Back Story:
The dedicated Nivida GPU on my laptop just died this past week. I cannot use my 37" curved panel secondary monitor and only the little 15" laptop screen. As the 15" screen is too small for the number of windows, I have open at once (plus it runs slow and crash even when running the intel integrated graphics card)
My SketchUp Use and Experience
I have been using this fine program for over 20 years. Specializing in 3D landscape design, including scan essentials and point clouds. I typically have some or all of these programs open when working on SketchUp: Cyclone BLK, Cloud Compare, Layout, Draftsight, excel, and webpages.
Questions regarding the system GPU
As I understand, I should only go with a Nivida GPU. Last I heard, the SU 2024 new graphic engine does like AMD cards?
Is multi-threading better?
CPU
Does SU have issues with the AMD CPU? or is it only with the GPU?
For intel CPUs, is it better to go with the higher multi-threading like the i7 or i9 or go with the new i5 but with faster clock speeds?
RAM
Is it better to go with slower or older RAM (ex DDR 4 vs DDR 5 or 5400Mhz vs 6000Mhz) and more of it or faster and new RAM but less of it.
Is there a maximum amount of RAM SU / VRay can use?
Depends on which programs you want to use. If you need CUDA, then the only option is nvidia. For V-RAY GPU also (RTX/CUDA)
No.
For Sketchup higher single core performance is better, for rendering a higher multi threading performance (and higher single core performance for single core tasks like scene preparation)
This depends on the CPU and the programs you want to use. In terms of speed, there is always a sweet spot in price/performance. For rendering, how much RAM you need depends on the size of the scene. Or how many additional programs you may have open in parallel. But I wouldn’t go below 64GB these days. I have 128GB.
No, it’s only limited by your mainboard and the Windows version (Win10/11 x64 Home 128GB, Pro 2TB, Enterprise/Workstation 6TB)
If you’re planning for GPU rendering, then that’s pretty tight.
First for Sketchup and then for Vray - I am not sure about your question regarding CPU or GPU Rendering.
Blockquote Does SU have issues with the AMD CPU? - No
So I can go with a Nvidia GPU and AMD CPU, and it will run fine?
Blockquote Sketchup higher single-core performance is better
So, I may lend towards an i5 or i7 (or the AMD equal) to get the higher single-core performance for the same price tag, as I am more concerned with SketchUp’s overall performance over the rendering. Currently, I am not rendering my scenes and just using SU native image output.
BlockquoteIntel Core i7-10750H in your profile)
Yes, that profile is my current rig.
Am I assuming the lower the ‘vsample’ number, the poorer the card on those benchmarks?Based on these benchmarks, I should see a lot of speed improvements over my 3-year-old rig, even within the $1500 to $2000 budget range.
Blockquote sweet spot in price/performance.
Yes, I agree there is a sweet spot, and with tech always quickly evolving, it’s hard to find that spot.