Purchase of new MacBook

[Hanna N]

I need to buy a MacBook to be able to work remotely occasionally and when travelling.
I already have an IMac which I will use most of the time. 
 

I will use Vectorworks Landmark for landscape design. I will not use the laptop for complex 3D rendering, only 2D and some technical drawings.

I will install Sketch Up Pro on the same MacBook. 
 

Any suggestions what to get in terms

of memory etc without blowing my entire budget on the MacBook?

 

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

The MacBook Pro is expensive, memory even more so, but a great machine.  If you go this route, buy the 16 inch screen and you will be very happy.   You would not need more than 18 GB unified memory, but only you know your future plan and 32 MB unified may be better in the long run.

[E|FA]

You might want to consider a Macbook Air with 24GB of memory.  

[Pat Stanford]

One thing to remember about Mac's is that every M chip of the same series (M1, M2, M3) basically run at the same speed. The number of cores will make a small difference in performance.  The Pro and Max versions of the chip basically is a faster version that can handle more memory.

 

So an MacBook Air or a MacBook with an M2 chip and the same memory will offer basically the same performance. The difference is the active cooling of the MBP that will allow the machine to run longer without thermal cycling (slowing down to let the chips cool).

 

For VW, unless you are already in the habit of having your palettes hidden and using keyboard shortcuts to show them when necessary, the bigger screen, getting the larger screen will certainly provide a larger working space.

 

The biggest issue is memory.  While the machines are very memory efficient, once you start having to swap memory to the SSD things will get slow very quickly. The suggestion on memory is to get as much as you can afford.

 

SSD size is also important. I spend extra so I can store all my data (via Dropbox) on the machine. That way I never have to have a situation where I don't have a file because I forgot to copy it over.

 

My rule of thumb is buy a mid-range machine and expect to need to upgrade in 18-24 months, or buy the top of the line and get 36-48 months of heavy use and still have a machine that could be passed down to a lighter user for a long time.

[adelacruz2]

I have a question on the new M series. I draw in 3D and layer multiple imported CAD drawings into the same drawing. I am upgrading my hardware from the 2019 MacBook i9 and wonder if the 2023 M2max 12core CPU 38 GPU 96g ram is better. worse or the same as the 2024 M3max 16core CPU 40 GPU 64g ram   Both are 14.2 screen size

[Pat Stanford]

It depends on what you do.  

 

The M3 will be about 20% faster than M2. But if you have a drawing large enough that it has to swap to disk in 64GB but would run in 96GB, then the higher memory and less swapping will overwhelm the speed advantage.

 

So if you have really big files or are doing high resolution rendering you will need to look at memory consumption. Otherwise the M2 will run slightly faster.