On sale right now (and I don’t know for how much longer) at $599 US!
It uses a Quattro P620 graphics card - and that’s one a search of this forum failed to find!
The specs on the card show it’s OpenGL 4.6. I’m not worried about only 2GB video memory - as I said, my models will be small, fairly low poly, and I won’t need to do any rendering.
It is a Quadro, so somewhat overpriced for the performance. It has three times the memory and eight times the CUDA cores of my antique Quadro FX 1800 that runs my low-poly models quite sufficiently. My card doesn’t even have the minimum graphics memory specified on the SU Hardware requirements page. So you should be quite OK with the P620.
As to the CPU, this is what I got from PassMark when comparing the lowest and highest options for the machine, and one in the middle:
The performance increase might not be worth the price, especially with the i7 option.
I would definitely have more memory put in than the default 8GB.
Actually, I really not worried about CPU speed, or “Core” level, or even amount of main memory. My modeling needs for work will really be for very small models. A few low poly components representing electrical equipment placed on a simple mockup of the utility rooms or the side of a building… I’d be surprised if ANY model I do for work will go over 10K polygons with more than 10 components! And I’ll have no need to render.
The places where my work requires more power will be outside of SketchUp - and actually happening on our terminal server, just presented to me through the MSTSC client!
I agree in that hardware performance is often grossly overrated. To come to the terrible truth - see what I am currently happily using to model at home, compared to the cheapest choice available to your Lenovo:
Page I linked - or at least I THOUGHT I linked - had a 256GB SSD drive. As did the computer configuration I just ordered for even LESS than I thought: $579 (+ tax) - another $20 off because I don’t need a keyboard or mouse:
I think that why computer suppliers want to sell their products with these lower-end Quadro cards is their low power consumption. The P620 takes only 40 W. When I went through the small form factor desktops offered by large manufacturers most models had a power supply of 200 W that is too small for even those Geforce GTX models that don’t require an external power cable. Typically only the large tower models come with more than 300 W.
The only problems these Quadros cause is to your wallet. I have used several models at work over the years, chosen by my employers, and while they haven’t blown my brains off, none of them have caused the slightest trouble, at least nohing that updating the driver wouldn’t fix.
My old QuadroFX that belongs to a computer museum (I bought it the year Nvidia WAS having OpenGL problems with GeForce drivers) is probably 8 times slower but works OK for me, even if it has less graphics memory than the minimum recommended for SU:
@josm3 Sigh. I think you’re right, but only time will tell. It’s supposed to ship early next week, and I don’t know where it’s coming from, so it might be another week before I have it.
What I’m guessing people here and on the other thread about this computer seem not to have payed attention to is that I really am going for a low end computer that will, nonetheless, reliably run SketchUp and Layout for very small, low poly models.
Curved surfaces? I’ll have nearly none! The most I’ll have is modeling the outlines only of round electrical meters and meter sockets.
Textures? Other than, perhaps, custom textures as a way to label my components, I’ll only be using untextured colors!
Shapes? I’ll be mostly modeling what are functionally simple box shapes, representing electrical structures such as group metering modules and switchboard sections. What will be critical is alignment! And when I’m never trying to align more than 10 of these simple box shapes, I’m not worried about the speed of response of my computer. Heck, even if SketchUp goes to outline view while I’m moving a component, that’s all I need!
Entourage? What entourage? At most, I’ll need to model the section of a wall surface on which I “slide” my components, arranging them to fit between obstructions - and the obstructions need to only be vaguely defined. Can’t block a window? I won’t need to model the window, only draw and perhaps color in red (for “avoid”) the part of the wall where I can’t place equipment!
Stairs? At most, I’ll have to model the bottom limit of the extent of the stairs - as a plane inclined to the slope of the stairs.
And the REST of the uses to which I’ll put this computer are even less demanding! The “program” that will get the most use (probably over 95% of my time) is the Microsoft MSTSC app which gives me a desktop - served by our terminal server - inside a window. All of the heavy hitting computation will happen on the server, not on my computer.
And ALL of this is to - hopefully - close a sale on approximately 2% of my work!
Thus I suspect the 3584th rated graphic card will suffice - as long as SketchUp like working with it!
And beyond the OS and installed programs, I’ll be surprised if I ever use more than 5GB of disk space for data. MOST of my work will still be on the server, and I intend to use Trimble Connect to store most of my models in the cloud - so my salespeople can access them when they’re making an onsite presentation. We will be licensing the SketchUp Viewer, but that’s a cheap license and we only have two outside salespeople. I’m actually excited to let my salespeople know that they can use their mobile phone to provide an augmented reality, illustrative view of how our proposed gear will fit the intended space!
Because, at the time I asked, I didn’t know if the P620 had any reported problems working with SketchUp. It’s right there, in the title of this thread.
issues with the Quadros drivers I have linked above, issues with a specific model are unlikely resp. do typically affect all models supported by the concerning driver version.
Just FYI, the passmark ratings are not rankings (ie positional.) They are performance based. Compare against the GTX 1060 that you were first considering.
