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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

An event today at 10AM EST, expecting updates to the iPad Pro and Macbook lines, but I hold out hopes for a much more capable Mac Mini. The Mini was always my favorite personally, for a very long time it was the easiest (and cheapest) way to get into the Mac architecture, I hope they give it some horsepower and put it back in contention for heavy Vectorworks usage.

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/
 

https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/30/18027372/october-apple-event-live-stream-time-date-watch-online-ipad-macbook

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10 minutes ago, Jim Wilson said:

I hope they give it some horsepower and put it back in contention for heavy Vectorworks usage.

 

For the Mac Mini as it was that would mean either,

fast Intel CPU with Intel Onboard GPU

(= VW lowering the GPU min Specs)

or

weak Intel CPU with Vega and still no VRAM.

 

So I hope for a Mac MiniMidi with mobile GPU or

better dream of a Mac Midi with PCI slots

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Agreed, I want them to bring back Nivida graphics! The GTX 1050 and 1060 are nice and slim and being happily stuffed into laptops across the Windows range and are doing great. I have one of the older Mac Minis (It now happily serves as a media server in my basement) that had an Nvidia 9400M and even for being a weaker offering it still ran circles around the Intel integrated options. 

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15 minutes ago, Jim Wilson said:

I have one of the older Mac Minis (It now happily serves as a media server in my basement) that had an Nvidia 9400M

 

Ha, just as my Time Machine ... ah ... former Mac Mini Server from late 2009.

I always thought it would have an Intel Onboard only.

Should run fine with VW 2015 and 2015 Projects requirements .....

wait ....  maybe better than my cMac Pro 2.1

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1 hour ago, zoomer said:

 

For the Mac Mini as it was that would mean either,

fast Intel CPU with Intel Onboard GPU

(= VW lowering the GPU min Specs)

or

weak Intel CPU with Vega and still no VRAM.

 

So I hope for a Mac MiniMidi with mobile GPU or

better dream of a Mac Midi with PCI slots

 

Up to six cores. Still integrated graphics. It looks like they believe most people will use it as a server. I guess you could add a eGPU.

Kevin

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
1 minute ago, Kevin McAllister said:

Still integrated graphics


 😭  😭  😭  😭 

Regardless, this is still going to be a model users ask about, especially with that sub $1k starting price. Going to push grabbing a few for testing. ONE DAY most integrated graphics will be able to handle Vectorworks, but so far very, very few can.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

An eGPU makes even more sense for the Mac Mini, since you only have to push things one way, from the Mac to the eGPU to the display. Most of the real trouble I had here was trying to convince an eGPU to output back to the Macbook's internal display that I was testing with.

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As much as I'd love to ditch Apple's tiny mirror of a display on an iMac/Pro, spending $3,000 on a 6-core (toaster) 3.2 Mac Mini + an eGPU is not something I'm interested in as a person who earns a living using VW. And the 4-core is an i3 !!!

 

Every year, we wait and we hope, and every year we're disappointed and price gauged. The hacintosh is looking better and better all the time.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

If instructing my users in the creation of Hackintoshes wasn't in the realm of DMCA-danger for our company, something we absolutely wouldn't want to risk, I would have yearly tutorials on doing it. I personally can't recommend them enough, They work so well and show that the OS really does shine if you give it the right guts.

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1 hour ago, Jim Wilson said:

Regardless, this is still going to be a model users ask about, especially with that sub $1k starting price. Going to push grabbing a few for testing. ONE DAY most integrated graphics will be able to handle Vectorworks, but so far very, very few can.

 

^ do you think if the VGM went direct to Metal that the integrated graphics would be a more viable option than they are now under OpenGL?

 

Kevin

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
2 minutes ago, Kevin McAllister said:

^ do you think if the VGM went direct to Metal that the integrated graphics would be a more viable option than they are now under OpenGL?

 


Yes. Metal is highly optimized for integrated graphics and runs very efficiently on them.

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5 minutes ago, Jim Wilson said:


Yes. Metal is highly optimized for integrated graphics and runs very efficiently on them.

 

So mac users should all be pushing for a direct to Metal option of the VGM if we want access to cheaper hardware in the future.... 🙂

 

This is also good news for VW users who prefer a laptop - https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/10/30/macbook-pro-getting-radeon-pro-vega-graphics-options-in-november

 

I was really hoping for six core iMacs today. I really need to upgrade my system....

 

Kevin

 

Edited by Kevin McAllister
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https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/10/all-new-macbook-air-takes-flight/

 

Quote

 

Radeon Pro Vega Graphics Coming to MacBook Pro Next Month

Apple also today announced new MacBook Pro graphics options that will bring powerful Radeon Pro Vega graphics to MacBook Pro for the first time. These new graphics options deliver up to 60 percent faster graphics performance for the most demanding video editing, 3D design and rendering workloads.

 

Notwithstanding thermal throttling, faulty keyboard that you can't take onsite, lightbar that nobody asked for and drives the price up, a removed Escape key that has to be remapped to the Caps Lock key, reflective screen and #thatdonglelife, this is encouraging news and good reason not to buy a MBP until next month.

Edited by Mark Aceto
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So,

+ good that they updated any macOS Device, Macbook Air

+ very good that they updated finally Mac Mini

 

Best Keynote ever !

+ No embarassing or boring 3rd party presentations

+ they did not announce iMac speed bumps, so hope for a redesign

 

- they could not resist from using the tabu term "thin"

- they could not resist from using the tabu term "Emoji"

- they forgot the "one more thing"

- not a good thing for claimed desktop love trust if they will not bring a iMac redesign soon

 

 

Mac Mini

+ RAM not soldered !?

+ CPU ok

+ 64 GB RAM

+ 10 Gb NAT fine but $100 extra (?)

+ Ports

 

- Onboard GPU instead of a M GPU

- heat and throttling ?

 

OK, so a Mac Mini with eGPU could be a VW Machine.

Mini could replace my aging cMac Pro 2.1 - but my aging nMac Pro is meant

to replace my aging cMac Pro - and there is still no trust that a coming

mMac Pro could be suitable.

Or 6 Mac Minis for 36 cores - nah, too tedious to maintain 6 machines ....

And I am not quite sure if I really could find the right adapter daisy chain

to get my old 30" Cinema Display with Dual DVI running (?)

USB C/TB to TB2 > Mini Displayport > Mini Displayport to DUAL DVI

or better

HDMI to Displayport (?) > Displayport to Mini Display Port > Mini Displayport to DUAL DVI

 

EDIT

Forgot the eGPU, necessary anyway.

And there needs to be an external Monitor plugged in anyway so it could be

more reliable, beside of that strange but PlugNPlay BlackMagic thing.

Which may be even cheaper than my Adapter Daisy Chain.

But I'm not confident that it will really work and boot with any other eGPU or

even Nvidia inside.

 

Edited by zoomer
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Hmmh, that Mac Mini ...

I think if it had decent mobile graphics that it works out of the box

for VW and other 3D DCC, I would like to buy one.

Should be quite portable, if you have 2 locations equipped with

Power Supply, Input and Monitors.

 

But when I tried to configure one in Euros,

like 6 core i7, min RAM, only 512 GB SSD and 10 Gb,

I end at 1850 €

But I would still need to buy the RAM for a few hundred € and 1400 €

for that new Black Magic with the mediocre Vega 56 with only 8 GB

of VRAM (?) And maybe input peripherals (?)

 

Hmmh, 3500+ € for a NUC ?

 

Looks like Mac Rumors readers aren't very enthusiastic about the Macbook Air

and iPad prices either.

 

 

I am a little concerned about the T2 chip preventing installation of other OSs.

Or at least make installing Linux a bit more tedious.

The secure boot is said to be disable-able in an iMac Pro though.

Edited by zoomer
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9 hours ago, Aspect_Design said:

And no hints about the Mac Pro... disappointing... If they can't design a tower, they've really lost it 

 

So Tim was serious when said that he told Pro Users should go with the

iMac Pro for now as the mMac Pro will not come that soon but in 2019.

Maybe a late 2019 model that ships early 2020, again ?

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