HP Spectre, Dell Precision, XPS, Surface?

Hi all,

Wasn’t sure where to post this, but I’m looking to upgrade to a new laptop. Right now, I’m working with:
HP Spectre
Intel Core i7, 8th gen, CPU @1.8 Ghz
16GB RAM
512 GB storage
Intel UHD graphics (1GB) with NVidia GeForce MX150 (2GB)

I’ve seen all the posts about having a hybrid system and have figured that my VRam from NVidia card is underspeced for Rhino 6. I got this laptop a little over a year ago, and am currently trying to find ways to work around this shortcoming, possibly working in Rhino5 instead of Rhino6. If anyone has ideas of how to make the best use of my laptop right now with Rhino, please do share. I want to save as much money as possible for as long as I can (As a student, money is a struggle)

In the inevitable, I will have to get a new laptop, and right now I’m considering a few different ones, but I’m not entirely sure which one is the best for its money. Here’s what I’m looking at (link, my configuration, price):

If anyone has any thoughts or advice on this, I would greatly appreciate it. I’m an architecture student at a university right now, so I’m looking for something that will last me up through grad school. I’m fairly new to all of this, so I apologize in advance for any basic questions.

Thank you!!

Skim through this thread:

Genuine reviews on this thread mate. Thanks for the link.

Hi -

Note that while we announce recommended specifications, it will depend on a number of factors if a given configuration will work or not work for a specific user. Is there something that is not working for you in Rhino 6 on your current machine?
-wim

Hi Wim,

Yes, I’ve been having a series of problems. For a while now, I’ve been having these glitches in my massing and linework which I have attached a few of the many pictures of. I can usually get rid of them with RefreshShade or just closing out and opening Rhino again.
Another issue that has been coming up quite recently is Rhino becoming unresponsive in the 5 -15 minutes after startup if it starts up at all. Once it becomes unresponsive and closes out, it does not open again, and I result to shutting down/restarting my laptop which also becomes a little funky after Rhino crashes. When I attempt to shut down/restart my laptop, it never does it all the way when the power button light goes out, and sometimes it will freeze my laptop completely, so I force a shutdown. Afterward, I will let my laptop run for 10 minutes before opening Rhino, and sometimes the program will open and run for 15 minutes or so and sometimes it will crash immediately and the whole process starts over again.
I have been in contact with John, and he’s diagnosed my VRam as the problem. I’m working with 2GB of VRam while also having an external monitor, so I’ve just unplugged my monitor when working in Rhino which has extended its run time to over an hour before becoming unresponsive and prompting me to force a shutdown.

Rhino crashing like this has not happened before in my previous uses of Rhino on this laptop, with or without the monitor. A professor of mine is wondering now if it is a Windows problem since this has not happened before. Here is my SystemInfo:

Rhino 6 SR30 2020-10-14 (Rhino 6, 6.30.20288.16411, Git hash:master @ aa50c15036dbe0dbd38214d6ca94d76dbecda24d)
License type: Evaluation, build 2020-10-14
License details: Cloud Zoo. In use by: Michelle Tran ()
Expires on: 2020-11-20

Windows 10.0 SR0.0 or greater (Physical RAM: 16Gb)
Machine name: MTHPSPECTRE

Hybrid graphics system.
Primary display: Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 (Intel) Memory: 1GB, Driver date: 10-14-2020 (M-D-Y).
Primary OpenGL: NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (NVidia) Memory: 2GB, Driver date: 10-22-2020 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 457.09

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: Off
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On

Anti-alias mode: 8x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: Height

Vendor Name: NVIDIA Corporation
Render version: 4.6
Shading Language: 4.60 NVIDIA
Driver Date: 10-22-2020
Driver Version: 27.21.14.5709
Maximum Texture size: 32768 x 32768
Z-Buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum Viewport size: 32768 x 32768
Total Video Memory: 2 GB

Rhino plugins
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 6.30.20288.16411
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\RhinoRender.rhp “Rhino Render”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\rdk_etoui.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 6.30.20288.16411
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\rdk_ui.rhp “Renderer Development Kit UI”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 6.30.20288.16411
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 6.30.20288.16411
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\3dxrhino.rhp “3Dconnexion 3D Mouse”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Displacement.rhp “Displacement”

look at the new Nvidia RTX machines…

Thanks for the detailed explanation michelle. appreciate it.

see this post Soooo, you bought a laptop with hybrid graphics and rhino doesn't run right. READ THIS

That machine looks sweet! it’s too bad they capped it at 32 GB ram :man_facepalming:t4: