Fusion 360 laptop

[BelgiqueB]

I'm running Fusion 360 on an older 2012 macbook laptop, it runs OK but when doing bigger designs, it's lacking in power and starts lagging, so I'm looking to upgrade.

Looking for a new laptop that will run Fusion 360 good, can either be mac or windows, I get lost when i start looking at specs, I7, I9, video cards, memory... it's all jibberish to me so could use some advice!

 

[sako243]

Budget?

I've got an ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo UX581GV and that runs Inventor without any issues at all. But it's not, shall we say, cheap.

 

[Revs1972]

Is the software a Mac version, or are you running windows on your mac ?

 

[mike os]

I run inventor on a Dell i9 spec for cad, still runs slow on bigger projects

If you don't need the laptop a desktop is a better option imo

 

[BelgiqueB]

Budget?

I've got an ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo UX581GV and that runs Inventor without any issues at all. But it's not, shall we say, cheap.

Is that the one with the dual screen? I've looked at that one, but it's as you say, not cheap :-), would prefer a cheaper option.

 

[BelgiqueB]

Is the software a Mac version, or are you running windows on your mac ?

It's the mac version of Fusion I'm using.

My current laptop:

 

[BelgiqueB]

I run inventor on a Dell i9 spec for cad, still runs slow on bigger projects

If you don't need the laptop a desktop is a better option imo

See that's where I get confused, the I9 is supposed to be the latest and greatest but it still runs slow for you? Although maybe you are running huge projects?

 

[sako243]

Is that the one with the dual screen? I've looked at that one, but it's as you say, not cheap :-), would prefer a cheaper option.

Yes, the one with a screen in the touch-pad. Thought it was a gimmick at first but it's surprisingly handy! Couple of apps written for it, one to play music so you can just swipe across to control it and another has a built-in calculator.

 

[sako243]

See that's where I get confused, the I9 is supposed to be the latest and greatest but it still runs slow for you? Although maybe you are running huge projects?

You may find that Fusion 360 is single-threaded in which case getting less cores but higher clock speed is more beneficial. I've not looked into it in any great depth but a comparative example is doing the "fitting" process of an FPGA build. It's an iterative process so fundamentally it's very difficult to multi-thread and take benefit of multi-core processors. A single-core processor that's faster would likely out-perform a monster server that has hundreds of cores. Some aspects of CAD are the same - i.e. they're iterative so would benefit from higher clock speeds rather than more cores.

My suggestion would be - spec up a fast processor with a few cores (because it allows things to run in the background) but spend some money on graphics, memory and fast SSDs. I don't know how much Fusion 360 offloads to the cloud so internet speed / latency may have something to do with it (I have this hatred of anything relying on the internet).

There's a lot of nuances to writing good multi-threaded code and for the vast majority of software / people / companies it's not worth the hassle when it's quicker and cheaper to buy faster hardware. But when you can take advantage boy can you take advantage. Some code that I developed in my previous job would max out any computer that it was running, the more cores you had the quicker it would do the work. Something really satisfying buying a computer with 72x more cores on it and have the algorithm run 72x faster

 

[Revs1972]

Yes, the one with a screen in the touch-pad. Thought it was a gimmick at first but it's surprisingly handy! Couple of apps written for it, one to play music so you can just swipe across to control it and another has a built-in calculator.

I almost got swayed with one of those when choosing my latest laptop. That second screen is cool. Sadly, I chose the sensible option and ended up with a HP Omen Gaming laptop with 17 inch screen. Its a bit of a behemoth to lug around, but its in a fancy backpack so i look like a cool gamer
I use it day in day out for CAD, usually hooked up to a 32 and 28 inch monitors. The graphics card is a pretty important factor when using 3d Cad in my opinion, so I would base my choice on that, followed by at least 16 GB of ram, a SSD hardrive ( mines got a 1TB second drive in it too as well as the 256GB that Windows is installed on - i swopped out the standard one.

I was using a Macbook 15 inch retina ( running windows on bootcamp) before changing (still use it from time to time).

If you want to go Apple again then they are pretty pricey but lovely bits of kit ( last time I looked it was around £2500 for the 16 inch version)

 

[mike os]

See that's where I get confused, the I9 is supposed to be the latest and greatest but it still runs slow for you? Although maybe you are running huge projects?

Quite big at times yes ... small stuff is fine

 

[sako243]

I almost got swayed with one of those when choosing my latest laptop.

Thankfully for me it remained a "cool" factor. I had the original ASUS ZenBook (UX31 I think) when it came out and that machine was a power-house even ignoring the fact it was 3mm thick at the front and 9mm at the rear. Lasted me 10 years give or take and the battery was next to useless and the poxy power connector eventually gave up. It's something I could probably fix but decided at the time it was more sensible to buy a new laptop for when I go away for work.

 

[Craig-SM]

It's the mac version of Fusion I'm using.

My current laptop:
View attachment 228567

Most likely your hard drive is the weak link and should upgrade it to an SSD, which will speed it up. Either way it will give a new lease of life.