MacBook Neo

paulpmilton
paulpmilton
in Mac

Any thoughts on the suitability of a MacBook Neo for light drafting?

Comments

  • zoomer
    zoomer

    It should be fast enough from the CPU and GPU side.
    But if I get that correct, Neo offers max 8 GB of shared Memory. That is quite a bit on the poor side.
    (I could open and edit reasonable large 3D projects already with my M1 Mini 16 GB)

    Bricscad isn't a very resource hungry App in general.
    On the other hand offers not the best Mac or Apple ARM support.

    So for light drafting it should work ok, maybe well.

  • paulpmilton
    paulpmilton

    For some additional information, it is the intention that the MacBook Neo will replace on old MacBook Pro which BricsCAD worked fine in but is no longer able to be updated to the latest OS, basic specs below:

    2019 MacBook Pro

    2.6 GHz 6iCore Intel Core i7

    16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4

    Not sure how these specs compare with the change to Apple Silicon and Unified RAM on more recent Apple products.

  • zoomer
    zoomer

    That is a nearly 7 year old intel machine.
    I think the Neo will feel noticeably faster and snappier.

    The only possible limitation for the described usage that I see might be or not be the Memory.

  • paulpmilton
    paulpmilton

    My memory are you referring to RAM or storage?

    I think RAM will be OK if the M1 Mac mini with 16GB works fine, I’ve heard the Neo is comparable and probably better than what I’m coming from with both my MacBook Pro and iMac Pro (looking to replace this with a Mac mini, waiting for the next update).

    Storage I’m not worried about, all my data is either in the cloud or on external drives, just need enough space for the software and files that get pulled from the cloud while working on them. Will be going the 512GB option.

  • zoomer
    zoomer

    Yes, I meant the RAM (shared memory here) not the SSD.

    I also think it should work.
    Besides that the OS will need some memory, the GPU will need some memory or more if you add an external Monitor, …

    Shared memory and swapping works great if you use more memory than physically available. If you have lots of Apps open and you switch and re-activate an App from background, it may take a second but then you can use that at full speed.

    The only problem is when you have a single App that needs more memory than available, then it can start to lag terribly.

    My V26 takes about 4 GB memory for a decent LOD single family residential BIM Model.
    If you look at Activity Monitor and your Bricscad always needs less than 4 GB, I think you are likely on the safe side.