Hi all,
Does anyone know how well SketchUp runs on the various MacBook Air configurations? A friend of a friend is asking, and I haven’t used an Air before. My instinct is to advise getting the 8GB memory option, but I’d advise that anyway as a rule.
Any advice?
Paul
On a macbook pro 8BG it run fantastic (except some minor issues regarding the retina screen), but i don’t see much problems for an air. I love SU on mac more than on windows.
Doesn’t the Air have only integrated Intel graphic cards? They haven’t been know to be that great historically.
RAM is one thing, but I’d put more focus on a separate graphic card - which I’m not sure if any of the Air models offer.
I think there are some Air users at the office, I’ll ask around.
I don’t use a Mac, but I understand that the Apple-supplied drivers for integrated graphics are way better than those available for the PC. Of course, slow will always be slow.
Anssi
While I haven’t personally used them, I have heard good things from the current generation Macbook Air. Yes they have integrated Intel, but its the Iris chipset which is supposed to be quite capable with handling 3D. The drivers are indeed provided by Apple, though technically still written by the graphics card manufacturers with a better vetting process before they’re added to an official Apple update. I’ll ask around and also PM you someone to ask @Paul
I have a 2012 Mac Air, 4gb ram. It works fine for the most part. I mainly use it for floor planning events. It only gets slow after I’ve added too many components. I have dynamic component tables with multiple chair settings and when I have a plan with more than 10 tables and each has 10 chairs, things tend to get a little laggy. This is after I’ve already changed most circles in my drawing to 8-12 sides to minimize lines/faces.
Rendering is another story, pretty slow, for large floor plans, I just leave my computer on to render over night. But there has been times (back when my circles were default 24 sides) and the rendering process was just too slow (running over 12 hours) and I just gave up.
But when drawing up interiors with decent details, it’s works great.