Installation & update
About program installation and update, hardware, operating systems, setup, etc.

Apple recommendations

EBHarvey
Participant

Hi,

I've managed to hold off replacing my iMac for as long as possible, whilst the apple silicone swap continues, however, I'm at the point where the speed of my old imac is causing me issues!

 

I've been looking to replace the iMac with the new macbook pro, but I'm a little lost which to get. I've read the current performance article reviews, but wondered if anyone has any sage advice or experience first hand. I'm leaning towards the 16" with the Max chip and 32gb of unified memory, but the graphics memory/cores options has me a little stumped. 

 

For reference, I use Archicad 25 and anticipate continuing to use the future versions via the forward subscription. 

Thanks,

Euan 

7 REPLIES 7
furtonb
Advisor

I'm using AC25 and 24 currently on a M1 Max MBP.

 

Don't expect any groundbreaking speed improvements, especially compared to other software (C4D, Rhino, Vectorworks that I'm also using/testing), AC25 is pretty slow. If you are doing visually intensive stuff (rendering, using PS or InDesign heavily, etc.), you will benefit from the machine tremendously.

 

AC25 ~works, but AC24 is on the verge of being completely useless, it crashes way too often and has so many bugs that I won't even start mentioning them at this point. It really sucks if you need to open older files or you are involved in projects that won't be migrated to the latest and greatest of this wonderful product, because without a fallback machine, you just can't. I  honestly wouldn't buy it for Archicad only, but I was also pressed to replace my laptop and didn't want to leave the Apple ecosystem for convenience. Maybe I would've been better off with a Thinkpad, but the all day long battery and compatible software are pretty amazing.

 

I'm considering rather switching to Vectorworks if this situation won't drastically change with the upcoming version. Just open a larger pointcloud side by side in each, and your jaw will drop because of the speed and fluidity difference...

 

Hopefully AC36 will be compatible with Apple Silicon. /s

odv.hu | actively using: AC25-27 INT | Rhino6-8 | macOS @ apple silicon / win10 x64
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator

See this post / thread:

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Setup-License-forum/Which-iMac-now/m-p/332779#M32256

 

One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
jfaugustine
Booster

I am running AC22 on a Macbook Pro M1 max/32 GB RAM.  AC22 runs as stable as it did on my 2016 MacBook Pro, with few discernible performance differences.  As it has been reported extensively already, files are "closed", before quitting Archicad.  Honestly, I typically leave three to four sessions of Archicad open in the background. This avoids the annoying bug pop-up.  I am anxious to see if AC26 is written to better utilize the apple silicon.  If not, AC22 is just fine for me...

ArchiCAD since 8.0, currently on 22, waiting on 26, maybe...
EBHarvey
Participant

Thanks for the honest reviews. Much of what has been mentioned above is a concern. The new Apple silicone promises much and I’ve been eager to swap over. Improved rendering is one area I certainly need an improvement in, but equally section/elevation generation speeds would reduce my frustration.  I’ve dabbled with a workstation PC, but I’ve been heavily invested in Apple for too many years to want to move. 

I invested in Archicad two years ago and it’s was a toss up between Vectorworks and Archicad at the time and Archicad won me over, but I’m now left feeling like I’ve made a mistake. I’d feel a lot better if Graphisoft were a more committal in their expected roadmap/timeframes to an native version for Apple silicone. 

Interesting that you feel like you made a mistake when it is Apple who changed their architecture 🙂

 

Archicad is a complex program that relies on some components from 3rd party developers.  100% has to be M1/ARM to work ... there is no option to write a program that is half Intel, half ARM.  Given that performance is fine with the M1 architecture today, and Graphisoft has announced that they plan native M1/ARM support as soon as possible ... I'm not clear why you feel like there is any mistake in your choice of Archicad over Vectorworks.  Emotions are personal and I'm not trying to discount your feelings though! 🙂

 

Graphisoft states:

"According to our plans a full commercial release of Archicad natively running on the ARM architecture is to be expected in 2022."

in this article:

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Setup-License-articles/ARM-Mac-support/ta-p/304108

 

One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it must be a significant task in transferring to the new Apple architecture, certainly not one I would envy or know where to begin. 

Much like the reply from Furtonb above, I do look on with envy at the performance improvements with Vectorworks and the fact this has been implemented already. 

I guess part of my frustration is not knowing whether we’ll see any marked improvements with Apple Soc and Archicad running natively, especially when forced into the position where I need to replace my hardware. 

A quick update.

I took a punt on the Pro chip Macbook Pro, but less than a day in I'd consider it unuseable with AC25. It's slow, and cinerender seems to be chewing through 45GB or ram on a simple outdoor render preset and quits halfway through. 

I'm luckily well within the 14 day return window and will now consider the apple refurbished store to locate an intel based iMac until the native version appears.