Well Solidworks does not offer a MacOS version, so that's my major kicker. I use SW a often. Outside of class I am using all of the programs I mentioned to sharpen my skills in each of them. Searching for my own tutorials/videos etc.
Well, regarding SolidWorks, the final answer from the team is still that they don't recommend you run the software even in Bootcamp:
https://blogs.solidworks.com/solidw...dworks-software-available-for-apple-os-x.html
As I mentioned, some features will be missing and when you work as a professional, it'll be quite limiting. This is why I suggested that you use something other than a MacBook specifically for CAD. It'll be okay for now as a student, but I think you will eventually want something else as a work machine.
Would you recommend I return the MBP for a baseline or keep the maxed out? Either way I want a MBP for personal use if that's helps your guidance. I also appreciate the real estate of the 15" for the amount of time I am on it.
I'd recommend that you go back to the baseline. It won't make a difference since your everyday tasks most likely won't benefit from the higher specs, and the software you want to use won't benefit from any MacBook spec at all anyway.
All CAD software runs better in windows in my experience. I still prefer to use macOS.
Doesn’t the xps throttle? Pretty sure I read that somewhere.....
Well, I have a 2017 MB 12", a 2018 MBP 13" (recent acquisition and will replace the 12") and a work-issued 2018 MBP 15".
Honestly, the 2018 machines after the last firmwares are not bad at all. I love the 13". It's only slightly heftier than the 12" but it approaches the performance of the 15" most of the time for casual use.
The 15", on the other hand, is quite a workhorse. If I stress all 6 cores fully, then it does break away from the 13". I've had Apple replace the keyboard once, and that's the only complain I'd have with the machine. That and maybe the footprint/weight as I have to carry it to meeting and back a lot. It's been super reliable. When the GPU is in use, though, the CPU will sometimes (well, almost all the time) scale down quite badly. I'm guessing it's either thermal or lack of power draw from the battery/charger, or both. Not the first time I've had a 15" machine that scales down when graphics are stressed, so this is to be expected. But it does happen.
I briefly bought a XPS 15 before settling with the 13" MBP because... as you said, MacBooks kill it for personal use. But when I had the XPS 15, it was very beastly. 4K screen and I could max out the GPU easily without the machine slowing down at all. Gaming on it was quite nice.
Then again, it's like twice the thickness and weight of the 13" MBP, very hefty beast, and the fan noise dwarfs my bladeless Dyson at max power. Plus I'd be lucky if it lasted past 4 hours a day, so there was that. And the novelty of gaming wore off quite fast.
I've since learned to offload my neural net experiments to the cloud so whatever personal machine I use doesn't need a super beefy GPU anymore. But if I was running CAD daily, that's a different issue altogether. I think the CPUs are fine, if only the OP was doing mostly CPU-intensive tasks.
