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Advice on new Macbook pro 14 or 16 with the m1 max chip?


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Hello everyone, i couldnt find another discussion going around about it so created this one.

 

i am looking into buying my new working machine and i am inbetween two mac book pros with the m1 max chip

a 16 with 32 gb of memory and 1tb or 

a 14 with 64 gb of memory and 512

 

a bit if extra info

 

I am currently running VW 2022 on my 2017 17 mac book pro 

is anyone running any of this ?

is the 64 gb neccesary for faster rendering ?

 

Please leave your  comments on it as it would help me decide

 

thanks in adavance to all and have a great day .

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Hello @Antonio Vargas Design. I purchased a 16" M1 Max with 32 gb of ram and have had this for 6 weeks or so.

I was a bit worried that the 32gb of ram might be a constraint. I have not found that yet.

I can have be working on a large site model 70 acres within both VW, and QGIS and it seems to easily handle this.

I have witnessed some memory being swapped when I am really pushing things but this has not translated into any change in performance. I'm super impressed.

 

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4 hours ago, Josh Schulman said:

I'm wondering about this as well. I have a Mac Pro from 2013 with 3.5 Ghz 6-Core Xeon and 64 GB memory. I run VW2022 and have to render on it as well. Does it make sense to get a souped up laptop to replace it or do I wait for the M1 desktops to come out?

@Josh SchulmanI was a bit concerned going down this path as I know that laptops often under perform, at least that has been my experience. We couldn't wait until the next generation of desktops come out. If I had the option I may have given the Mac Mini-M1 Max serious consideration.

Saying that I'm very happy with the performance of this machine.

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  • Administrator

Couple of things to consider when choosing hardware.

 

GPU operations:

  • Flyover, Zooming, and Panning
  • Feedback graphics( snapping, highlighting, etc.)
  • Shaded rendering
  • Rendering plug-ins such as Redshift / TwinMotion / Lumion/ Enscape
  • Vision – 2022SP2 runs natively on M1's 

CPU operations:

  • Renderworks
  • Hidden line
  • Plan drawing
  • 3D modeling (mix CPU/GPU)
  • Viewports (Mix CPU/GPU depending on type of rendering)

Even though most of the Rendering in Vectorworks in done in the CPU, I will recommend you to stick with the Apple M1 Max 16" - with the 32GB. 

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4 hours ago, JuanP said:

Hidden line

 

Isn't Hidden line now mostly GPU like the VP Geometry Direct Editing Mode ?

At least the wonderful new DL Hidden Line Render looks and feels this way.

I am not really sure about the SLVP HL Render Mode,

(to still extract 2D drawings from it)

although I thought I read somewhere something about it being upgraded too (?)

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  • 4 weeks later...

I’m in the same situation on deciding which laptop configuration to select. I work on mid-sized residential landscape design with increasing use of 3d & render works, & DWG imports. My current laptop is a 2019 MacBook Pro i9/32gb ram running VW 2021 (though soon to be switching to VW2022.) I have 2 monitors in my system: Apple thunderbolt 27” + an LG ultra fine 27”.

My thoughts are either the 16” MacBook Pro M1 with 32GB + 2T drive or the M1 Max 24 core with 32GB + the 2T drive.

(Yes, I do need to stick with the laptop mode.)

 

Thank you for chiming to help me spend money while making my life a little easier at the computer!

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9 minutes ago, KarynT said:

I’m in the same situation on deciding which laptop configuration to select. I work on mid-sized residential landscape design with increasing use of 3d & render works, & DWG imports. My current laptop is a 2019 MacBook Pro i9/32gb ram running VW 2021 (though soon to be switching to VW2022.) I have 2 monitors in my system: Apple thunderbolt 27” + an LG ultra fine 27”.

My thoughts are either the 16” MacBook Pro M1 with 32GB + 2T drive or the M1 Max 24 core with 32GB + the 2T drive.

(Yes, I do need to stick with the laptop mode.)

 

Thank you for chiming to help me spend money while making my life a little easier at the computer!

@KarynTwe purchased a 16" Macbook Pro M1 Max with 32gb ram and I'm super impressed. I decided to go with the Max chip as use VW with Twinmotion and QGIS. I can have all three running without any issues dealing with large landscapes.
'm pleased with the choice. Unfortunately our second workstation, an Imac Pro, just died, most likely because of a thermal issue. We know will be looking at the new Mac Studio with a max chip. My 2 cents.

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41 minutes ago, KarynT said:

I have 2 monitors in my system: Apple thunderbolt 27” + an LG ultra fine 27”.

 

 

Multiple external Monitors are said to eat quite some amounts of VRAM.

In case of an Apple ARM SoC with shared memory, you should check that

amount in Activity Monitor and add that amount on top of your typical

RAM+VRAM usage for your projects, (and estimate for the coming years).

Edited by zoomer
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