Is my Apple Imac good enough now?

[KenH]

Hi.

I am as passionate with my Vectorworks Landscape as I am with my Apple. The trouble is that rendering my plans in a final Renderworks imagery with its full planting areas I some have to wait 20 minutes for it to render.

I purge my files and to generate an image to show my client is now such a slog.

I use a 2015 iMac with 4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 32 Ram and AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4 GB.

Apple tells me I ought to upgrade to the new MacBook Pro and then it will generate things so fast I won't even have time to think.

Does anyone have experience of this?

 

I would be grateful for any feedback.

KenH

[Jeff Prince]

1 hour ago, KenH said:

Hi.

I am as passionate with my Vectorworks Landscape as I am with my Apple. The trouble is that rendering my plans in a final Renderworks imagery with its full planting areas I some have to wait 20 minutes for it to render.

I purge my files and to generate an image to show my client is now such a slog.

I use a 2015 iMac with 4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 32 Ram and AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4 GB.

Apple tells me I ought to upgrade to the new MacBook Pro and then it will generate things so fast I won't even have time to think.

Does anyone have experience of this?

 

I would be grateful for any feedback.

KenH

 

I use a MacBook Pro which is less powerful than your machine, works fine for my needs, including very large site models (25 to 100 acres) with lots of plants ( 1000 +).

 

Faster computers are always nice to have, but unless you are rendering all day long, jumping between projects, and experiencing delays that are preventing you from getting actual work done…. A faster computer usually just means the operator will have a better browsing experience while watching YouTube videos or planning their next vacation. 🙂

[KenH]

Sincere thanks for your comments Jeff. I don't create landscapes anywhere near to yours but I do have other programs working at the same time., plus email and live internet. I think it might be the lack of RAM but I can't install more. Is your MacBook Pro the latest one?

[Jeff Prince]

1 minute ago, KenH said:

. I think it might be the lack of RAM but I can't install more. Is your MacBook Pro the latest one?

nope, my MBP is late 2015 with 16gb RAM.

[KenH]

Thanks Jeff. It may well be me then. 

It looks like I need to obtain training in using VWs tools better.

[zoomer]

7 hours ago, KenH said:

I use a 2015 iMac with 4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 32 Ram and AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4 GB.

 

This is better than min specs for VW 2022.

So it should be totally ok for smaller to standard projects.

 

32 GB RAM isn't few.

There should be enough free RAM for your peripheral Apps in background.

 

And it is a state of the Art machine if you are running VW 2015. (I loved it)

 

At that time I had to upgrade from my 2009 Mac Pro 2.1 to a Trash Can,

because my large project, at that time, did not fit in the 512 MB VRAM

of the GPU 🙂

But you have 4 GB VRAM !

Edited February 22, 2022 by zoomer

[Ed Wachter]

Does this depend on what version of VW you're running? We just replaced our 2015 iMacs (same as your's) with new MacBook Pros. I am not noticing any dramatic difference in performance once I'm inside VW. It appears that the old machines will not run VW2022 and the new ones cannot reliably run some of the older versions.

 

Ed

[KenH]

Hi Guys.

My sincere thanks for all your feedback.

To tell you from my side I am becoming slower each year based on memory decline (mine not VW or IT.)

 

I find keeping up with new tools and having to sit and viewing new university courses to find a way to create one thing more than enough out of my day. It may be 'cos I don't use BIM much but working using the the tools I have used over the years. My files are usually over 1.2 GB and I render 10 - 12 camera views in Final Renderworks which are printed and sent to the client to mull over.

 

This is why I am trying to find a solution to stop looking at a roundabout so long. This is why I am looking at the MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip.

If I am getting this the wrong way round I look forward to any ideas.

[KenH]

Hi Ed.

I am running 2022 and I don't have worries over the version not doing anything, only the speed its rendering in. Tell me, which version of MacBook Pro are you using. Is it with the M1 Chip or the M1Pro chip?

[zoomer]

For single core speed (VW overall performance) M1 vs M1 Pro/Max are the same.

For CPU multi core (RW Rendering) M1 has 4/4 cores, 4 Performance and 4 Efficiency cores

while M1 Pro/Max have 8 Performance and 2 Efficiency cores.

So the M1 Pro/Max are noticeably faster, but far from double as fast ....

 

M1 has a 16 GB shared memory limit, which isn't that much and a problem for my usual

kind of 3D projects. M1 Pro kann have up to 32 GB (reasonable) and M1 Max up to 64 GB.

Something to consider if it will be in use for another 7 years.

 

EDIT

BTW, the M1 in Cinebench multi core (=VW RW Rendering) is only about 45% faster

than my Trash Can 6 core Xeon from 2013.

So I personally would rather be interested in something like 4 tiles of M1 Maxes ....

although it is to be expected that I will not be able to afford when it may possibly

come at the end of this year.

 

BTW 2

Latest rumors say the the next 27" iMac may only get the same M1 Pro/Max chips,

no dual or quad tiles config. And it looks like M1 Pro/Max have only lanes for a

dual config - not quad.

Lets hope for M2 ....

Edited February 23, 2022 by zoomer

[Ed Wachter]

Our Mac consultant recommended the laptops so we could get the M1 Max, and we get them with 32GB of RAM.

Our VW files are much smaller. Our files always seem to be between 100 and 500 MB. These are BIM models with a lot of VPs and also a good bit of 2D drafting; typical architectural stuff. From what I can tell so far, the performance is not dramatically better with the laptops. Some things are happening more slowly. In VW2021, at least two us  notice that we sometimes click on a line (or other simple object) to select it, and we wait for several seconds for it to be selected. That's surprising.

 

Similar to using the old iMac, we also notice objects disappear, even though we can still select them, if we know where they are, and then they'll re-appear if we edit them.

We're now committed to the laptops for several more years, but it was a disappointment for me. I prefer the iMac because I don't like having a laptop on my desk, and the iMac's display (even from 2015) is still the sharpest display I've used. In addition to paying an additional $1000 for each laptop, we then had to buy external monitors for $600 each. We have the LG 4K displays, which are almost as sharp as the iMac Retina display.

 

Good luck,

Ed

[zoomer]

^ I agree ....

 

But you may want to upgrade to VW 2022 ASAP.

VW 2021 is still an Intel only App that runs on ARM via Rosetta 2.

This has some performance .... as well as stability ... penalties.

 

VW 2022 has a native App version for Apple ARM,

which, while still having some quirks for now, should still work a

lot better on M1, M1 Pro/Max.

[dtheory]

Hi Ed, David from Seattle (bike group) my bad if this is a different Ed Wachter.. Chiming in on 2022, performance is far better on my M1 mini, invisible object bug seems rare.. I did get some locking or crashing, but that was on early builds, that seems much better with the updates..

[KenH]

Many thanks to all.

Your information has been so helpful. I shall sit and go through BIM courses and get up to date on thjis.

 

Once I source the MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip and after I have used it on some big designs I will put up my findings. It may be all down to the amount of plant renditions of real plants rather than a few that looks about OK. I usually have to use a real plant and then use Photoshop to cut out the background. This is mind boggling in time but I think its worth it.

 

Sincere thanks again.

KenH

[LarryO]

🤣🤣🤣 In the 90's on our Quadra 900 fully loaded with RAM we could render a single scene over the weekend!

 

Perhaps a used Mac hiding on a shelf could process the rendering while the touch-up work continued at the desk?

KVM switches were great for sharing the interface peripherals between two machines. You had to love and hoard the old tech though because the secondhand market was and still is overpriced to think about purchasing being economical. 🙃