Sketching and 3d modelling.

MolochHD

Commendable
Apr 20, 2016
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Firstly, I never had an apple laptop or desktop. I always used windows. I am wondering about possibly obtaining a macbook pro for sketching and 3d modelling in like autodesk maya or one of the adobe programs. My prace range is well preferably no more than £1500. I would like a 15" display. Which Macbook would you recommend for this type of work. Any more questions just ask.
 

MolochHD

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Apr 20, 2016
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I use autodesk maya on my desktop so I would use that on the mac as well. My friend recommended it to me. And i heard that macs are intended for like designers. Would a mac be a good option or would you say that they are overpriced?
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator


15 or 20 years ago, the Apple world was more relevant for 'designers'. This was also a result of inertia. "My designer friends use Photoshop with their Apple, so that is what I must use."

The Windows world has long since caught up.

There is nothing special about Photoshop on Apple vs Photoshop on Windows.
Or Maya or whatever.
 

Eximo

Distinguished
Herald
Back in the day when Apple was using IBM, then Motorola CPUs and had more or less purpose built graphics, Macs were better for designers. Now that they use more or less off the shelf PC hardware, there is no performance difference between an i7/Xeon PC from Dell or an i7/Xeon Mac with a PCIe graphics card from AMD or Nvidia.

I would pick up something like a Dell Precision if I was looking at Quadro GPUs. More performance for the money, and cheaper to repair.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator
"I heard..."
Screen quality or GPU performance? 2 different things.

Anyway...which ecosystem do you want to buy into? Apple or Windows?

A Windows device could be specced that would crush any Apple device made. Don't buy into the thought of 'Apple is always better for X", or "Windows sucks", or Windows is always better for Y"

Either one would work.
 

Eximo

Distinguished
Herald
Just a quick look at a Dell Precision 15" 7000 = £1,642.20

i7-6820HQ
4K screen (3840x2160) (They have a cheaper 1920x1080 IPS screen, the default screen isn't that bad either, still FHD, but not IPS)
256GB SSD
16GB DDR4 memory
Windows 7 or 10 Pro, your choice
Quadro M2000 or M1000 or a lesser Firepro 2GB card

(These links are hit or miss, but here you go: http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=xctop7510emea&model_id=precision-m7510-workstation&c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1

15" MacBook Pro with an i7 + GPU + 256GB SSD + Retina display (2880x1800) starts at £2000
 

MolochHD

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Apr 20, 2016
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So the macbook for £1500 is not even an option if it is incompatible with autodesk maya. The chepeast I could go with Macs is £2000 for it to work with it. That is too expensive for me. How would the p40 yoga work with Maya then. It has quadro m500m. Which is better the P40/50 or the dell precision?
 

Eximo

Distinguished
Herald
Quadro 500m is basically entry level graphics. It would work, just not familiar enough with what you are going to be doing in Maya to say what your performance would be like. At work we use the beefier m6800 mobile workstations from Dell, and they are loaded for bear with a high end mobile quadro. Used for CAD and fluid simulation mostly.

Not finding the Lenovos you are looking at. Are they available from a re-seller? Just see the Thinkpad series Yoga and the regular Yogas which are relatively cheap.
 

MolochHD

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Apr 20, 2016
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This the link for them:
http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/thinkpad/p-series/

Well, I will be doing architecture work e.g. designing buildings, housing estates and so on, possibly some car designing as well.
 

Eximo

Distinguished
Herald
Well the U class processors are a little slower then the MQ/HQ class ones. Better battery life though. Looks like you are stuck with a lower TPD 500M for the GPU, and the better of the two P40 are nearly as expensive as the Dell I configured. It would be a massive trade off for the size/portability/yoga vs overall performance and screen quality/size.

I'm more of a desktop person myself. Just use a mid-range laptop to remote into a faster computer. And/or hook up an external display to sit down and work.
 

MolochHD

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Apr 20, 2016
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The thing is that if I would go with the dell workstation, then I would quite likely have to buy like a wacom intuos pro to do drawings additionally, whereas, with the P40 yoga I can just draw on it. But the GPU isnt that high quality.
 

okcnaline

Honorable
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Nov 17, 2013
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Wait... Why do you need to draw?
EDIT: Wait... I just glossed over the specs for the P40 Yoga. Seems like Lenovo made a mistake somewhere, either the inclusion of the M500 or the availability of only the Intel HD Graphics. Looks fine.