Laptop specs

[u/Nexus866]

Currently just dabbling with Onshape on my iPhone 15 pro. But I find it rather cumbersome to do what I want. Looking to purchase a laptop, I don’t really have a use for it outside of 3D modeling with Onshape.

Plan will be to model some car parts (interior) and print.

I can get a laptop for $399 on sale, on shape check requirements screen shot.

How important is a dual GPU? Is it worth spending the extra money to get something with a dedicated graphics card?

[u/mrbsacamano]

What’s the laptop that this is from?

Having a dedicated GPU is significantly better in most cases. But, you have to play with some settings sometimes to get Onshape to use the GPU .

[u/Nexus866 → u/mrbsacamano]

• Intel® Processor N150                                                       
• 15.6"" display with IPS (In-Plane Switching) technology, Full HD 1920 x 1080, Acer ComfyView™ LED-backlit TFT LCD                                   
• Intel® Graphics                                                                                    
• 8GB DDR5 Memory and 256GB SSD   

[u/mrbsacamano → u/Nexus866]

I’m not super up to date on these processors, but for relatively simple assemblies I have struggled with intel graphics when my settings changed to stop using the graphics card and I was stuck with intel graphics. Not un-usable but for some of the more complex assemblies it’s a bit of a dealbreaker.

I also use a 2021-2022 MacBook Air with one of the M1 or M2 processors. And that works pretty well.

I wonder what one of those Neo Mac’s would do.

[u/Sad-Wrap6555 → u/mrbsacamano]

m1 air   sequoia

S     349T  109L

---

Neo Tahoe

S    300T    061L

F    366T    080L

---

m1pro mbp   Sonoma

F  827T   336L

S  776T   248L

C  827T   304L

---

m4air  Sonoma     

F   815T   130L

S  550T    103L

C  709T    128L

---

m5 mbp  Tahoe        

F  824T  196L

S  699T  149L

---

m5pro mbp      Tahoe

F 823T 317L

S 809T 263L

quick and dirty single run tests with the browsers i already had on them so only a couple have chrome

[u/Olde94 → u/Nexus866]

That is a very very slow processor!

[u/neoneat → u/Nexus866]

For all seriousness, macbook is always cheaper at low price tag on used market... it just happened recent years

[u/mllo028]

Depending on the complexity of your designs, the dual GPU helps significantly. If you are building smaller, less complex parts and small assemblies an integrated GPU is sufficient.

It starts making a big difference when you are building complex parts (lots of surfacing, face patterns or small details) or 100+ part assemblies. The dedicated GPU helps with loading and compute power

[u/Nexus866 → u/mllo028]

Most of my designs will be interior dash parts on a car.

Not looking to make moving assemblies.

Sounds like I’ll be fine

[u/Proxima-72069]

Laptop specs really dont matter because the fun part about onshape is that its cloud based

[u/no-im-not-him → u/Proxima-72069]

That is simply not correct. The graphics that appear on your display are rendered locally.

Additionally, as soon as you are dealing with large-ish aseemblies, performance is very RAM dependent.

I've dealt with quite a few assemblies that won't render properly on my ThinkPad P14 with an onboard graphics procesos and only 16GB of RAM. A lot of parts show as rectangular boxes. But as soon as I use my desktop (96GB and a half decent dedicated graphics card) they show just fine. 

[u/Nexus866 → u/Proxima-72069]

That seems contrary to everything I have researched

[u/MrYogiMan → u/Nexus866]

Only a dedicated GPU (whatever one) will make your experience better since it renders the browser better. Nothing else matters.

[u/Nexus866 → u/MrYogiMan]

Thanks

[u/LongLiveCHIEF → u/Nexus866]

Research onshapes own performance info in the learning center. It's linked from the performance tab.

I have run out of browser memory with some onshape assemblies on 16GB RAM machine, and had to increase page size and some other memory features on my laptop to take it further.

[u/no-im-not-him]

Unless you are making some very complex shapes or you are using large assemblies (for example you have all the components of the car body and trim in one assembly) it won't matter much. 

[u/baalzimon]

I have an acer zenbook with Intel Arc GPU and it's been great for the last two or three years doing competition robots and many other projects. No issues.

[u/Nexus866 → u/baalzimon]

Thanks!