Hello, I’m hoping someone can provide some guidance please. I’m migrating from Archicad to Sketchup pro/enscape and my MAC book is in its way out. What’s your suggestions as to which is better a MAC mini M3 or M4 chip? Should I go back to a MACBook pro? Help much appreciated thanks!
If you’re considering buying a new computer, you might as well get the latest chip. As for the mac mini / macbook pro choice, that depends on your use : if you need to move around, macbook pro, otherwise, mac mini.
And note that SketchUp 2020 will not work on any of the MacOS versions that come with the newest Mac models so you need to have a current subscription.
The base M4 mini is excellent for the price, but might be marginal if you do large models - memory and SSD are not expandable. Alas, the price rises fast as you add more capacity.
Regarding MBP the main question is whether you need to work from multiple places. It is really not practical to lug monitor, keyboard, mouse around with the mini.
Edit: I have sequoia on my MBP but haven’t tried old versions of SU on it yet. This will be an issue with any new Mac unless you update SketchUp, as @Anssi noted.
I run both Macbook Pro and Mini - no issues!
Just got the Mac Studio M2 3 weeks ago as I’ve watched prices dropped locally with mid range upgrades and am very happy. I’m running VRay and SketchUp 2024. I send my final 5k renders to ChaosCloud so I can continue working, the speed increase in my test renders is amazing over my old machine, I wish that VRay would port to use Metal (I believe Enscape uses the M chips for rendering.
I have been very happy with the speed increase and ease of use over my maxed out 2019 iMac.
I have an MBP M3 Pro, but i mainly use it as a Mac Mini / Mac Studio, connecting it to two Studio Displays : one at home and the other at my office. This allows me to work on a big screen every day, but doesn’t prevent me from working on the move. It’s the ideal configuration for me !
There have been some issues reported with SketchUp on the M3 chip specifically. It’s hard to tell if those cases are outliers or a more serious trend. @colin would likely know more about this?
Yes, there were problems when Sketchup 2024 was released with the M3 chip, notably with the new graphics engine and ambient occlusion, but the latest updates have corrected everything (at least on my end).
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