Hi

Am after some thoughts based on experience on what to spec for a macbook (air or pro) laptop to run reefmaster.

I want a macbook as i also code for IOS in my spare time

Have tested on the better halves four year old Imac with Parallels 10 and is quite slow.

I will be running either win7 64bit or win8.1 64bit in parallels 10

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hello skinee,

Up until a few months ago, I always used dell laptops with windows for personal use - then I got a MacBook Pro 2.3 GHz and have been really impressed. I use Linux at work (our main integrated navigation systems use it) and that too has some great advantages over windows.... But I'm not going to start blasting windows, it does it's job well.

In terms of running reefmaster, I got parallels so I could run it on the MacBook and it has not let me down. I have 1 copy of rm on my old dell and 1 on the MacBook parallels - admittedly the dell is about 5 years old, but the screen resolution and speed of the MacBook is very, very impressive when comparing. It renders 3d imagery from multiple track lines in seconds and I've been blown away with the final picture quality.

I'm using parallels 9 (haven't upgraded to OS X Yosemite, so haven't needed to upgrade to par 10, so I can't say if rm will have any problems with parallels 10, but I wouldn't have thought so). I'm also using windows 7 64bit.

Let me know if you want any more info about the MacBook Pro specs I'm using and I'll post the full system info to you. As I wrote, I'm really pleased with its performance and it copes with all the number crunching rm does with not so much as a yawn!

Can you post or pm specs thanks

sure:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro11,3
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 16 GB

graphics card:

Intel Iris Pro:

Chipset Model: Intel Iris Pro
Type: GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Dynamic, Max): 1536 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x0d26
Revision ID: 0x0008
gMux Version: 4.0.8 [3.2.8]

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x8
VRAM (Total): 2048 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0fe9
Revision ID: 0x00a2
ROM Revision: 3776
gMux Version: 4.0.8 [3.2.8]
Displays:
Color LCD:
Display Type: Retina LCD
Resolution: 2880 x 1800
Retina: Yes
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes

I actually got it in Japan during a port stop, but the same specs should be available everywhere i think. It was the medium specced machine at the time...

Thanks Hermes appreciate it , I was thinking 16gig as others have suggested elsewhere running windows systems of 8 gig ram.

Assume you allocate 50% to windows ?

just under 50% to windows and RM is still lightening quick... Guess you could increase it if you had a massive area or hundreds of track lines to process...

All done Macbook pro on the way, thanks again Hermes

no problem. Hope you will be happy with it! Now RM is bringing out the ss module, I'm hoping to upgrade my elite-7 to a structure scan hds unit.... just got to persuade the rest of the family who would rather get a new kitchen for some strange reason??

they never understand