Hi there,
I run Sketchup and Layout professionally for garden design, and need a new PC to will allow me to run detailed animations comfortably which are ‘model-heavy’ with 3D plants and using Shadows to show path of sun etc. I’d also like to explore some of the rendering extensions, but I can tell my current laptop with16MB RAM and GeoForceRTX card is no longer cutting the mustard.
I’d like to get a better desktop and a larger monitor, I’ve never had a custom machine built before but understand this might be the best thing for my needs. Will be an investment so happy to spend -
does anyone have a recommendation? Thank you so much!
For sure you can build a faster desktop computer than your current laptop. This could be considered similar as you build for high end gaming:
Latest high end CPU (Intel or AMD), a RAM as min 32GB, High end GPU (for Sketchup Nvidia is usually better), High end SSD storage…
However any kind of HW can be forced to its knees, if you do not consider to model like e.g.:
Improving Performance | SketchUp Help
Speeding Up Rendering with Fast Styles | SketchUp Help
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Thanks so much -
I’m sure you’re right that I could improve my model’s ‘playability’! I’ll definitely take a look at those links you recommend.
You are welcome! It is definitely worth considering using the advices on the links. You might already be achieving a better experience with your existing hardware… but be prepare yourself for some compromise’s, even if you invest for better HW. 
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As a word of warning : If have have a 3D plant heavy model, then you might find that whilst you can improve the performance, that most of the poor performance that you experience simply stems from the way that SketchUp works and a lack of optimisation on the model itself.
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Thank you - that’s good advice, and echoes what @dezmo is saying I think. I’ll definitely look into the optimisation issue. I think I need to find a way of creating planting ‘mass’ without having lots of smaller 3d models. I’ll work on it!
I don’t recommend getting the top tier cpu of amd or intel, sketchup uses only one core, and single core performance is the same on an i9 or an i5 on latest generations, the best cpu for me right now is the intel i5 13600K/KF, it has 6 performance cores and 8 efficient cores that are quite powerful as well, it can handle an RTX 4090 without bottleneck. The only reason to get an i9 or a Ryzen 9 is if you use cpu to render, but even an RTX 3060 will render faster than any of those processors. You don’t need a high end super expensive motherboard the only difference between a Z790 and a good B760 is the overclocking feature, overclocking nowadays is useless, all the CPUs run already to their limits, doing that will only increase the temperatures and it will shorten cpu life, you won’t even notice performance gains.
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Thank you so much -that’s all really useful input. I’ll definitely take that on board when I’m looking for the new machine.