Bruce Kieffer Posted September 29, 2013 Share Posted September 29, 2013 I'm torn between getting an i5 or i7 chip in a new iMac. The main difference I see is the Hyper-Threading which I understand Renderworks can use. Has anyone compared rendering speeds between the i5 and the i7? Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted September 29, 2013 Share Posted September 29, 2013 I have an older i7 and would never want to 'downgrade' to the i5... Quote Link to comment
Diamond Posted September 29, 2013 Share Posted September 29, 2013 With RW, it is essentially like having double the amount if cores. I don't know if that makes it twice as fast, but it is certainly a lot faster. If you are using RW (or C4D, or any multi-core app) and had the choice, I would always choose i7. Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted September 30, 2013 Author Share Posted September 30, 2013 I had one ordered with an i5. When I ordered from my local Apple Store, the business rep there told me I did not need the i7 for the work I do. Today I was poking around the web for i5 verses i7 and I found the info about Renderworks using the Hyper-Threading in the i7, that caused me concern. I was able to cancel the i5 order so I can order it with the i7. I do plan to upgrade the video from the standard NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2GB GDDR5 to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB GDDR5 for +$150. Any thoughts on the value of that with Renderworks? Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 Renderworks only uses the CPU. But VW uses the graphics card for navigation, hidden line and OpenGL. I think the new Vectorworks Graphics Module also uses the GPU . Both the CPU and GPU are important, but for different things. Investing in both will make your overall experience better. KM Quote Link to comment
grant_PD Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 4 gigs of Vram will be quite nice I think. Don't listen to the sales people. Get the highest performance machine you can afford. It's your work after all, and you want to be done with it as quickly as possible! Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted September 30, 2013 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted September 30, 2013 i7. An i5 is a fairly minor cost savings compared to how significantly better the i7 CPU is. Just looking at the raw numbers won't always prove it, but I have used both on both Macs and Windows and the i7 is far superior. Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted September 30, 2013 Author Share Posted September 30, 2013 Thanks for all the input. I should have asked here before I placed the order. Quote Link to comment
Christiaan Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 Yeah never lesson to sales people about stuff like this. Agree with Grant, always get the highest performing machibe you can afford. When you're working on these things day in day out the extra cost is returned in no time . Quote Link to comment
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