Laptop Specification Query
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Hi all, great forum here - has been a great help on my quest for conquering Sketchup, so thank you!
I'm hoping I could request some advice with regards to the best spec of laptop for running Sketchup Pro.
My current laptop is a Dell i7 2630QM - 2.00GHz, 6GB RAM, on-board graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M), but now I am starting to create larger drawings (the largest currently about 6-7Mb) I am running into performance issues.
My company are going to invest in a new laptop for me (which will be the blueprint for others) - the current spec being proposed is as follows:
Dell Latitude E6540
15.6" (1920 x 1080)
i5 4310M – 2.7Ghz CPU
16GB Ram
AMD Radeon 2GB graphics
256 SSD
Office Home & Business 2016Is there any recommendations on ideal spec or comments on above please?
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The AMD Radeon 2GB graphics is something I personally would avoid like the plague. AMD gfx chips are notorious to give all kinds of problems (reported by a lot of users).
Some AMD chips function well though - you really have to look for information about this particular gfx chip to see if its running fine with SketchUp or not.
See the official forums as well, there are multiple threads there about this topic as well. -
Thanks for the quick response Kaas, much appreciated and noted.
I have been recommended to stick to Nvidia, but recommended spec to be confirmed..
Do you think the rest of the spec look ok?
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15,6"" with 1920x1080 -> sounds ok to me
The i5 4310M –> its from Q1 2014 (3 years old). Its a dual core that runs at 2.7Ghz and has turbo up to 3,4Ghz. For 6/7Mb models this should be fine. It all depends on your models though - the 6/7 Mb could be 1000 component copies of a 5Mb tree
If its a refurbished machine for a very very good price - I might consider it. If its a new machine I personally wouldn't buy a 3 year old cpu but get something more new (up to 1 year old tech).
16GB Ram -> fine.
AMD Radeon 2GB graphics -> no
256 SSD -> if possible make that 512 Gb. SSD's should have plenty of free space to function well. All depends on your current amount of data. Including OS, software, libraries and textures, you might need double that amount.
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Hi all,
Thought I would update with where I am at (for anyone who is in the same boat).
I have to have a Dell for work, so currently whittled down to the following:
XPS 15 9560
Inspiron 15 7000 (Gaming)PassMark - CPU Mark
Single Thread Performance - Updated 7th of February 2017
Processor CPU Mark Price (USD) Model
Intel Core i7-7820HQ @ 2.90GHz 2,252 NA Precision M5520 & M3520
Intel Core i7-6920HQ @ 2.90GHz 2,053 NA Precision M7710 & M7510 & M3520
Intel Core i7-7700HQ @ 2.80GHz 2,021 NA Precision M7510, Inspiron 15 7000, XPS 15 9560Intel Core i5-6440HQ @ 2.60GHz 1,898 NA Precision M3510
Intel Core i7-6820HQ @ 2.70GHz 1,895 NA Precision M7710 & M7510 & M5510 & M3510
Intel Core i5-7300HQ @ 2.50GHz 1,871 NA Precision M5520 & M3520
Intel Core i5-7300HQ @ 2.50GHz 1,876 NA Precision M5520
Intel Core i7-6700HQ @ 2.60GHz 1,801 $1,509.00* Precision M5510 & M3510
Intel Core i5-6300HQ @ 2.30GHz 1,671 NA Precision M3510 & M5510 & M7510Both the same processor (note we looked at Precision but spec is not ideal for Sketchup)..
PassMark - G3D Mark
High End Videocards - Updated 9th of February 2017
Videocard G3D Mark Price (USD) Model
**GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 5,888 $139.99 Inspiron 15 7000 (4GB)**Quadro M5000M 5,097 NA Precision M7710
**GeForce GTX 1050 5,076 $104.99 XPS 15 9560 (4GB)*Quadro M3000M 4,032 NA Precision M7710
Quadro M4000M 3,627 NA Precision M7710
Quadro M1200 3,524 NA Precision M5520
Quadro M620 3,369 NA Precision M3520
Quadro M2000M 2,550 NA Precision M7510
Quadro M1000M 1,963 $200.89 Precision M7510 & M5510
FirePro W5130M 1,807 NA Precision M3510So the Inspiron has a slightly better spec graphics card but the XPS has a nicer package (read issues with the Inspiron screen).
However, to chuck spanner in the works, we have just been offered the following deal:
Alienware 15 - R3
• Processor: Intel
Core
i7-6820HK (4 Core, Dynamically Overclocked up to 4.1GHz,8M Cache, 45W)
• Windows 10 Home (64bit)
• 16GB (2x8GB) 2667MHz DDR4 Memory Non-ECC
• 1 TB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
• 256GB PCIe M.2 SATA3 Solid State Drive
• No Optical Device
• NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB
• Software
• Killer 1435 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1
• LCD Cover Assembly
• Power Cord : 250V
• Primary 6-cell 99W/HR Battery
• 15.6 inch UHD (3840 x 2160) IGZO IPS Anti-Glare 300-nits Display
• Office 2016 H&B£1650 + VAT
Although the CPU not as good (though it does have more cache), rest of spec is excellent and looks like a good deal to me..
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have you looked at the design of the Alienware? The specs are nice (gtx1070!) but with that design my clients would be 'surprised'.
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Hi - I have to use Dell for work as well
This is my current workstation with which I am very satisfied so far.
It runs fine and extremely stable with SketchUp and also with render tasks,
although I usually outsource my render tasks to a very powerful Dell desktop
which has no other things else to do but rendering...Dell Precision 7510
15.6" (1920 x 1080)
Intel Xeon E3-1535M v5 – 2.9Ghz CPU
32GB Ram
NVIDIA Quadro M2000M
256 SSD
1 TB HD
Win7 x64 Enterprise -
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To wrap this up, we actually ended up ordering the following:
XPS 15 9560
Processor - 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad Core Processor (6M cache, up to 3.8 GHz)
Operating Systems - Windows 10 Home 64bit English, Dutch, French, German, Italian
Memory1 - 16GB DDR4-2400MHz; up to 32GB (additional memory sold separately)
Hard Drive - 512GB PCIe Solid State Drive
Video Card - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 with 4GB GDDR5
Display - 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) InfinityEdge displayDecided the Alienware, although it had a great spec, was not right as it came with Win 10 Home and really wasn't comfortable with the design for use as a work laptop (customer facing etc)..
The Dell has a better processor and overall the package is reviewed very well..
I look forward to testing it out when we get it!
Thank you all for your invaluable help with this..
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