Which laptop for AutoCAD/Rhino/PS/Illustrator ?

[NiCk-]

Hi guys !

I'm in the market for a new laptop and I was wondering what would be the best choice for the applications mentioned in the title. I would like to buy a 13'' sized laptop for portability and I'm between the MacBook Air and Pro.

Some of my questions are:

1. How important is a graphics card for the above ??
2. What would be the difference in real life performance between an Air and a Pro ??
3. Should I go for an i7 or is an i5 good enough ??

I'd really appreciate it if you can help me and give me an insight to help me make up my mind. Thanks in advance !

 

[cmaier]

Get a Pro.

 

[||\||]

Hi guys !

I'm in the market for a new laptop and I was wondering what would be the best choice for the applications mentioned in the title. I would like to buy a 13'' sized laptop for portability and I'm between the MacBook Air and Pro.

Some of my questions are:

1. How important is a graphics card for the above ??
2. What would be the difference in real life performance between an Air and a Pro ??
3. Should I go for an i7 or is an i5 good enough ??

I'd really appreciate it if you can help me and give me an insight to help me make up my mind. Thanks in advance !

I don’t know anything about auto CAD or Rhino, but I am in Photoshop and Illustrator every day. An i5 quad core, 16GB of RAM, and an integrated GPU are the minimum I would consider for those applications. Get the MacBook Pro.

 

[hobowankenobi]

2D work will be fine on any modern Mac with SSD and adequate RAM. I would not buy less than 16GB of RAM.

Found this for Rhino...looks like any dedicated GPU will do. I would error on the side of better than basic, as it is fairly safe to assume any 3D work will only require more GPU over time.

Rhino 6 For Mac

Hardware:

• Apple Mac that can be updated to macOS Mojave.
• 8 GB memory (RAM) or more is recommended.
• 2 GB disk space.
• NVIDIA or AMD graphics processor is recommended.
• Multiple-button mouse with scroll wheel is recommended.
• The SpaceNavigator and SpaceMouse Wireless are supported.
• Digitizers (Faro, Microscribe) are NOT SUPPORTED.

Operating systems:

• macOS 10.15.1 (Catalina)
• macOS 10.14.6 (Mojave)
• macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra)

 

[||\||]

2D work will be fine on any modern Mac with SSD and adequate RAM.

A dual core Mac might run these applications under very minimal conditions. It is certainly not optimal, and having any two open at once might cause slowing.

 

[rex450se]

I use PhotoShop/Lightroom and AutoCad on my machines and I would not recommend the 13" MacBook Pro or Air. At a minimum I would get the base 16" with the dedicated graphics card and if you can, upgrade the RAM and GPU as much as the budget allows. I have the i9 model with 5500M 8GB GPU and 64GB ram and it handles both great. Some larger drawings in AutoCad I've noticed will use 30+ GB of RAM. If the cost is an issue, as the Mac's get pricey quick, look at some of the Dell XPS series laptops. I have an XPS 7590 15" with 32Gb Ram and an NVidia 1650 and it has handled the AutoCad and Lightroom/PhotoShop every bit as well as my MacBook Pro for less than half the price.

 

[NiCk-]

So, apparently the 13'' is out of the question since it has integrated graphics. I'll see what I can get from the used market because the new 16'' is way out of my budget !

Thanks very much for your responses, they've been really helpful !

 

[hobowankenobi]

A dual core Mac might run these applications under very minimal conditions. It is certainly not optimal, and having any two open at once might cause slowing.

Fair enough. My experience has been all about RAM and I/O (drive speed). Newer (about 2013 or so) quad-core i5 CPUs in iMacs have been very adequate. I was thinking they were dual...my mistake. All this is for 2D work: PhotoShop and Illustrator.

 

[||\||]

So, apparently the 13'' is out of the question since it has integrated graphics. I'll see what I can get from the used market because the new 16'' is way out of my budget !

Thanks very much for your responses, they've been really helpful !

Current integrated GPUs run Photoshop and Illustrator just fine. I don’t really see the dGPU being used when I am working.