I am still trying to get my M3 Pro Max to render like my M4 Pro does. I even saved out the settings from one to the other, but the results are quite different. Any ideas what might be wrong?
You will notice that in the second image, from M3, a lot of objects are missing. What could cause that?
These are both done with SketchUp 2023, so it’s nothing to do with new graphics engine. The SketchUp document looks the same in both cases.
I noticed with another model that models coming from ChaosCosmos might have to be redownloaded when the file is transferred to another computer.
I’m guessing they are chaos cosmos assets and you haven’t downloaded them on one machine
They are V-Ray proxies (vrmesh). If the SKP is still located in the directory with all the assets, they should actually be found.
Btw. did you just reset to defaults and set the resolution or did you change any
other parameters?
Why should that be the case? It’s just a scene that is getting rendered like any other scene. The only thing you could say is that it’s designed to only take a few GB of memory to be compatible with many systems, but this is not relevant to compare the CPU or GPU performance.
Thanks, I had downloaded the folder on one Mac and copied the folder to the other Mac. I downloaded the folder on the other Mac now, and things are behaving better.
Should have an M3 timing soon…
I only clicked the reset button, changed CPU to GPU, chose M3 as the GPU, and turned off progressive. The rendered image size and quality are coming out with the default values (medium and 1920z1080 I think).
Actually, I see that the file opened on my M3 wanted to do 800x450, and rendered very quickly. I set it going again at 1920x1080. I had better check the quality setting as well.
The original file had the quality basically set to “high”, but had
If you change to “progressive mode”, the setting “rapid” for “update effects” could result in higher render times.
Thanks. In checking the quality I could see that M3 was set to Medium, and M4 was set to Custom, very close to the High+ end of the slider. I am testing High+ on M3, and will go back and try High+ on M4. Or I might export the M3 settings and use those on M4, to make sure everything is the same.
My main goal at the moment isn’t to find the fastest way to get a given size and quality, it’s to see how M4 does compared to M3, with the same settings.
I am aware of that. I just wanted to make it clear that the settings are significantly different after the reset. 
Thank You for this. I am in no rush and still wondering what is best for my wife to work with. Both will have 48 GB RAM, but M3 max vs M4pro is still in question.
Either way it will be a huge upgrade as she is working on Imac pre M1 models, the one with i7 3.8 ghz, gpu is Radeon 5500 8gb but GPU is not even used for this Vray renders on this model. So its just CPU + 48 GB RAM she has now as well.
You can’t go wrong with either. I was using 2019 Intel iMac with 64gb RAM and an Radeon card and moved to the M2 Max - huge upgrade for SKP and VRay.
I did one more test, where I exported the settings from M3 and used those on M4. The final image still looked different, but at least nothing was missing in either render. So, not a completely fair test, but the M4 came out 40% faster.
It took some time but its buying time and upgraded decision
M4 Pro with 48GB RAM vs M4 MAX with 36GB RAM.
So based on all the previous anwsers and information i found i think M4 Max with 48 GB and 40 CPU cores will be a bit overkill here and also most expensive option.
I was about to buy M4 Pro with 48 GB Ram, but after some reading i learned that maybe getting a slightly less ram with 36GB but more GPU cores in M4max will be a better choice here?
M4 max is more expensive version, i have a good deal right now for m4 Pro but thought i will ask here first. Will change topic name as well.
Anyone on this maybe? Will the difference be significant between M4 max with 32 GPU cores vs M4 Pro with 20 GPU Cores? Pro will have 48 GB ram and M4 max 32GB but dont think its that relevant in renders.
Anyone can anwser please? As far as i understand it, its quite obvious that M4 max will work better, a little bit faster etc, but will it be noticable faster for Vray?
Or no point in paying 900$ more for this?
Upgrade will be significant either way as my wife is using i7 3.8 with radeon 5500, so imac pre M1 chip models.
It’s very relevant, macs don’t have regular ram, they actually call it unified memory, so the cpu and gpu can make use of that memory, if you work with big projects you need as much memory as you can afford, Vray now supports gpu rendering on Mac as well and it makes a big difference between cpu and gpu rendering. I can’t tell you how much faster an M4 Max is than an M4 pro, just tell you that my M1 Max is still pretty fast, and it doesn’t have ray tracing hardware like M3 and M4 do. I think you’ll be fine with the M4 pro with 48gb of unified memory.
Can’t say. Very happy with my M2 Max Studio with 64gb and 12 cores…
In my test I did compare a 64GB M3 Pro Max against a 24GB M4 Pro, and the M4 was 40% faster. I also don’t know how much faster an M4 Pro Max would be, but the M4 Pro is already a lot faster than the best variation of the previous generation. You having twice the memory that I have ought to help with bigger textures and models.
THanks everyone for help, i tried to be more specific here. She does this. All for interior design for clients.
She builds model for interior, apartment/house etc in sketchup, adds materials to this, lights, some scenes whatever that is and once its done, in vray textures, lights, bitmaps etc and then proceeds with render.
she says her current mac is working bad with Layout where she is doing techincal drawings imported from sketchup, its some kind of sketchup add on i assume and she says its very laggy sometimes during this.
So based on this and my last question before proceeding with purchase and making her life easier,
M4 Pro 48 GB RAM 14 CPU+20 GPU Cores vs M4 Max 36 GB RAM 14 CPU + 32 GPU Core
M4 Max with 12 more GPU cores but 12 GB ram less for 900$ more
I am leaning to M4 PRO as it seems like great for her needs and M4 Max is significantly more expensive and maybe overkill but if you say that it will be significant difference and pick to go, i will go with it. Its like change will be massive anyway. I want her workflow to be as smooth as possible and think with M4 PRO it will be like that and the only difference with Pro vs Max will be that render will just complete a little bit faster on max, but it wont be that relevant anymore after switching from pre m1 chip.
Thanks everyone once again @francisquitof @colin @ateliernab
I think i know the anwser by now
“The M4 Pro with 48GB RAM (14-core CPU, 20-core GPU) is the better choice for your wife’s interior design workflow. It will eliminate LayOut lag, speed up SketchUp modeling, and provide fast V-Ray renders while excelling at multitasking, all at a $900 lower cost. The M4 Max’s rendering advantage is significant but likely overkill for her needs, and its lower RAM could limit multitasking compared to the M4 Pro. Both will be a massive upgrade from her pre-M1 Mac, but the M4 Pro hits the sweet spot for performance, cost, and longevity.”
Going from intel directly to M4 Pro will feel like going from 1970’s VW beetle to 2025 mustang.
One fun thing, either Mac will come with the Apple Intelligence tools, including writing tools, summarize. I tried that on the text from your previous post. Here’s what it came back with:
Comparing M4 Pro and M4 Max for interior design work, considering RAM, CPU, and GPU cores. M4 Pro is favored for its performance and cost-effectiveness.
