Hi, I am updating all our desktop computers to allow use of Sketchup Pro 2018 Version. I will also need a new Mac Laptop to just run saved scenes to present models in meetings. Has anyone seen how a Macbook Pro 13" runs SU 2018?, 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB Ram, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640.
See:
SketchUp Hardware and Software Requirements
A discrete nVidia GPU is preferable to an integrated graphics processor.
Yes, but it is not available for Macs. I understand Macs do not usually have the driver problems that Windows users have with Intel graphics.
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My last couple 15" MacBook Pros have dual video cards available: One Intel based one marked as on “Built-In” bus, and an NVIDIA one marked as on PCIe bus. I always have it set to the NVIDIA card, and have “Automatic graphics switching” turned off in the Energy Saver control panel. Maybe the Intel GPU works out alright after all and maybe switching cards on the fly is OK, I don’t know, but I’ve always gone for graphic speed over battery life with CAD work. I haven’t really looked, but do the/some 13" models not have the dual video cards?
The ones I found had Intel + AMD graphics and the 13" models only had Intel.
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I have a 13’’ Macbook i5 core with (only) intel Iris 1563MB from 2013 which runs models up to 150MB in SketchUp, beyond the 200 MB, it runs into problems (lagging, not crashing)
With LayOut, depending on how many viewports are set to Vector, this behavior starts albeit already with 50MB SketchUp files, raster goes a lot better.
I am talking about >4 years old hardware which has never let me waiting for Updates (be it when shutting down or restart) I just open the lid, type my code, do my thing and close it when done. I expect it to run for another 4 years at least, so my investment would be around €150 a year, my real profit is the saved hours, though.
A discrete NVIDIA card is preferable, but the latest Intel integrated graphics really aren’t that bad. It would probably be fine for your intended use of showing models in meetings. It might be slow for enormous models.
I’ve got a 13 inch Macbook Pro Mid 2014 with Intel Iris 1536MB, 8MB RAM, i5-4278U CPU @ 2.60GHz and haven’t noticed it running slow on SketchUp but my models aren’t usually that big (probably less than 50MB). If it was my main computer and I had the money I’d get one with a discrete graphics card. The battery life is better when you don’t use the discrete graphics card.
Thank you folks.
At least in Australia, it appears the 13" only come with the single Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640, The 15" has dual cards, but not nvidia, rather Radeon Pro 555 with 2GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching + Intel HD Graphics 630. Be nice to know if anyone has the new 13" and it works ok, as the 15" is quite a price hike. The laptops not to work on, just for meeting presentation playing saved scenes, no layout involved. My models would often be 100 to 150MB, and currently struggle in presentations on a 2009 macbook pro NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. ( Guess I got my moneys worth out of that one ).
I am afraid that there is no current hardware available, Mac or PC, at least in laptops, to make your life noticeably easier. With SketchUp, we are talking mostly about the performance of a single core out of the many in today’s CPUs, and it will always be a bottleneck even with an ultracool whizbang expensive graphics card.
Thank you all for your advice.
I ended up buying a Macbook Pro 2.9GHz 512GB 16GB Ram with the additional Radeon Pro 560, auto switch crad turned off.
It plays via saved scenes, a 174MB model in sketchup pro, but still pretty jerky. Surprisingly the Sketchup viewer V18.0 plays the same model, and is very smooth in doing so. In Viewer the transitions are smooth and not at all jerky like the actual sketchup pro 2018 program. Go figure. Maybe didn’t need the new beast laptop at all, maybe just needed to be using viewer.
Hmm. That’s interesting. I never even bothered to install the viewer on my machine because I have the full blown application. I’ll have to try this.
I am just guessing, but full SketchUp has its inferencing system and other such processes running while the viewer doesn’t need such things.
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the Viewer is faster mainly because there is no Ruby Interpreter and no geometry creation to keep tabs of…
john
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Another thing I just noticed that may explain why Sketchup Viewer looks smoother in transitions that Sketchup Pro ( at least when manually going scene to scene ). Sketchup Pro maintains textures through the animation transitions, Viewer drops the textures through the animation and then renders the textures when the new scene is arrived at. Less work being done. Oddly your eye doesn’t notice that much, so may get someone out of a bind if the animation transitions in the full sketchup are not smooth as they’d like, they could use viewer and be content with a bit less detail in transitions.
Gaming notebooks with recent i5/i7 CPUs (additionally some of them using the desktop versions) are surely delivering a better single-thread performance than a 2009 Macbook Pro.
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