Macbook Pro Retina 15" or Lenovo w530 for Architecture School

[kevinolsen]

If you plan on connecting it to a external monitor all the time then why get a laptop if you have a fast desktop? I keep my desktop in studio at my school, keeps work and my life as separate as I can.

 

 

Anyways, the Razer is nice but much more expensive than the refurb rMBP. The cooling is an issue and the screen is borderline pathetic for the class its intended for. Can't get around the cooling needed for a high wattage GPU, that's probably why the rMBP has a 650m and not a higher grade GPU.

[vy1]

do you think 8gb is sufficient for heavy photoshop ,illustrator, and mid-complex 3d modeling in rhino?

Edited August 18, 2013 by vy1

[Dimitris Tolios]

Define heavy...

 

Also, I am stuck still with CS5.5, and I don't know if my company will be going to CC anytime soon, so for me Illustrator is still 32bit...I have no idea if and how well the newer 64bit does with larger files that surpass 3GBs of RAM usage.

 

My solution is to use either PS 64bit or ID to overcome AI memory limitations.

 

EDIT: sorry, I live in PC/Windows realm...I don't know if AI 32bit in the OSX has the same memory cap. I believe it doesn't.

Edited August 19, 2013 by dtolios

[vy1]

what is "ID"

 

i do get prompted a lot when i was working on my portfolio with ILLUSTRATOR that I RAN OUT OF MEMORY

so i suppose to that is what i define "heavy" - mid to high level OF LINEWORK (VECTOR), TRANSPARENCIES, etc. This happened on my desktop with i7-quad, 16gb ...

 

so a 64bit illustrator and photoshop will solve this problem with an 8gb machine?

[Dimitris Tolios]

what is "ID"

 

i do get prompted a lot when i was working on my portfolio with ILLUSTRATOR that I RAN OUT OF MEMORY

so i suppose to that is what i define "heavy" - mid to high level OF LINEWORK (VECTOR), TRANSPARENCIES, etc. This happened on my desktop with i7-quad, 16gb ...

 

so a 64bit illustrator and photoshop will solve this problem with an 8gb machine?

 

Under Windows - even 64bit Windows - 32Bit applications are limited to 3GB of RAM, which is not a lot when using AI (Adobe Illustrator) to compile large, multipage (artboard) documents. You could have 32 or even 128GB of RAM, and your AI 32bit would still crash going past 3GBs.

 

This is true with all 32Bit apps, like 32bit 3DS, AutoCAD or Sketchup.

It was the reason the improved memory management in Vista 64bit was the reason I switched to it over XP 64, and ofc Win 7 improved even more over that.

 

I never understood people whining about Vista so hard, as if XP (most were running 32bit) had no issues.

 

Illustrator is great for complicated graphics and booklets a few pages long, but if you keep adding pages, you will hit that hard limit of 3GB or so, and then there is a high chance of you being unable to open the file, as in some cases AI reaches the limit and crashes before even opening it completely. The newer AI is 64bit, and in theory could use up 8, 16 or even more GBs of RAM without issues. I have no experience with it.

 

ID = InDesign, despite being 32Bit, uses better algorithms for storing repetitive elements, can use master pages and active/adaptive filters that lower the detail of desplayed graphics so that you don't reach that hard limit and you can work on books 100s of pages long. Again, even with AI 64bit, ID would be my software of choice for "combining" the individual pages / graphics I've made in Illustrator. Those apps are made to work together, as AI was never designed to work on long projects.

Edited August 19, 2013 by dtolios

[vy1]

Thanks Dimitris for that clarification!

 

that was just one example of adobe illustrator crashing, but mostly i will be working with a lot of line drawings.

 

so when i do architectural drawings, i design the building in rhino 3d and when i want to convert the project into line work, i "make2d" and open the converted file in Adobe illustrator.

 

with the usual photoshopping and maybe some light-mid rendering with V-ray, can 8gb be sufficient?

Edited August 19, 2013 by vy1

[Dimitris Tolios]

The way I would do it, and have been working with 8GB laptops for some time (heck, been doing in with 4GB laptops and 32bit windows in the past), would be exporting the file to AI and converting it to PDF, then placing / linking the PDF of each drawing, instead of importing tons of "live" linework in a single AI file.

 

This workflow works wonders for InDesign too..

 

PDFs preserve vectors, and in ID you can link any kind of file, including vectors and smart objects for AI, PS etc, ontop ofc of your images.

 

So yes, you can definitely work with 8GB and complicated vector graphics.

You just need to plan/strategize your approach instead of just dropping everything in a single file.

[vy1]

man, thanks for the tips!!!

 

i never used InDesign befores besides laying out my pages for my portfolio.

 

Not sure if I ever will. I do all my board(s) in Illustrator hahah

 

so what then, should a 16gb of mem come into play then?

[Dimitris Tolios]

man, thanks for the tips!!!

 

i never used InDesign befores besides laying out my pages for my portfolio.

 

Not sure if I ever will. I do all my board(s) in Illustrator hahah

 

so what then, should a 16gb of mem come into play then?

 

16GB is a lot. I don't see it coming into play outside Revit and rarely 3DS, but again I've never seen more than 12-13GB of usage for what I do.

I have broken 7GBs using Lightroom 4 and batch processing 15MP RAWs (so 8 total would be too much, as that's purely for LR use, add Windows and other background processes and you are over 8).

I have worked on 1.4GB PS files (120" x 48" multi-layered boards for presentations) but I was in the ~6GBs I think.

 

All of the above are ofc 64bit programs.