New Mac Laptops with ArchiCAD 12

[gmorgan]

Be Gentle I'm New.


Hello all, I'm looking to buy a new macbook and was wondering if the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB of shared DDR3 SDRAM will be enough to run ArchiCAD 12 and C4D doing complex models or will I need to get the Mac Book Pro?

http://www.apple.com/nz/macbook/graphics.html

Thanks for your help.

[henrypootel]

The 9400 is not a monster, but if your models are small to medium residential stuff it should do fine. Anything bigger or more complex, go for a better card.
The CPU speed is not so flash either. Definitely don't go for the 2.0Ghz model, but the 2.4Ghz is still going to run like a 2 year old desktop machine.

[gmorgan]

What do you think of the Macbook Pro? Would it be enough for complex models and Cinema 4D / 3D studio Max?

[henrypootel]

The previous Macbook Pro was a good 'un, particularly in it's 17inch variant. The main problem with most of the Mac laptops for use in ArchiCAD is the screen resolution. 1440x900 is not really enough to work in ArchiCAD for any period of time, so the 17inch's 1920x1200 is great in that respect.
Personally, I'd take a Thinkpad over a Macbook-Pro any day though.

[Karl Ottenstein]

When I looked yesterday, the Apple web site indicated that the MacBook Pro 17" had not been updated - the new 15" model has faster bus speed, processor, multitouch pad, etc - but not the 17. Hope that's an oversight - or that perhaps the 17" is delayed so that it will have quad core...?!

Karl

[henrypootel]

I would assume that that's why it's not been updated.
Asus have already got a Quad-core laptop on the way, and Apple usually love to get this kind of new stuff out before anyone else(like the 9400).

[Ralph Wessel]

gmorgan wrote:
Hello all, I'm looking to buy a new macbook and was wondering if the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB of shared DDR3 SDRAM will be enough to run ArchiCAD 12 and C4D doing complex models or will I need to get the Mac Book Pro?

While I think the MacBook will be acceptable for performance, I think the screen size is against it. A MacBook Pro with a 15" screen would be the minimum in my opinion. You could work on an external monitor of course, but then you lose the advantage of the portability of a laptop.

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
...or that perhaps the 17" is delayed so that it will have quad core...?!

That's what I suspect. And maybe 8GB RAM?

[Anonymous]

henrypootel wrote:
I'd take a Thinkpad over a Macbook-Pro any day though.

I always liked the Thinkpads better than any other PC laptops, but they still can't run OSX. My MBP runs XP very nicely.

[henrypootel]

but they still can't run OSX

...which is only a problem if you actually like OSX...