topic Re: mac pro vs imac in Installation & update

mac pro vs imac

peter spellman — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 18:29:12 GMT

Does anyone have advice on purchasing a new iMac 27" vs. the pricier mac pro. As I see it, I can max. out the iMac for about the same price as the mac pro without a monitor. Am I sacrificing Archicad performance with the iMac?

I am essentially a one man shop currently running AC18 on a 2007 mac pro.
Processor 2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 20 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Peter

Re: mac pro vs imac

Karl Ottenstein — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 20:49:18 GMT

Top of the line iMac is an excellent choice. Unless you do heavy video editing, or use software that can take advantage of the MP's dual graphics cards, the iMac is a super value IMHO.

You'll see a huge performance boost from your 2007 machine and its 667 MHz memory, etc.

Re: mac pro vs imac

peter spellman — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 21:19:24 GMT

Thanks for the input Karl.

Peter

Re: mac pro vs imac

PB — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 17:15:19 GMT

There are also rumours of an update to the iMac line - possibly as I type !

Expectation is of a retina display 27' model which should therefore have a potent GPU under the bonnet....and perhaps a more powerful CPU(s)

Re: mac pro vs imac

Laszlo Nagy — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 18:20:17 GMT

They just announced it.

Re: mac pro vs imac

peter spellman — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 19:06:21 GMT

Looks like I timed it perfectly. Usually does not work out that way.

Re: mac pro vs imac

aahatimo — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 20:37:44 GMT

the new retina iMac looks like a fantastic archicad device. a 5k display with a free computer built in!
but will we need new reading glasses to see the text and dialog boxes since resolution is double the current iMac spec?
not sure there is a reason to go with the mac pro now.
maybe apple will update cinema display to retina spec soon.

Re: mac pro vs imac

Aaron Bourgoin — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 17:30:49 GMT

the new iMac announced this week certainly deserves a look.

this topic is an important one if ArchiCAD is - as I understand it - a "multi-threaded" app. putting the 5X monitor issue aside for a moment and looking at the guts of the new iMac, is this a machine for intensive ArchiCAD use or is the Mac Pro a better bet?

ArchiCAD - under the hood - is pretty sophisticated. moreso than, say, Revit. the tech writers have been examining this new Mac from the perspective of single-threaded apps and so what they have to say may not be quite what we need to know.

this article doesn't reference ArchiCAD specifically, but makes me wants to ask the question: http://www.marco.org/2014/10/16/retina-imac-vs-mac-pro

still trying to wait for "Broadwell" processors before making the jump to a new platform. as long as i don't have to render anything, my little Mac Mini is doing pretty well - even with two sessions of ArchiCAD running concurrently.

Re: mac pro vs imac

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 14:35:05 GMT

Consider this information on Retina Display devices:

http://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/technotes/setup/hardware-compatibility/retina-display-compatibility/

One important paragraph of the Tech Note, which was updated today:

iMac with Retina 5K display, 4K displays connected to Macs
The new iMac with Retina 5K display features a screen that has resolution of 5120 by 2880 pixels. This is four times more pixels to calculate than with a regular 27″ iMac.

Based on GRAPHISOFT’s latest tests the performance of ArchiCAD significantly drops on such displays, including 4K displays as well. As a result, at this point it is not recommended to invest in iMacs with Retina 5K displays or 4K displays.

GRAPHISOFT is actively researching the available technologies to improve the performance on such high-res displays.

Re: mac pro vs imac

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 21:47:16 GMT

I was about to purchase the 27" iMac when the 5k iMac was announced. As I work primarily in auto cad these days it would work well for that.

However I prefer ArchiCAD and try to use it whenever possible on a project. If I knew that AC 19 (or better an update to 18) would make 2d more functional in AC I would pull the trigger now and use an external monitor for 2d in AC for now.

Could the new video card makes up for what ever deficiency AC is having at those resolutions?

Is it the resolution that is the issue? You can elect to run software at a "low resolution" or even change the display to run at a lower resolution and still have a higher quality than the non 5k display.

If I knew a solution was eminent I would be willing to be a Guinea pig and try it out.

I am trying to eliminate printing as much as possible (ink is costly) the IPS display in the non 5k line is the first that I can comfortably do redlines on. The 5k display would make that experience even better.

Re: mac pro vs imac

Aaron Bourgoin — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 23:09:51 GMT

For the first time in my memory, ArchiCAD is at a point where it isn't in lockstep with Apple. Apple's latest offerings: Yosemite and the new iMac are incompatible with the Graphisoft brand.

There was a time when the graphics card was the thing - everything. When you bought a new computer you shopped for a graphics card, especially when you were buying a laptop.

This no longer seems to be the case as if I recall, Cinerender is a CPU based engine and ArchiCAD is multi-threaded. the CORE or number of CORES is this thing.

ArchiCAD cannot use a 5K monitor and is in fact crippled by the Texan amount of screen real estate it provides. As a consequence the new iMac doesn't seem like an option at all at this point.

But maybe that isn't an issue. Looking at the Apple store configurations it appears that the cost of a new Mac - on a "per core" basis - is a wash. Here in Canada the new iMac and the Mac Pro (with a 27" ArchiCAD compatible monitor) works out to roughly $1100 per core. Nothing scientific about that comparison, but the numbers add up to something that looks like that. In fact, you get two graphics cards with your Mac Pro, which makes it seem like the better deal. the better deal if you've got $2200 more in your pocket, that is.

If the graphics cards are not as important factor as they once were, can we see some benchmarks of ArchiCAD running on 4-core i7s versus the six, eight and 12-core Xeons.

The only reason I need anything on my desktop that isn't a tablet or smartphone these days is ArchiCAD. I think it's time for some clear and information rich documentation on what the Apple Platform and the Graphisoft platform have to do for each other.