AC 14 Mac addition not 64-bit yet / true or false

[rm]

Im confused, I just read the AC 14 brochure on GS website, and it reads "Boost your BIM performance with multiprocessor support, 64-bit BIM Server support on both Windows and Macintosh and 64-bit support on Windows."

So 64-bit is ONLY available for the MAC OS server? What the heck, I thought AC 14 was supposed to be 64-bit support for the Mac as well? Macs are using the same Intel processors as Window machines these days.

Mac version AC users, always a bridesmaid, never the bride!

[Anonymous]

Jay wrote:
As I'm in the market for a new Mac, and see the offerings for up to 12 cores, I would like a general update on the matter. And some advice.

Does AC benefit by the multi-cores and more RAM, now that the world is 64 bit? Surely AC 15 will make Mac owners happy in this regard, ...right?

-JS

What you need depends on the size of the projects you do and how much you need running at one time.

I do VERY large projects on my 2 1/2 year old, eight core, 2.8GHz Mac Pro. I have 20GB RAM (and thinking of upgrading further) mostly because I run multiple apps and OSs (via Parallels) simultaneously. I am still very happy with the performance.

I can also work on most of the same projects on my year old Mac Book Pro which has a 2.8GHz Core2Duo and only 4GB RAM.

I've known quite a few to be happy with the 27" iMac.

I haven't needed to know much about PCs since Apple's switch to Intel allowed me to cut my computer purchases in half.

[Karl Ottenstein]

I would second Matthew's comments. In particular, the 4 (virtual) core 27" iMac is an excellent value for ArchiCAD.

This recent BareFeats article notes that the new 12 core units aren't that advantageous (cost vs performance) even for those things that are highly multithreaded.

IThe only thing that I run that uses all 8 cores 100% is Artlantis, and it really makes a difference there.

See:
http://www.barefeats.com/wst10c2.html

Cheers,
Karl

[owen]

Outside certain stages of the 3D Window / Section / Elevation rebuilds the performance of ArchiCAD is still very much driven by the speed of a single CPU - i.e the old clock speed wars still remain valid for AC.

For this reason I think you will find that an i7 iMac @ 2.93Ghz will actually perform just as well as - if not better than - a Mac Pro for most tasks outside certain stages of model rebuilds.

I pasted together some benchmark results for the latest iMacs and Mac Pro's (no 12-cores though). The results are very, very interesting i think. The Cinebench and Mathemetica tests show the performance of multi-cores, whereas the rest of the tests generally show performance you can expect from the vast majority of applications, relevant i think for non-3D activities in ArchiCAD.

A spec'ed out 27" i7 iMac with 16GB RAM and an SSD is a very good machine for ArchiCAD and it will cost you less than 50% that of a Mac Pro with similar specs outside the CPU.

I use one myself and am very very happy with it. We are also starting to recommend these systems to clients as standard workstations rather than Mac Pros.

cheers,

owen

PS. I am working on a 40+ story commercial high-rise with a detailed model (uncompressed TW2 file size is ~1.0GB). The 'Out of Memory' Error is an all too frequent occurance and so a true 64-bit Mac version cannot come quickly enough. It has almost prompted switching everyone over to Bootcamp partitions to run the project in the 64bit Windows version.

[Anonymous]

we know a few people running ArchiCAD on the 4 core, 27" iMacs & they are all very happy.

For ArchiCAD at the moment, i would say they would be your best value for money..

[Anonymous]

I recently set up a few new 27in i7 quad-core iMacs for some AC13 and AC14 users, and they've been very happy with them.

With the i7 CPU option and a pretty stout video card -- ATI Radeon HD 5750 w/1GB of VRAM (GDDR5) -- they have plenty of horsepower.

You can get them with an i5 processor, but the i7 does hyperthreading (HT), where each core is seen as two "virtual cores" each running its own threads simultaneously. Snow Leopard is HT-savvy, as are recent versions of ArchiCAD. So I'd say the $200 option to upgrade from an i5 to an i7 is worthwhile.

[Anonymous]

CCarter wrote:
I recently set up a few new 27in i7 quad-core iMacs for some AC13 and AC14 users, and they've been very happy with them.

With the i7 CPU option and a pretty stout video card -- ATI Radeon HD 5750 w/1GB of VRAM (GDDR5) -- they have plenty of horsepower.

You can get them with an i5 processor, but the i7 does hyperthreading (HT), where each core is seen as two "virtual cores" each running its own threads simultaneously. Snow Leopard is HT-savvy, as are recent versions of ArchiCAD. So I'd say the $200 option to upgrade from an i5 to an i7 is worthwhile.

yes they ones we had a play on were i7s. i7s laptops are fantastic for AC also.

[Andy Thomson]

Re: With the i7 CPU option and a pretty stout video card -- ATI Radeon HD 5750 w/1GB of VRAM (GDDR5) -- they have plenty of horsepower.

Have you had any issues with OpenGL (3D Window madness) with these cards? It seems a problem that used to plague users on a generation of white iMacs has come back to haunt us...

[Karl Barker]

I have just recently gone from a 2.4 core2 20" iMac to a new i7 27" imac with the standard graphics card.
Definitely goes a bit quicker, especially with 14.
Now and then the 3D window goes funny and turns black still.
I suspect this is an issue with 14 as it happened on the 20" as well, but on a far more regular basis.

I do however think that AC14 has an issue with memory. although it could be the OS. (snow leopard) AC14 tends to hog memory and not clean itself out. In the plan window, I find that it can leave items in place when I move them or delete them. Rebuilding the window does not get rid of the residual object, line or wall. I remember this happening with AC12 I think. I tend to have to restart archiCAD every now and then to clear out the memory. Seems to do the trick. Just means that if I take a lunch break, it is worth my while to close down AC before lunch and restart it after. No need to restart the computer though.

[Andy Thomson]

Apple suggested software update to 10.6.5 - problem went away - for the moment...