Lighting Speed with Apple MacBook Pro 16" M5 Pro

Common Common :: Hardware
1

Everything on SketchUp and VRay was running awfully on my 2019 MacBook Pro 16 with the last of the Intel processors. I knew I had to upgrade, but was nervous that the new MacBooks would be faster, but still not performing as I would expect doing complex projects. I was staring at going with a desktop workstation, but this didn’t fit my working style—sitting on my Eames Chair with the MacBook on my lap. I was reassured that the new M5 powered Macs were up for the job.

I am happy to report that the MacBook Pro 16 M5 Pro runs SketchUp and VRay like butter. Smooth, fast, no glitches. VRay renders that used to take 10 minutes are done in less than one minute. File uploads to all the Forums to which I contribute go up in less than 2seconds vs. many times that before. All SU functions on big files run perfectly.

I wasn’t concerned about battery life since I work plugged in most of the time, but it appears to be much better also.

All in all, while the MacBook Pro M5 costs a small fortune (for me), I have absolutely no regrets. These new high powered laptops can do the job.

2

Good news! Unfortunately, for us MAX folks, it doesn’t run on MAC.

3

That was my life with CorelDraw. They wouldn’t do a native version for Mac. Said there weren’t enough users. I’d been using CD for almost 20 years. I had to resort to running a parallel Windows OS in the Mac (as it had the Intel Processor). It was terrible. Finally, five years ago, CD came out with a native Mac version and it runs good. Especially on the new MacBook.

4

Hi there, and welcome to the forums!

Thank you for sharing your feedback about the M5 MacBook Pro 16-inch. I’m very happy to hear that everything is working well on your side.

V-Ray and V-Ray GPU both support Apple silicon natively. V-Ray GPU also supports XPU mode, which allows it to use the combined power of the CPU and GPU on the M5 Pro chip.

Have a great day!

Best,
Muhammed