’s a great read… I thought I would chime in RE: Macs… I currently use a 15 inch MacBook Pro:

2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, quad core
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB graphics

I’m finding it does the job 90% of the time but has a lot of trouble when adding High Poly items such as trees to my scene, It just becomes un-usable… Is this normal with a machine spec like this…???

Looking at upgrading to a 21.5 inch retina 4K iMac:

3.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
16GB 1867MHz LPDDR3
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 graphics

Any Mac Gurus able to advise…??? With similar 16GB RAM am I just going to experience the same “getting Bogged down” dramas or will the jump from 2.2 GHz to 3.3 GHz get me sorted… thanks in advance, I’m stuck…???

depends on what you mean, slow modeling operations or slow screen transformations (zoom, pan, rotate)?

speed of modeling operations is dependend on one (1) kernel of the CPU, get the highest clock speed you can afford for accelerating in this area.

and adhere to: • SketchUp Help Center : Improving Performance

if you want fast screen transformations an graphics system integrated into the CPU isn’t a good choice in general, for a top notch display output performance choose a dedicated graphics card.

Yes sketch3d_de… Zoom,Pan, Rotate is the problem… Is it possible to have a dedicated graphics card in an iMac… I didn’t think that was something that could be done

Apple have iMac listed as using i5. You could also look at the 5K models, all of which are dedicated GPU. If you could stretch to the $1999 one you would get a fusion drive, which should give much better overall machine performance than a hard drive on its own. You would also have a 27 inch instead of 21.5 inch screen.

Check About This Mac on your current machine. Does it not give two GPUs? On my MacBook Pro it shows both a Radeon and an Iris graphics card, and it uses the Radeon for driving the external monitor. Which may well mean that you’ll get better performance just by using a connected monitor instead of the internal LCD.

nope:

as colin already mentioned above, the iMac 27" Retina 5K series does have a dedicated AMD Radeon.

got it… I see now the Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB for the LCD on my machine. The i7 is available as an upgrade, however the full spec 27 inch 5K, 4.0Ghz with 2TB Fusion and 32GB of ram brush’s $5000 here in Australia

yes, dedicated in the 27 inch iMacs but not the 21.5 inch…

Hey PJC.

I have the same machine as you. Although, just doing interiors, I don’t have the geometry involved in trees etc so runs ok for me. The MBP with 250 GB harddrive only comes with the Intel Iris Pro graphics card. You could trade/sell in your current MBP and buy the larger MBP that come with the both the intel iris and the radeon graphics cards.

I wouldn’t mind a nice 27" iMac though. But justifying the cost to my wife could prove to be my biggest issue!

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Don’t add them, then.
Any computer has trouble with these, so don’t expect more expensive computer hardware to correct bad modelling habits. You simply cannot build a forest out of 3D tree models.

Anssi

:smile:

Thanks to all that provided helpful info… I will continue my research…

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