Just purchased a 20" Intel iMac for use with ArchiCAD. Special ordered it with optional 500 GB hard drive, 2 GB ram, the 256 MB Video card. Since it can now support the extended desktop and I can use my 23" Cinema display, seemed like it might be an acceptable workstation vs. a Power Mac G5.
Since I work with various architects on a freelance basis, I have been using a 17" Powerbook @ 1 Ghz with 1 GB ram with good results.
Running ArchiCAD in Rosetta emulation seems a bit faster than the 3 year old Powerbook. Rerendering section and elevation views is faster, and sketch renderings come up fast. With the Activity Monitor window running, I can see that both CPU chips are running, averaging about 50 to 60% useage per core.
I am very happy with this configuration and would recommend it. The big hard drive is for my video work, so probably isn't needed to run ArchiCAD. I have an associate with a box stock 20" Intel iMac so I'll report back on the differences in speed vs. my optioned out version.
ArchiCAD has always crashed every so often for me, and seems a bit touchier on the Intel box, but still seems to run very acceptably with no odd glitches that I've noticed so far.
Looking forward to the Universal version of ArchiCAD !
