What's better for Archicad, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra or the M4 Max?

[genarch]

Apple is releasing (finally) new Mac Studios tomorrow but there seems to be a lot of overlap between the M3 Ultra (the high end model) and the M4 Max (the entry model). Yes, even the naming is a bit confusing! The M4 is faster in single-core operations while the M3 Ultra is faster in multi-core. And the GPU in the M3 Ultra is better than in the M4 Max. Maybe I'm answering my own question here in the M3 Ultra would be faster running Archicad, if you're willing to spend 2x as much to get it.

Please save the "get a PC" comments for another post, that's not what this one is about! I actually have a PC I use for TwinMotion but I'd rather spend my days on a Mac, respectfully.

[insideru]

Depends ALOT on what projects you work on and how detailed/hardcore are you going with BIM/DD.

But if you ask me, go for the M4 Max. I have a M4 Pro regular mac mini and it does a fantastic job with medium/medium-large projects.

[santa]

I'm interested in the same question. I'm currently working on a Mac studio M1 max with 32GB ram. In terms of performance, the M1 is OK, but 32GB RAM is not enough. I was planning on an M4 max with 96GB RAM, but it's not on offer. And at the price of 128GB, I'm already considering an M3 ultra with 96GB RAM. I'm choosing the higher ram because of the cloud points from matterport, so that I can process it. I create visuals in Lumion on a Win PC, but with higher RAM, Twinmotion could also work reliably on a Mac. I'd be grateful for any opinions and maybe I'll decide differently in the end....

[insideru]

I have had only bad experiences with Twinmotion, crashing on both mac and windows. I don't use it anymore, so i don't know what to say. Speaking of cloud points, i only ever worked with iphone lidar scans, and it always slowed archicad to a grinding halt. Dunno if ram is the problem, or the GPU, or just bad optimizations. I would test before making a decision.

[santa]

Twinmotion also crashed on my Mac. It works on a Windows PC. I thought it was a RAM problem. So the problem is probably somewhere else.
As for Cloud point, I've tested it. Both from iPhone and Matterport. But you have to be sensitive with the amount of data. The maximum Cloud point file size of 2.5 - 3GB has proven to be successful in our work. I always process it in the freeware software Cloud compare and then import it into Archicad. I can't imagine working any other way (measuring with a meter...)
Currently, as I wrote, I have an M1 max, 32GB RAM.
I can't tell the difference between the M4 max and the M3 Ultra.
The M4 max with 128GB RAM is almost the same price as the M3 Ultra with 96GB RAM. And maybe the price-performance ratio will be enough for the M4 max, 64GB RAM.....

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Twinmotion aj mne na Mac padal. Na win PC to beží. Myslel som si že je problém v pamäti RAM. Tak asi je problém inde.
Čo sa Cloud point týka, to mám odskúšané. Aj z iphone aj z matterport. Treba ale citlivo pracovať s objemom dát. Osvedčilo sa nám v práci maximálna veľkosť súboru Cloud piojnt 2,5 - 3GB. Vždy si to spracujem vo freewer software Cloud compare a až následne to importujem do archicadu. Už si prácu ani ináč neviem predstaviť (merať metrom...)
Momentálne mám ako som písal M1 max, 32GB RAM.
Neviem sa aale rozdnúť medzi M4 max a M3 Ultra.
M4 max so 128GB RAM má takmer rovnakú cenu ako M3 Ultra 96GB RAM. A možo pomer cena výkon bude postačovať M4 max, 64GB RAM.....

[Eduardo Rolon]

Please post in English.

I edited your post to add the translation.

[santa]

Oh sorry. I don't know English. I'm writing through a translator. And I copied the untranslated text.... 🙂