MBP 15" Purchasing Advice for 3d Artist

[Standard]

Hi everyone. I'm looking for some advice on which MBP to buy. I've been doing my best to keep up with all the throttling issues, pre and post Apple patch.

TLDR: 3d artist looking for best bang for buck with new 15" MBP.

Currently I am working off a desktop, i7-6700k which frequently boosts to 4GHz for my workflow in short bursts. 1-10 minute intervals depending on the task I am doing. I have 16GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance RAM which is almost always sitting around 10-16 GB usage. So I definitely will go for 32GB in whichever MBP I get.

I will be primarily using this MBP for 3d/dev work. Bursts in the CPU will come from render previews in Modo, baking texture maps in Substance Painter, Lighting bakes in Unreal Engine 4 and Unity, etc.

Software I will be using now:

Modo
Photoshop
zBrush
Quixel Suite 2
Quixel Mixer
Substance Painter
Substance Designer
Unreal Engine 4
Unity 2018

Most of the time I have many of these applications open at once, plus browser and the usual programs, messengers, etc.

I plan to at some point setup an eGPU setup for both OS X and Windows 10. It won't be the Black Magic device.

Speaking of Windows. I've been reading on here, that gamers are using VM's to play games. Is this the case today? You don't need to use Bootcamp for full GPU utilization? Does this mean I can run any of the software above with full performance in a Windows VM?

Storage is also an issue. It is costly to upgrade the internal SSD's on the MacBook Pro. I've had some recommendations for working off Samsung T5 external SSD. Keep my software installed on the machine, but project files live on the T5.

Ultimately I would like to see some longevity out of this machine. I mean that in terms of performance and device health. If the machine will be pushing higher temps frequently, I do not want to cause damage.

Right now I work off 4k displays, but I am considering a new Ultrawide to pair with the MBP. Looking at the LG 38".

In terms of budget, I would like to go with the most cost effective/bang for buck configuration possible for my needs. By all means, if you think I am misinformed with that idea, and need a decked out i9, please tell me. I am just trying to understand what hardware requirements will be best suited for what I have described.

To my understanding, the difference between the 550x and the 560x are roughly 300 cores? Also, most of the software I use is built around CUDA Cores from nVidia. I am not entirely certain if the GPU upgrade matters for my software. Which is why I will opt for an eGPU setup when I am docked at my desk for long periods.

Lastly, a convenience question. I read somewhere that these new MBP's are thinner than the MacBook Air. Is this true? Would be nice for couch surfing. But perhaps this isn't the machine for that. My last MBP was a 2015, which I no longer have, but it felt a bit heavy when moving around with it for leisure use.

Just want to get this out there, some of you may recommend getting a Windows machine, I've done that already. My 2015 MBP I originally purchased for dev work, it was an excellent machine. For 3d creation, not the case. I only had the base model with the Iris Pro. I ended up purchasing my first non Apple laptop, ever. Behold the MSI with a Pascal GPU. Performance is great, but the build quality just doesn't hold a candle to Apple. Ended up hating the machine because of it. It's not usable as a laptop, at least to me. The trackpad is so bad, you must always use a mouse.

The Dell XPS lineup are tempting, I love the 13" when I viewed it in person. However, had a terrible experience with Dell back in the early 2000's and I'm definitely biased but I just cannot pull the trigger. The only Windows laptop I would touch now I think is the new Surface Book 2. The build quality is superb, I love the look and feel of the machine, and it has some serious hardware in it. The GTX 1060 absolutely destroys the GPU's in the MBP for my needs, but, 6 cores, 32GB RAM in a MBP is seriously tempting and feels like I will get longer life out of the machine for the nature of my work and how the software requirements constantly change.

Thanks to anyone who read this long post and offers up some insight!

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

Get the fastest single core speed CPU available, double check it yourself but most 3D apps only use a single core. For rendering you can use multi-core, so you'll have to determine your balance there.

GPU makes little difference in most instances, it's used for real-time window display. So depending on how complicated the model is, it can slow down if you've got a weak GPU, but will make no difference when it comes to rendering.

RAM wise is a similar situation, again depending on the size of the models. If you're working on large scale video games with millions of polys and assets, then yes 32GB is ideal. Otherwise 16GB is fine.

GPU is always worth upgrading, I know I said it makes little difference but the cost is so cheap you may as well have it. On the Mac side most things use OpenGL, which the AMD chips are good for. nVidea CUDA is generally better, but as you mentioned getting an eGPU then you should be fine.

Short answer is any 15" will do you fine, if you upgraded it to the max then it'd do you better. Personally, I'd recommend the base CPU unless you are earning money from it (You're talking a few minutes difference over a few hundred dollars, if you're earning then upgrade the CPU), probably 16GB of RAM unless you are working on high end professional stuff and again earning. And I'd suggest you put some money into the SSD, 512GB is a good amount, but if you frequently work on projects larger than 200GB then opt for the 1TB. You don't want a situation where you're faffing around looking for the right external drive, and running files from an external will be slower than working internally.

For what it's worth, my MBP is the 2016 15" base with upgraded GPU/SSD. iMac is 21" maxed with 512GB SSD. No problems running SketchUp/Cinema4D/3DS Max (Alongside graphics/web/UI stuff), never had a need for 32GB RAM. Although I don't tend to render on this machine, only model stuff (Building interiors).

 

[Standard]

Get the fastest single core speed CPU available, double check it yourself but most 3D apps only use a single core. For rendering you can use multi-core, so you'll have to determine your balance there.

Yea, for one of my modelling workflows I am in constant render preview mode for a special shader. So multicore support will definitely help the process, previews take quite long currently for complex models.

GPU makes little difference in most instances, it's used for real-time window display. So depending on how complicated the model is, it can slow down if you've got a weak GPU, but will make no difference when it comes to rendering.

I should have clarified that my work is gaming related, so most things are realtime. At least in engine and other software, so GPU is a very important thing for my work.

RAM wise is a similar situation, again depending on the size of the models. If you're working on large scale video games with millions of polys and assets, then yes 32GB is ideal. Otherwise 16GB is fine.

The biggest bottleneck so far has been running out of ram when creating textures, 4k is rough on complex models and 8k my machine can barely even process.

GPU is always worth upgrading, I know I said it makes little difference but the cost is so cheap you may as well have it. On the Mac side most things use OpenGL, which the AMD chips are good for. nVidea CUDA is generally better, but as you mentioned getting an eGPU then you should be fine.

Short answer is any 15" will do you fine, if you upgraded it to the max then it'd do you better. Personally, I'd recommend the base CPU unless you are earning money from it (You're talking a few minutes difference over a few hundred dollars, if you're earning then upgrade the CPU), probably 16GB of RAM unless you are working on high end professional stuff and again earning. And I'd suggest you put some money into the SSD, 512GB is a good amount, but if you frequently work on projects larger than 200GB then opt for the 1TB. You don't want a situation where you're faffing around looking for the right external drive, and running files from an external will be slower than working internally.

For what it's worth, my MBP is the 2016 15" base with upgraded GPU/SSD. iMac is 21" maxed with 512GB SSD. No problems running SketchUp/Cinema4D/3DS Max (Alongside graphics/web/UI stuff), never had a need for 32GB RAM. Although I don't tend to render on this machine, only model stuff (Building interiors).

Ok great to know. I was strongly considering the 2.2ghz because of benchmarks released and lower thermal output. However, once you start upgrading the RAM and SSD, I don't know if it's cost effective? If the 2.2 bumps the GPU to the 560, the spread between the 2.6 is very thin.

Another thought, if you think the 2.2 is more than enough and the 560 is irrelevant if I will eventually pair with an GTX in an eGPU setup --

2.2/32/555/1TB ?

But then the 2.6 will be a few hundred more with a 1tb drive configured.

Thanks for the detailed response @New_Mac_Smell, much appreciated.