Best Laptop for full Renderworks capability

[rmorris6]

Hi,

I currently own a Dell XPS 9560 (about 4or5 years old) and it's been really good for 2D work on Vectorworks but gets very slow after importing 3D Sketchup files, so slow it's really unworkable.  I saw a post on here suggesting waiting for i9chips is best and found that Dell are bringing out a new XPS with i9core in the next couple of weeks.  But also noticed on the same thread that someone said XPS is underpowered.  I'm not particularly tech-minded so I'm not sure, does this mean the new version will still struggle with 3D & Sketchup imports to VWX?

 

Am I better off getting a Macbook Pro, as most Vectorworks users still seem to use Macs, but it also seems PCs are better 'gaming' computers which lend themselves to rendering capabilities much better.

 

I must admit I'm confused!   Also the graphics card recommendation from Vectorworks is that it should be less than 3 years' old. 

Is there any way of upgrading the laptop I currently own?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[PVA - Admin]

1) It is almost never possible to update the graphics cards on laptops, other than by using an external GPU, which is a complex topic at the moment.

2) This may clarify quite a bit of what you're asking about: 

 

3) XPS as a series isn't necessarily under or overpowerred, each revision is different, they might have meant it wasn't a lot of power for the COST however which is very possible.

[rmorris6]

Thank you JimW this is incredibly helpful!