iMac Pro

[PB]

With Apple's latest announcements, what do you think of the proposed iMac Pro ?

':shock:'

[Stephen Dolbee]

The iMac pro is exciting without a doubt, and I tend to want to jump in to the latest/greatest. But, I think the iMac pro is probably overkill for Archicad (in most cases). A new high-end iMac would likely serve most users for many years to come.

[Anonymous]

Thinking about this now that they are out. The budget doesn't allow for one yet, but maybe ater this year...

Question though - what imac pro specs would be most important for 2d and 3d tasks?

Currently, the two items I'm most interested in speeding up are:

1. 2d views of 3d elements for elevations and sections in more detailed models.

2. Outputting bimx models with global illumination.

I'm just not sure how archicad uses gpu v. processor v. multiple cores v. ram for those functions so its hard to tell what the ideally specced machine would be.

[PB]

10 core iMac Pro arriving soon (touch wood): Very much looking forward to migrating across from the original retina MacBook Pro (2012).

Drastic workflow change being undertaken: MacBook Pro relegated to emergency backup & occasional sorties away from the office. iPad Pro now adopted as main tool away from the office, for conceptual sketching, client presentations, meetings, on-site activities, etc. iMac for AC21, BIMx, 3D viz generation.

iMac Pro hasn’t come too soon ! 2012 MacBook Pro now struggling, especially whilst also driving the 2005 30” Apple Cinema Display (both of which have proven to be great value over time).

[Anonymous]

Seriously looking at iMac Pro.
Trying to decide to on the specs.
Ghz, cores, Turbo boost GHz, Cache, RAM, Radeon 56 or 64, (8 or 16 GB HBM)size of SSD & HD storage
It would really be helpful to have input.
I've specd what I think I need......its coming out to $12,000.00 Alot of money and I dont want to buy unneeded items or upgrade things unnecessarily.

Jon Welker

[PB]

I've gone for what I perceive to be the best balance between performance & cost - as you mention, Jon, the price quickly escalates.

From my perspective it became a question of diminishing returns: I need the performance, but not all the time. When in ArchiCAD, the base configuration should be more than ample - and most of the time the slowest component is me thinking the project through...

But, when we move onto the CGI and visualisation we want as much performance as possible, hence the choice of: 10 cores, 64GB RAM, 1Tb SSD, upgraded video card.

My thinking was also that as soon as 14 or 18 cores are chosen, more RAM is required to feed them - hence big steps up in price.

iMac Pro arrived late yesterday: unpacking today...

Will let you know how we get on.

[PB]

Jon, I've just noticed your signature: Are you still on ArchiCAD 15?

Considerable performance benefits to your workflow, I would think, by moving to ArchiCAD 21....

[Anonymous]

I'm on 21, I have to edit my profile.
I'll be interested in hearing you take on the iMacPro

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys,

I have been using the iMac Pro with ArchiCad 21 for a few days now and all seems great until I imported a fairly simply RFA family/object into a very small and simple project (only a few walls and slabs at this stage) using the RFA and RVT Exchange Add-On and the system really struggled! Just selecting the object took many seconds and moving or copying was basically impossible. I am fairly new to both ArchiCad and the Mac platform so I hope I not missing some elementary setup, but I am extremely disappointed at this result.

North Vancouver
ARCHICAD 21
iMac Pro (2017)
3.2 GHz Intel Xeon W
32 GB 2666 MHz DDR4
Radeon Pro Vega 56 8 GB

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi all,

Looking for feedback from anyone who has been using an iMac Pro for production work, as to any stability issues that they might have had - crashes, panics, etc.

The Apple forums have many posts from people who have had repeated kernel panics, crashes and more, some of which has been solved by erasing the SSD and reinstalling MacOS and then disabling all sleep functionality, disabling volume encryption, not connecting NAS or TB3 devices, and other unacceptable solutions. Some have had to return their machines.

This is all deja vu of when I got a 2008 Mac Pro and it took Apple a full year to release an OS update that eliminated my random crashes and wake from sleep issues. All the time, Apple support denied that there were any issues - just as they deny the issues reported in their forums now. That was so stressful (saving work every minute, not knowing when the next crash would happen) that I'm not sure I want to go through it again even though I really need a new system. [My old, updated/customized Mac Pro actually runs great - but Apple won't let an OS newer than El Capitan be installed on it.]

So... ARCHICAD users with iMac Pro - has your iMac Pro performed flawlessly?

Thanks!
Karl