I’m currently using a MacBook Air 2018 (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM) and unfortunately, Shapr3D is barely usable on it – especially during boolean operations like knurling on grips. These actions are either painfully slow or completely unresponsive.
I don’t work on very large or complex models, but I’d like to invest in a new Mac that can handle typical Shapr3D workflows smoothly and remain usable for the next 5 years.
Here are the options I’m considering:
Mac mini 2023 – M2 Pro with 16GB RAM
Mac mini 2023 – M2 Pro with 32GB RAM
Mac mini 2025 – M4 with 16GB RAM
MacBook Air 2025 – M4 with 16GB RAM
MacBook Air – M3 (base model)
I’d love to hear your thoughts on:
How does Shapr3D perform on these machines – especially with booleans and more detailed modeling?
Is 16GB RAM sufficient, or would you strongly recommend going for 32GB?
M2 Pro vs M4 – how much real-world difference does it make in Shapr3D?
Desktop vs laptop – is portability useful, or should I prioritize performance?
Which setup offers the best long-term value/performance for the price?
If anyone has real-world experience using Shapr3D on any of these Macs, your input would be super valuable.
I use S3D on a Mac mini M2 Pro with 16 GB RAM. I’d say it runs well enough as long as you’re not dealing with very large projects (thousands of bodies). Going with 32 GB would help if you plan to work on big projects.
The M2 Pro and the regular M4 perform more or less the same. If you can get the M4 Pro, then you’ll see some benefits.
If portability matters, I’d recommend looking at the iPad M4 (which I personally use).
Right now, with both the iPad M4 and the Mac mini M2 Pro, I don’t really feel the need to upgrade. But if I do, I’ll probably go for a Mac mini M4 Pro with 24 GB RAM.
What Shapr3d offer currently, I don’t think it’s that hardware intensive. But that can change in the future if they offered real time raytrace rendering at 8k or more resolution or complex simulations. So this is based on current state of Shapr3d.
I used base Mini M1 8gb ram until this year and never really had any issues, but if I brake down the model into pieces I can work around hardware limitations. I also don’t think Shapr3d software is tuned for the high complex modeling, bottleneck at that point might just be the software Shapr itself.
I would consider not just Shapr but combination of software that you use. For me I just needed a decent MAC for rendering in After Effects, Final Cut Pro and Blender when that was acceptable I didn’t feel the need to upgrade. Compared to those software Shapr3d very low intensive.