Intel i7

[Anonymous]

Hi
i've got a new Mac on the way with the new intel i7 chip, i've just been reading up about their "turbo boost" feature etc, has anyone had any experience with these chips & AC 13 ? as i'm expecting good things.

[Anonymous]

Hi sdb
Sorry don't have direct experience yet, however.

What I've picked up is that are 3 flavors of i7's.
the 720,820 and 920.
The "burst" rate is best with the 920 but all are really fast.
Essentially I'm told all i7's have a effective 8core rate in burst mode.
And, they will auto cool down to quad rate when not needed, thereby
reducing heat and battery power loss.
I believe most "off the shelf" models come with i7 720's unless you specify otherwise?
lec

[Anonymous]

yes i see that, i can't find anywhere on apple.com what version they are.
either way i'm expecting a big improvement, especially in render times etc.

[Anonymous]

although I've a mac at home we have peecees at work - a number of the i7 variety...and where they really benefit is paired with 64 bit OS & 64bit AC....so you'll really need to wait for AC mac version to go 64 bit to get the most benefit.
We have files just not openable on a 32 bit version...
Most impressive when rendering (we use artlantis and its pleasing to see all those cores maxed out!)

[Anonymous]

ok great, i expect that mac os x will be lightning fast on it, & yes artlantis, cinema 4d should run really well!

[owen]

well according to Intel .. the only 2.8Ghz i7 is the i7-930:

http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=28037

and the 2.66Ghz i5 would be the i5-750:

http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyId=42912

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regardless i think you would find either of these more than adequate for ArchiCAD.

I am going to buy an i7 in the next few months as a viz workstation - the Cinebench tests I have done show it is almost as fast as my office 2.8Ghz 8-Core Mac Pro, but around 1/3 the cost with a larger monitor. Of course they are only half the speed of the current top-end Mac Pro, but you are looking at $AU2900 v $AU10,000 (ex. RAM which makes the gap even larger unless you get it from someone other than Apple).

I really think the 27" i7 iMac is a no-brainer ... really, really good value for money and suitable for pretty much all but the heaviest work you can throw at it.

os

[Anonymous]

owen wrote:
I really think the 27" i7 iMac is a no-brainer ... really, really good value for money and suitable for pretty much all but the heaviest work you can throw at it.

i agree, amazing screen, & lighting fast.... i'm not sure why anyone on this forum would buy a Mac Pro instead?? (unless of course you just want the fastest machine money can buy)

[Anonymous]

i'm not sure why anyone on this forum would buy a Mac Pro instead??

.. because according to another thread on this forum someone has noticed GS & NVIDIA seem to be developing dedicated drivers for AC14...and if you want a Quadro type workstation card you have to get a Mac Pro....(or go to Windows...)

[Anonymous]

i see, well i wonder if the extra graphics grunt will be worth the extra $$$

[owen]

sdb wrote:

owen wrote:
I really think the 27" i7 iMac is a no-brainer ... really, really good value for money and suitable for pretty much all but the heaviest work you can throw at it.

i agree, amazing screen, & lighting fast.... i'm not sure why anyone on this forum would buy a Mac Pro instead?? (unless of course you just want the fastest machine money can buy)

Well they are expandable/upgradeable .. so i can understand a little bit of the attraction, but really who does this? Internal RAID is about the only thing I can think of that would need a Mac Pro ... RAM is user-upgradable on iMacs and for storage (v performance) an external RAID solution like the OWC Mercury Elite 4-drive enclosure is a better idea.

You could get 2 iMacs to sit side-by-side and still have change from a Mac Pro - just need a decent keyboard/mouse switching option to swap back and forth.