Which Mac is best for Georgia Tech School Of Architecture

Apple no longer offers Intel CPU based Macs except for the Mac Pro which is likely overkill.

No current Mac offers a discrete graphics card, they are all embedded into the CPU again except for the Mac Pro.

Beyond those two specific points An option with similar performance would be the 14" or 16" MacBook Pro with the required RAM and storage options configured.

Link-> 14-inch MacBook Pro - Space Gray - Apple

If you really must have an Intel CPU and discreet Graphics card then only the Mac Pro has those: link-> Buy Mac Pro Tower - Apple

Do note, the MacBook Pro will not be able to run any version of Windows at this time, and as such no Windows baed apps can be run on it.

If the Apps have 64bit Mac versions, then they should work on any current Mac.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Codat wrote:

Would a PC just be a better option? Or you think a pro would be fine?

The High-end Hugely powerful (and HUGE) Mac Pro professional desktop computer STARTS at $10,000, and goes up from there. You should look at other options before sinking that kind of money into a computer system for student (even architecture student) use. If you need Mac Pro desktop compute-power, such as for computer simulations, most Institutions will provide laboratory computers for that purpose.

$6000. Starts at $6000. Still a boatload of money though.

But it's the only one currently that matches the requirements of Intel CPU and discreet graphics card. I agree and said as much, it's very much overkill for most uses, specially a student.

I'm pretty sure an M1 Pro or M1 Max MacBook Pro can cover that easily, but its really the software that will be issue there.

New Macs have an ARM Silicon processor not the intel processor. So you need a Windows PC or a Mac with an intel processor.

I would ask the school of architecture which computer you need. You want to be 100% compatible with other students and your professors.

Ask your school/professors. From your initial post and listed needs, a Windows PC would be the better option.

Codat wrote:

Would a PC just be a better option? Or you think a pro would be fine?

The High-end Hugely powerful (and HUGE) Mac Pro professional desktop computer STARTS at $10,000, and goes up from there. You should look at other options before sinking that kind of money into a computer system for student (even architecture student) use. If you need Mac Pro desktop compute-power, such as for computer simulations, most Institutions will provide laboratory computers for that purpose.

I would suggest you consult with some of your professors and peers to find out what devices they recommend.

My nephew is a Yellow Jacket, a literal rocket scientist in fact, , his advice when I asked about my grandson was, "Ask the school; they know best of all".

If by Pro, you mean Mac Pro, I'm sure it would be fine.

If by Pro you mean the MacBook Pro with M1 CPU, then it will depend on what you need to run on it.

As mentioned I would really ask the school exactly what they recommend. Again, if you need to run Windows applications, you will need either the Mac Pro or an actual Windows PC.

If you don't, then the M1 MacBook Pro would do fine. I'm sure most current architectural apps woulds have Mac equivalents.

More than the hardware stuff, you need to know what kind of specialized software that school may required for design or engineering courses. Sometimes you have to use things that so far only run on Windows.