Hardware recommendations

brookefox

So its been a year and a half or so since the survey got under way? Are the results buried in here somewhere, or buried somewhere somewhere?

Dennis_n

hi there,
did anyone come across the ATI Radeon HD 3200 on a laptop?

also, If I buy a laptop in a store, and prepare a flash card with a viewer and a fat skp file, what is the best SU test I can do to compare available models?

brodie

@dennis_n said:

hi there,
did anyone come across the ATI Radeon HD 3200 on a laptop?

also, If I buy a laptop in a store, and prepare a flash card with a viewer and a fat skp file, what is the best SU test I can do to compare available models?

I ran across a ruby awhile back that allows for a SU benchmark http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10750#p75785

If you continue through the following pages you'll find several benchmark skp files that people posted and subsequent results.

Also have a look at http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=20076

-Brodie

brookefox

Uh..., that's a seriously useful re-direct.

Thanks.

brodie

haha, sorry about that first link. I thought it would link directly to my post. The link was supposed to redirect you to the 4th page of this thread where I bring up the Test.time_display ruby

By the way, it doesn't seem to work unless you capitalize that first "T". In other words, it must be Test.time_display NOT test.time_display

-Brodie

brookefox

I wasn't being sarcastic: I just tried the second, thread, link, which was useful to me.

keea1111

HI,

I just moved onto a used Mac os x 10.5 DUAL 2 GHz PowerPC G5  8 GB DDR SDRAM.  It has a 128 VRAM ATI RADEON 9600 video card.  I know that is the minimum video card sketch recommends, especially for the PRO version.  I am wondering if I need to bump it up to 512 VRAM.  Will I notice a big difference in this leap, or is it more subtle and unnecessary?  I do quit a bit of design work within SU/LO, so I do want to get set up the best I can within reason.  Does anyone have any insight into this need?  thanks,

Anssi

Keea,

In real life VRAM is mostly relevant if you have a lot of large textures or multiple large screens. I can run SU quite OK with my old laptop that has Nvidia graphics with 64 Mb VRAM, and my other old computer that has an ATI card with 128 Mb, drives a 1080 x 1920 widescreen display quite well too.

Anssi

beau21

I'm looking to buy a desktop at the end of the summer and was hoping to get some opinions on the model I'm leaning towards..

Specs:
27" iMac
2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB

What does everyone/anyone think of this configuration? Would that be good for modeling programs such as Sketchup, CAD, and the like.

Any/all opinions welcome.

Thanks!

brodie

@beau21 said:

I'm looking to buy a desktop at the end of the summer and was hoping to get some opinions on the model I'm leaning towards..

Specs:
27" iMac
2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB

What does everyone/anyone think of this configuration? Would that be good for modeling programs such as Sketchup, CAD, and the like.

Any/all opinions welcome.

Thanks!

Nice computer, you'll be in very nice shape. SU only uses one core but in my experience with large hospital models 2.8 GHz will do you just fine and your graphics card should be plenty good. For the rest of your programs which use multiple cores it'll be a very nice setup.

-Brodie

red44

beau21

How did you go with the Imac? Any news? Just ordered one but worried now about the ATI reviews...

red44

Anyone else any ideas on the 4850 ATI card? In the the Imac preferably, but not necessarily...

archtrot

We have been dealing with 80MB models in my office lately.
I'm considering buying a couple of computers with the following spec:

Windows 7 64 bit
AMD Athlon 3.5Ghz dual core processor
8 Gb RAM
PNY Quadro 580 with 512 Mb RAM graphics card

I can get this package built for around $2000.
Can I do any better than this without doubling the cost?

danbig

Wow--this is a long topic. I made it through about six pages before I jumped here to ask my question:

What is more important for SketchUp: system RAM, or video RAM?

Does anyone have any suggestions for a notebook computer that will do well with larger sketchup files?

Anssi

@danbig said:

Wow--this is a long topic. I made it through about six pages before I jumped here to ask my question:

What is more important for SketchUp: system RAM, or video RAM?

Does anyone have any suggestions for a notebook computer that will do well with larger sketchup files?

Vram only becomes critical if you use a lot of very large textures. Su is a 32-bit application, so system RAM is not so critical either.

What you should look for in a SU notebook is

processor speed, number of processor cores is not so important, as SU uses only one
SU benefits from the TurboBoost feature in the latest Intel multicore processors
a real graphics card (Nvidia seems still to be more reliable)

seanheadrick

Hello,
My father, a long time CAD user was wanting to give SU a try and is having a problem downloading the software. He currently uses Auto Desk on the same laptop, so I found it hard to believe his suggestion that his computer was not capable of running SU was likely. I referenced below his laptop configuration. Could anyone tell me if it seems like he should or should not be able to run SU, and if not what the problem may be. I haven't been able to trouble shoot with him much so I don't know yet if he may just be doing something wrong when installing. I thought I would rule this out first.

Thank you,
Sean

Toshiba Laptop
2.3 GHz
4 GB RAM
235 GB remaining

AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile Processor M520
AMD M880G Chipset
ATI Radeon HD 4200 Graphics with dynamically
allocated shared graphics memory

thomthom

The problem is that he can't download it? That would not be due to the hardware.

What problem is it? Incomplete download? Errors?

Dennis_n

I'm about to buy a new notebook. I wanted to confirm that for SU productivity buying i-7 CPU vs i-5 is a waste of money. Sony Vaio F series carry i-7 but these laptops are about twice the price of the vaio E series. The principal difference between two laptops is the CPU.
Please, let me know what do you think about i-7 vs i-5 for SU.

solo

The i5 has 2 cores and they become 4 threads for rendering, the i7 has 4 cores and 8 threads for rendering. (8 better than 4)

For Sketchup you only need 1 core, a decent GPU and around 4gb ram (can get less), but if you intend rendering, get 8, ooodles of Ram and a new Gen video card.

Dennis_n

here is the Vaio E 1,027.01 USD

Intel Core i5-460M Processor 2.53 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.80 GHz
4 GB (2 GB x 2) DDR3 SDRAM*2
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 Graphics 1 GB DDR3

here is the Vaio F 2,056.60 USD

Intel Core i7-740QM Processor 1.73 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.93 GHz1
8 GB (4 GB x 2) DDR3 SDRAM2 (Max)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M GPU 1 GB DDR3

I'm a designer and don't really do renderings. SU is the most demanding application for me.

The added advantage to "F" is that the screen is not glossy and I like the design slightly better. However, forking out a whole grand is hard to justify for "slightly better looks".
So it seems I won't see a difference for the $1000. Also seems like the clock speed of i-7 is slower - does it mean that this particular i-5 would actually be faster?