IMAC + Archicad

[Anonymous]

I will be using archicad 12 for commercial/residential ground up projects. Possibly buying an IMAC 20" 2.66Ghz, intel core 2 duo, 2gb ram, 320 GB hard drive, Nvidia Geforce 9400 graphics card. Does anyone have an opinion if this IMAC will be able to handle presentation quality interior and exterior rendering. Any other thoughts on the system would be helpful too. Thanks

[Karl Barker]

They work fine for us.
Also, our supplier also runs them so they can support mac and PC. They bootcamp the iMac's to run windows.
It all depends on how far you really want to go in terms of spending money for a result. There are quite a few people out there with large Powermac boxes and loads of ram. I am not sure though how often they fully use up the performance these machines give them.

We do a range of architecture from residential houses to full 3D masterplans of communities.
I would Say the iMac is 'adequate' for this.

Cheers,
Karl.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responce - much appreciated.

steve

[owen]

sland wrote:
I will be using archicad 12 for commercial/residential ground up projects. Possibly buying an IMAC 20" 2.66Ghz, intel core 2 duo, 2gb ram, 320 GB hard drive, Nvidia Geforce 9400 graphics card. Does anyone have an opinion if this IMAC will be able to handle presentation quality interior and exterior rendering. Any other thoughts on the system would be helpful too. Thanks

I would really suggest spending the extra $300 and get the next one up, the 2.66 24" ... bigger screen and more importantly 4GB RAM ... a bare minimum for RAM these days IMO. 2GB is just not enough for demanding applications like ArchiCAD.

What will you be using for rendering? If AC12 then going beyond 4GB of RAM wouldn't really provide any benefit, nor the faster, more expensive CPU versions. The entry level 24" iMac is a bit of a sweet spot for basic ArchiCAD use. For big models, complex rendering in AC or particularly 3rd party apps like C4D then I would go to a Mac Pro.

[davide]

I've got a G4 OWC 1,3 2 Giga Ram + Ati 9000 pro 64 mb. Next autumn i'd like to buy a new computer, i use archicad 12 and when will arrive archicad 13. Is it better to buy a Imac 24 " 3,06 ghz for 2099 Euro or basic mac pro 2,66 quad core for 2299 Euro since I've got a monito crt 19"? Thanks and sorry for my bad english.

[PB]

It would depend on your 19" monitor: What resolution is it?.....then compare this with the iMac screens. This should give you a better basis for deciding...(I abandoned my 21" CRT some time ago as the resolution was no match for current iMac/LCD/LED screens)