Autocad + V-Ray + Sketchup: new 27' iMac buying decision

[laura_bessieres]

Hello everyone,

My wife is an interior designer working on the latest version of Autocad + V-Ray + Sketchup.

I think her 2019 Macbook pro (8gb ram, core i5 2,4ghz) is quite insufficient, especially for V-Ray renders (a few Sketchup crashs on the last few days).

I am consequently thinking of buying a new iMac 27', but I do want to choose the right model, in order to have a computer working well for 5 years+ from now.

Here are the new iMac specs: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/imac/27-inch

Wich iMac model would you choose? On the best model, is the Radeon pro 5500 XT good enough?

In any case, I would add 8go ram. Do you feel this is sufficient?

Thanks for your help and have a good day.

Léo.

[rwilkin1]

I am an architect working with the same software, on a Mac, so I totally comprehend where you're coming from. But, don't waste your $ on a new machine.

I recently bought a new iMac (with the upgraded specs + upgraded Ram to 64 GB with aftermarket RAM). I also have a 2016 MacBook Pro (upgraded specs, etc...16 GB RAM). I use both for rendering in Vray / SketchUP & the iMac is a little faster at rendering than the 4 year old MacBook Pro, and had some recent issues rendering with the laptop, so I was also just considering that I might need to upgrade the laptop soon, but then I tried out Chaos Cloud rendering and it changed my world. You get 20 free credits for trying it out, so there's nothing to lose. They render your scenes for you while you continue to work. I'm super happy I tried it & wish I did it a long time ago! Now there's no worry about long render times, or having to buy another $4k laptop for that matter! Credits are $1 ea and I think it only cost me 2 or 3 (of my free credits) to have them render something for me that took them 11 min, but my machine would have taken 2-3 hours & in the mean time, I kept on working. It's really a no-brainer.

Also, rendering times can be affected by many factors & there are best practices all over YouTube about how to get significantly faster rendering times with Vray + SketchUP, so if the 2019 MacBook Pro is sluggish, it shouldn't be that bad, so I'd say the model may just need some attention, or settings adjusted. Just purging the model & letting SketchUP fix issues in the model can solve crashes issues (Window>model info>statistics) & purge in Vray: "purge unused assets" (the little broom) in the lower right of the asset editor. Or, the software may need to be updated? What versions is she using? I've also had an abnormally large amounts of crashes with SketchUP 2020 and Vray Next lately, so I'm hoping that'll be fixed with an upgrade to Vray 5. Also, SketchUP just launched 2021 today, but I don't believe Vray is comparable with that yet, so I'd hold off on switching to SU20201 until that's confirmed.

Instead of spending a lot of money buying a machine, I would go to Vray 5, get into Chaos Cloud rendering (for final / larger renders), take notes from some of those YouTube tutorials. However, a couple hundred bucks to upgrade the RAM wouldn't hurt, but don't expect a huge difference. I think I clocked mine before and after, and my render times went down about 11% or something. Good but it's not a game changer, like Chaos Cloud was.

[rwilkin1]

BTW, I'm totally happy with the iMac. Since you asked, here are my specs: iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019) / 3.6 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 / 64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 (go aftermarket & install yourself, it's easy & that will save you a few hundred bucks) / Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB.

[sirio76]

If you are not in a hurry just wait for next year model, the new CPU will be much faster.

[laura_bessieres]

I am an architect working with the same software, on a Mac, so I totally comprehend where you're coming from. But, don't waste your $ on a new machine.

I recently bought a new iMac (with the upgraded specs + upgraded Ram to 64 GB with aftermarket RAM). I also have a 2016 MacBook Pro (upgraded specs, etc...16 GB RAM). I use both for rendering in Vray / SketchUP & the iMac is a little faster at rendering than the 4 year old MacBook Pro, and had some recent issues rendering with the laptop, so I was also just considering that I might need to upgrade the laptop soon, but then I tried out Chaos Cloud rendering and it changed my world. You get 20 free credits for trying it out, so there's nothing to lose. They render your scenes for you while you continue to work. I'm super happy I tried it & wish I did it a long time ago! Now there's no worry about long render times, or having to buy another $4k laptop for that matter! Credits are $1 ea and I think it only cost me 2 or 3 (of my free credits) to have them render something for me that took them 11 min, but my machine would have taken 2-3 hours & in the mean time, I kept on working. It's really a no-brainer.

Also, rendering times can be affected by many factors & there are best practices all over YouTube about how to get significantly faster rendering times with Vray + SketchUP, so if the 2019 MacBook Pro is sluggish, it shouldn't be that bad, so I'd say the model may just need some attention, or settings adjusted. Just purging the model & letting SketchUP fix issues in the model can solve crashes issues (Window>model info>statistics) & purge in Vray: "purge unused assets" (the little broom) in the lower right of the asset editor. Or, the software may need to be updated? What versions is she using? I've also had an abnormally large amounts of crashes with SketchUP 2020 and Vray Next lately, so I'm hoping that'll be fixed with an upgrade to Vray 5. Also, SketchUP just launched 2021 today, but I don't believe Vray is comparable with that yet, so I'd hold off on switching to SU20201 until that's confirmed.

Instead of spending a lot of money buying a machine, I would go to Vray 5, get into Chaos Cloud rendering (for final / larger renders), take notes from some of those YouTube tutorials. However, a couple hundred bucks to upgrade the RAM wouldn't hurt, but don't expect a huge difference. I think I clocked mine before and after, and my render times went down about 11% or something. Good but it's not a game changer, like Chaos Cloud was.

Thank you. Your post is very helpful.

I will definitively try Chaos Cloud for future works.

For iMac buying options, the decision is on hold. Waiting new cpu (ARM) looks like a no brainer.

Have a nice day.