Only because they are old. But you’d need to check their specs on the Nvidia site to be sure they support OpenGL 3.1 or better and have their own VRAM.
As said, it will will just be listed after the GPU model like in the description of the MSI GL62 above.
(See how the system RAM is listed separately after the CPU.)
I’m confused. When I look at this List of Nvidia graphics processing units - Wikipedia it looks like all the Mobile GPUs are GeForce and I don’t see any mention of GTX, GT or MX on the list. What am I missing?
Yeah, but how do I find out if they support hardware acceleration? I don’t see that specified on anybody’s site.
I probably misspoke. “GeForce” is a family distinct from “Quadro”. I meant OLD GeForce.
You have to actually LOOK at the lists. Click on the 900 or 10 series. You’ll notice that the mobile chipsets have an “M” suffix and the desktop chipsets do not.
Because it’s a very technical thing that is built into the CPU and it’s chipsets that the average user doesn’t understand much about.
You can read the 2nd answer on this page …
So … what it boils down to is the Intel i3, i5, i7 … etc. (the iCore series) CPUs and chipsets support it if the operating system does and the GPUs do. Windows 7, 8 and 10 have support.
Later Intel UHD may (but are integrated and not recommended for heavy modeling.) It may be even that older Intel graphics supported it, say back to HD 5000 or so. (I think I had run SU2017 tests on an old i5 machine with integrated HD 4600 graphics, but it’s been a few years.) Regardless these old graphics are near end of support by Intel.
I’d recommend even office users get a machine with at least UHD graphics.
Nvidia dedicated GPU chipsets that are Cuda based also support it. These are the GeForce, Quadro and Titan families.
There are also likely AMD machine and graphics that are acceptable but I (personally) am not that knowledgable on the Ryzen info or Vega graphics. I had issues with older AMD Athlon desktops and a HP notebook, and went back to good’ ol’ Intel machines years ago.
The exact model is Asus UX334F. The graphics circuit is GeForce MX250. This belongs to the current “entry-level” Nvidia notebook graphics series. From Notebookcheck: " The Nvidia GeForce MX250 is a dedicated entry-level mobile graphics card for laptops . It is based on the same Pascal GP108 chip as the predecessor, the GeForce MX150 / desktop GeForce GT 1030"
The machine replaced an older Zenbook that started to break down, and is certainly faster than that, which had, if I remember right, 160 M graphics. But it was a bit pricey with its touchpad/second screen and “military grade” full metal chassis.
It kind of sounds like we’ve come full circle. Are you saying that the laptop I asked about in my original post (a ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 20TA with an 11th Gen Intel Core i3-1115G4 3.0GHz Dual-Core processor and Integrated Intel UHD Graphics) might actually work for SU? As I’ve said, I don’t do any heavy modeling. BTW, Lenovo’s specs never say anything beyond “Intel UHD Graphics” for integrated graphics, so I don’t know how old they are.
It may for light models (as some users said in the other thread.)
However, have been issues with integrated graphics in the past. The screen could smear when using tools (usually linked to a fast feedback setting.) In some instances the whole modeling window will have herringbone or dithered interference pattern all over it.
The Intel spec page …
… also only states only “Intel® UHD Graphics for 11th Gen Intel® Processors”.
But the launch date was 3rd quarter of 2020 so it is only 6 months old. Basically it’s the latest generation of the i3 family, but not the latest “set” of releases. (There’s another set, just released this past quarter, that has 8MB cache, 4 cores but only 3.90GHz at boost.)
Looking at the lists of higher grade iCore processor families, they all (that have integrated graphics) state a certain “model” number, whereas the i3 do not. So we can assume the generic UHD in the i3 processors is the bottom tier, bare bone graphics offering.
I specifically just set SU2017 to use my integrated UHD Graphics 630 and SketchUp started. The OpenGL Details window does display a warning because CheckUp is now integrated within SketchUp and runs during the application load. The warning …
SketchUp found the following:
- SketchUp has detected you are using a “Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630” graphics card when your system is capable of using an AMD or NVIDIA graphics card. SketchUp will likely perform better if you change your system to use the AMD or NVIDIA card.
Updating your graphics card drivers might fix the problem.
See this Help Center article for more information.
This warning would not appear if the system had no dedicated graphics beyond the integrated.
Anyway the model display looks okay. And I get no smearing with tools operations such as moving things or stretching objects. No smearing during rectangle tool.
HOWEVER when I switched back to the browser on another display (to type the above) after a minute or so, SketchUp 2017 just crashed with no BugSplat! window. Ie, the application just closed.
I checked for a Windows Error Report and it did not catch the crash either.
I switched SU2017 back to the Nvidia GTX 1060, did the same quick tests, and it is still running happily.
So if Tiger Direct (or whomever) has an acceptable return policy you can try that Lenovo machine and if it does not work return it.
But because of many issues Trimble SketchUp division does not recommend integrated graphics.
And why we here in the forums also encourage getting a machine with dedicated graphics.
I myself am also concerned with the small 8GB memory where the integrated graphics has to steal from system RAM. But again your models are lightweight. This memory stealing is supposed to be adaptive … only taking what it needs when it needs to.
Would a Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7-14IIL 82A4000MUS Intel Core i5-1035G1 1.00 GHz 8GB with NVIDIA GeForce MX350 2GB work for me? Is 1GHz fast enough and is 2GB enough VRAM?
How about an ASUS VivoBook K413EQ-PH55 Intel Core i5-1135G7 2.40 GHz 8GB with NVIDIA GeForce MX350 2GB GDDR5?
It depends on the complexity of your models. They are, I think, on a par with my small laptop.
The Asus is faster with a relatively small margin (it has an about 15% better single-thread rating)
2GB VRAM is enough. 16GB RAM would be better.
I agree the ASUS machine is a better buy for 54 bucks more (via newegg.)
ASUS is a Taiwanese corporation vs mainland Chinese.
ASUS machines generally seem to have a better reputation for quality and durability.
Thanks for all the help, guys!! I learned a lot that I never knew. I am taking all of your advice and purchasing the ASUS VivoBook.
One last question (I hope). I received my new laptop and ran Sketchup Checkup on it. The results were all successes (yaaay!!) except for one warning:
“… you are using a ‘Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics’ graphics card when your system is capable of using an AMD or NVIDIA graphics card. SketchUp will likely perform better if you change your system to use the AMD or NVIDIA card.”
How do I set my system to use the Nvidia card? Or will SU automatically use that?
Here are three screenshots that show how you can tell Windows 10 which GPU to use for a particular application.
In the first screen, which is the Graphics Settings control panel, click Browse, and find your way to the SketchUp EXE. In my case I was choosing SketchUp 2019.
When SketchUp is added to the list of applications, click on its Options, and choose the high performance setting. That should make sure that SketchUp uses the AMD or Nvidia GPU.
Thanks for the instructions. I followed them and then ran SU Checkup again, with the same result as before. The system does show High Performance graphics for SU, so why does the Checkup report not reflect that?
You would have need to add the Checkup program to that list. I would go ahead and see how SketchUp itself is doing.
Perfect!! The Checkup is now completely successful and my models appear to be working as they should. Thanks for the help, everyone!!!
You can also check from within SketchUp (Window menu>Preferences>OpenGL>Graphics Card Details) which graphics system SketchUp is using.
