Mac Pro 2013

[Anonymous]

Very surprised to see no thread on the latest Mac Pro...I would have thought there are a lot of users hanging out for one...or has it been too long coming?

Look pretty fantastical but the price is sure to match!

[Achille Pavlidis]

me wants!!!!

[PB]

I've been holding off purchasing a Mac Pro for the last 18 months.....waiting (hoping) for this new model. Appears to be most exciting.......but need to see how it holds up once available to the public (and how much it costs).

I also need to know if the AMD GPUs will play nicely with my software (AC, Vue Infinite, & LumenRT).

[Anonymous]

My MacPro is now over 5 years old. I've been waiting for this for a while now. It looks WAY cool and I really want one but I won't get excited until the release date (and price) are announced, or really not until it arrives on my doorstep.

[drh64]

Now that we all know pricing and options what is everyone's opinion on this machine? I will be upgrading but the question in my mind is do I really need this much power? Unless you are working on a very large project with a lot of data is this hardware necessary? I am considering pulling the trigger on a machine with all of the options spending big dollars but would I simply be wasting my money??? Would like to hear the opinions on this!

[Karl Ottenstein]

I'm mixed. My 5 year old Mac Pro feels just fine since I upgraded the graphics card and added a boot SSD a while ago. But, the power of the new Mac Pro is sure tantalizing to my inner geek.

Personally, I don't like the shape and shininess... and the fact that in practical use there will be all kinds of cables coming out the back connected to this and that all over my desk, whether directly or daisy-chained. And, the top exhaust seems like it is asking for trouble from spilled drinks, unless the fan is so powerful that it will blow the liquids away before they can enter.

Exercising a (very) slight amount of self-control, aided by the price, I'll wait for Bare Feats to test/review... and for one of you to fill us in. 🙂

[Chazz]

I was surprised that Apple even continued the MacPro. I would never buy another -- as sexy as this new ones looks. The power is nice and all but Apple is very much now a mobile company selling to a mobile, global audience.

Though I don't push on ArchiCad as hard as I used to, i have found its performance on high spec MacBookPro's to be perfectly acceptable. The combination of a MBP with a 27" Thunderbolt Display is near perfect for when you are in office (especially when an employer pays for it). I admit I was a little nervous about abandoning my 8 core Pro machine but I have gone mobile and am never looking back. Viva la MBP!

[Chazz]

Well, did anyone order one?

The press on it (here) seems to be pretty much of one voice: It's fast for Apple's own Pro apps but for other things, a nice iMac is just fine.

It has always seemed that ArchiCad did not know what to do with most of the hardware resources available except in certain cases. I would guess that AC 17 and this machine only furthers that trend but I'm curious to know the experience of you early adopters out there.

[glenn_peters]

Article posted on the architosh commentary blog in late-October states the new Mac Pro should be good news for ArchiCAD users.

http://architosh.com/2013/10/op-ed-why-the-new-mac-pro-will-rock-for-archicad-but-not-for-revit/

Still waiting for actual tests/reports from users now that the Mac Pro is shipping (in limited quantities)…

[KenMcN]

Anyone tried out the new MacPro yet?

I've got one (entry level quad core, 12GB ram) and don't find it that much quicker than my mac mini (i7, 16GB ram).

I've noticed this particularly for model flythroughs using the Explore tool for client presentations. It still has to either drop distant objects (which reappear when you stop moving) or reduce the frame rate. Have tried various settings but it still doesn't look smooth—all ideas gratefully received.

Bit disappointed really, hoping that Archicad will be able to take advantage of the dual GPUs in an forthcoming update.

Kenny