Best MacBook for SketchUp capabilities.
We are looking to upgrade our equipment in order to work more efficiently in Sketchup. What is the best priced model with sufficient specifications to effectively work on Sketchup and Adobe Illustrator.
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Eric--F
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Community Specialist
Hello SMT7311,
Thanks for asking the Apple Support Communities for the best Mac for specific apps.
Looking up the apps show these requirements:
SketchUp Hardware and Software Requirements
- "Recommended hardware
- 2.1+ GHz processor
- 8GB RAM
- 700MB of available hard-disk space
- 3D class video card with 1 GB of memory or higher and support for hardware acceleration. Please ensure that the video card driver supports OpenGL version 3.1 or higher and is up to date.
- 3-button, scroll-wheel mouse
- Minimum hardware
- 2.1+ GHz Intel™ processor
- 4GB RAM
- 500MB of available hard-disk space.
- 3D class video card with 512 MB of memory or higher and support for hardware acceleration. Please ensure that the video card driver supports OpenGL version 3.1 or higher and up to date.
- 3-button, scroll-wheel mouse."
Illustrator system requirements - Adobe
"Processor Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support
RAM 8 GB of RAM (16 GB recommended)"
Looking at the requirements, you need to verify if Adobe can run on the new Apple M1 processor with the manufacturer: How to contact an app developer - Apple Support
If it will not run on the M1 processor, you will be looking at any Intel Mac, and it looks like the upgraded 13" with 2.3GHz quad-core with 16GB or RAM would meet the necessary requirements coming in around $1999: Macbook Pro Specs - Apple
You may find another option if you do not need a portable Mac, such as an upgraded Mac Mini desktop, but you will need a separate mouse, keyboard, and display: Apple Mac Mini
Remember, the SketchUp app requires 2.1 processor, but Adobe requires a multi-core processor and 8 GB of RAM minimum, but recommends 16 GB. Thanks.