Test driving 2025 and pretty jazzed about the new features.
took a look at the recommended specs and saw this:
“A modern GPU with at least 32GB of VRAM when interacting with models utilizing materials with Physically Based Rendering texture maps, Ambient Occlusion, and Image Based Lighting.”
What?!?
Is this a typo?
Edit: Because a 32GB VRAM graphics card is incredibly expensive and very difficult to find. Only consumer option on the market at present costs around $3000 USD, if you can even find one in stock.
The only thing I can say is that all the new display features (ambient occlusion, photoreal textures, environment) work with my old RTX 2070 card that has 8 GB of VRAM. I haven’t yet tested with my ultrabook that is even more basic.
Today I finally tested v.2025 on my Asus ultrabook, and the new display features work OK on the GeForce MX250 graphics that have 2GB of dedicated memory.
I have a Chromebook for testing, that has 8 GB of RAM, and in integrated GPU. It shows PBR and environments quite well. A good amount of testing we did for 2025 was done on MacBook Pros that have 4GB of VRAM. My new work Mac is 24 GB M4, integrated graphics. My work PC has 16 GB of VRAM.
The specs may be meant for people who are loading up their own 8k maps and environments. I think anyone using what comes with SketchUp should be ok with less VRAM.
Maybe someone should edit the page to clarify. Sketchup is supposed to be easy to run, so many potential users will have the same “wtf” reaction I did.
This is really ridiculous and disrespectful to the users. Every year we insist on adding a dark mode to the desktop version of the software, but it’s never done. SketchUp users work with this software for at least 8 hours a day, and this harms their eyes, while many related software have had dark mode for years. Unfortunately, in the latest version, you’ve ignored the users’ request once again.
great. you joined yesterday, your very first message is an off topic rant. I like you already.
this thread is about the recommended spec for sketchup 2025.
if you wish to rant about the lack of dark mode, you should go in this other thread
also nice profile. Operating system is not “what I plan on doing with sketchup”. it’s mac or pc, and what version.
I did mention the recommended specs to the graphics team. The text will be edited to include a minimum recommended VRAM for PBR work, and not just give the high end figure.
