Howdy folks! Guz here with SketchUp Support.
We’ve received a few calls lately about issues with SketchUp working with their new Surface Pro.
Sounds like some lucky users are getting upgrades, and that’s awesome, but not all of these replacement computers will give you the power you need for SketchUp Pro 2017 or newer. The most important ingredient? A dedicated GPU (graphics processor unit).
Users have been experiencing lag / slowness, black screens, and general performance issues. There are passible work arounds, but the real solution is to be sure you (or your IT team) issues you a system with a built-in GPU. The integrated Intel display adaptor won’t do the job for you.
You can find our system requirements on this page: SketchUp Hardware and Software Requirements | SketchUp Help
If it’s too late, and you’ve already got a Surface Pro with only an integrated display adaptor, try going to Preferences > OpenGL > and uncheck the box for Fast Feedback. That should at least fix any issues with a black workspace.
That’s all for now. Happy Sketching!
UPDATE
Initial research tells me that IF you have a Surface Pro with an i7 processor AND it is docked into its keyboard, then you shouldn’t have a problem running SketchUp Pro. This configuration includes a GeForce 1060 6GB discrete GPU and that’s more than enough power to do the job (in most cases).
IF you have the i7 and you are running in Tablet mode OR you are using a Surface Book Pro with a lesser processor (Intel i5 for example), it will not have a discrete GPU with its own dedicated vRAM and you will not be able to properly run SketchUp Pro 2017+.