J. Wallace Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 (edited) Thought folks might like to see this as there has been some discussion on the new iMac Pro lately. Edited December 29, 2017 by J. Wallace Added second video Quote Link to comment
Benson Shaw Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 Thx @J. Wallace! -B Quote Link to comment
zoomer Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 (edited) I have seen these. And I am not that happy with the need of demounting the CPU und GPU coolers to reach the RAM slots. And with the RAID solution for 2 x ½ SSD ? Edited December 29, 2017 by zoomer Quote Link to comment
J. Wallace Posted December 29, 2017 Author Share Posted December 29, 2017 3 minutes ago, Benson Shaw said: Thx @J. Wallace! -B You are welcome @Benson Shaw Quote Link to comment
J. Wallace Posted December 29, 2017 Author Share Posted December 29, 2017 2 minutes ago, zoomer said: I have seen these. And I am not that happy with the need of demounting the CPU und GPU coolers to reach the RAM slots. I started using Mac's about 15 years ago and was always pleased with their products. I'm currently hanging onto my older Macpro (which I adore, easy access, easy to clean, I can add a hard drive in minutes) and I"m not too excited about my replacement options. Quote Link to comment
JohnAthayde Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 7 minutes ago, J. Wallace said: I started using Mac's about 15 years ago and was always pleased with their products. I'm currently hanging onto my older Macpro (which I adore, easy access, easy to clean, I can add a hard drive in minutes) and I"m not too excited about my replacement options. I'm in a similar pickle. My 2008 MacPro 3,1 (almost maxed out). I could take it up to 64G of RAM, but the processor is starting to be the pain point (e.g. processing video, Nuke scripts, Maya work etc). I'm looking forward to the MacPro modular announcement in 2018, but I would seriously consider one of these if I had the job that justified the price. Quote Link to comment
zoomer Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 (edited) During holidays on my old cMac Pro 2.1 from 2007 with 10.7.5 and VW 2015 too. Feels very good - but a bit noisy (AMD 4870 GPU) barefeats.com has first benchmarks too ... Edited December 29, 2017 by zoomer Quote Link to comment
zoomer Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 Hmmh, Multicore Cinebench of 2060 for the 10 core iMac Pro. If I calculate the improvement for the 2.3 GHz only 18 core, I get only CB 2840 ..... So less than a less expensive Threadripper 1950x build. At least the 10 core is more than double as fast than my nMac Pro 6 core. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted January 30, 2018 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted January 30, 2018 Just got one in the office today! The engineers and QA need time with it before I'll have my turn (as it should be, im only slightly jealous) but once I get a few hours to work with it i'll post a Vectorworks-centric write up. Quote Link to comment
DanJansenson Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 Make sure you use a mask, for when it starts smoking. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted February 6, 2018 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted February 6, 2018 Got it in my grubby paws today! I made sure to explicitly promise to keep it free of drool. It is amazing how much the experience of using Vectorworks can change even between machines that are BOTH above the recommended specs. I'm currently benchmarking it and throwing my favorite Unfair combo file at it to see if I can make it choke. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted February 6, 2018 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted February 6, 2018 Well. I knew it would be powerful but it still wowed me. Below is a quick comparison of OpenGL performance. This is the most optimized aspect of the VGM and showcases exactly what Vectorworks can do if given access to powerful hardware. The first segment shows the load times from no files at all to loading the stress test saved in OpenGL. The second shows me flying around the same file on both machines using a Spacenavigator. You can clearly see the iMac Pro trouncing the Macbook Pro in both tests, even more handily than I expected. I would attribute the load speed victory to not only the superior CPU clock on the iMac Pro, but also the superior GPU and the MUCH faster solid state storage. Not only is there a huge difference in load times (It beat my trusty MBP handily loading one of my nastier torture files) but because the iMac Pro has so much VRAM (8GB on the Vega 54) it can hold a this deceptively complex model all in memory without having to dump out geometry and reload again like you can see it doing a few times on the MBP. There are moments in the video where it looks like im not doing anything on the MBP side, but I assure you I was mashing forward on the Spacenavigator knob and just awaiting a response. Now all that said, there is a bug specifically related to random crashing on iMac Pros (on both GPU options) that we are currently tracking. I did not come across it in my brief testing so far, but I've mainly stuck to OpenGL and didn't do much drafting. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted February 6, 2018 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted February 6, 2018 Here it is (sorted by CPU Cinebench score) handily beating my gaming rig "Ceres" even with an overclock and only being beaten by a 24core monster machine that costs over $14,000: My current Macbook Pro for comparison: The GPU scores lower than the dedicated GTX 970 gaming graphics card of course, since gaming cards are simply better at OpenGL overall for their price, but a score of 122 on the GPU in Cinebench is no slouch at all, as you could plainly see in the video comparison. In this quick test render for another video I'm currently recording about Lit Fog: My Macbook Pro took 9 minutes 58 seconds. The iMac Pro took 2 minutes 38 seconds. Quote Link to comment
zoomer Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 Very Nice ! Would be interesting if my nMac Pro with its old and slow D700(s) would handle the file at the same speed, just because it may have also enough (6GB) VRAM. Quote Link to comment
willofmaine Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 On 2/6/2018 at 12:57 PM, JimW said: Now all that said, there is a bug specifically related to random crashing on iMac Pros (on both GPU options) that we are currently tracking. I did not come across it in my brief testing so far, but I've mainly stuck to OpenGL and didn't do much drafting. My experience has been that the crashing seems to be precipitated by the combination of OpenGL and Orbit. Sometimes VW will crash while orbiting, sometimes (maybe more often) it will crash some time later. And while 2D drafting is exceedingly tedious, even on the iMac Pro, it doesn't seem to cause crashes. Quote Link to comment
Allen Brown Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 Just got an iMac Pro with the attached configuration. Although its much faster, especially with Renderworks, I'm experiencing frequent random crashes. It doesn't seem to be tied to anything specific, just ordinary tasks such as stretching or moving an object in top/plan. Hopefully the bugs will be worked out soon.. Quote Link to comment
J. Wallace Posted March 4, 2018 Author Share Posted March 4, 2018 Looks like a nice machine @Allen Brown...huge graphics card. Quote Link to comment
bob cleaver Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 All the best with the new machine Please keep us posted on your findings Quote Link to comment
Allen Brown Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 Thanks Bob! FYI I'm comparing the iMac Pro with a two-year old iMac, configuration attached. Aside from frequent crashing with Vectorworks 2018 (which occurs on both machines actually although not as often), I'm getting used to the speed. When I use the iMac for comparison, it seems painfully slow. I've never been happy with the fusion drive setup, always seems to lag. Anything you'd like to test? Quote Link to comment
HawaiiFarmer Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 (edited) @willofmaine I just completed drafting a timberframed barn using Vectorworks 2018 SP2. Each post, summer beam, purlin, and subordinate dimension-lumber sticks were defined individually and then put to together into a beautiful, coherent building: Timberframe.pdf This building was not quite 2D drafted, but it did not use the AEC tools and other auto-generated objects that seem to cause VW to stagger -- only a concrete stem wall and a set of stairs. I then drafted a two-story house having (4) sets of stairs and auto-generated objects (roof, floors, walls), plug-in windows and doors, and a few fixtures and appliances. Both the timberframe and the house projects resulted in ~30MB .vwx files. Yet, VW18 handles the timberframe with ease, never lagging, or hiccuping. I can rotate it, flyover it, stand it on its head. VW18 has never frozen or crashed interacting with the Timberframe. But if I just click on a plug-in or attempt to the file, the house project will crash -- sometimes 5 times in 5 minutes. Very disappointing. Any pointers on which heavy-weight objects tend to make VW18 crash? My daily driver is Edited March 15, 2018 by HawaiiFarmer error Quote Link to comment
willofmaine Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 I haven't found any particular objects that cause Vectorworks to crash. For me, all of the crashes seem to be precipitated by using OpenGL. Even if I only use OpenGL briefly, Vectorworks will often eventually crash (and it does it suddenly, with absolutely no warning). But this is only on the iMac Pro; I did not have this problem with my previous Late 2013 Mac Pro. Quote Link to comment
HawaiiFarmer Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Thank you, Will. Yes, GL seems to be the context for these constant crashes. I cannot save the file without crashing! Perhaps we have the same Intel Core i7 chip architecture. Have you found that one OS X release is better than another w.r.t. VW18 crashing? Thank you! Quote Link to comment
willofmaine Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Hi, the iMac Pro has a completely different chip from the iMac. It's my understanding that the OpenGL crashing is specific to the iMac Pro (its AMD graphics card, I guess), but maybe not, if you're also crashing with OpenGL. I can save files without any problem. The iMac Pro came with the latest OS X, so I can't compare to other versions. Quote Link to comment
HawaiiFarmer Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 2 minutes ago, willofmaine said: Hi, the iMac Pro has a completely different chip from the iMac. It's my understanding that the OpenGL crashing is specific to the iMac Pro (its AMD graphics card, I guess), but maybe not, if you're also crashing with OpenGL. I can save files without any problem. The iMac Pro came with the latest OS X, so I can't compare to other versions. Many thanks! Enjoy pristine Maine! Quote Link to comment
willofmaine Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Thanks! I've been watching Hawaii 5-0, mostly for the amazing scenery. Quote Link to comment
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