If Apple wants to catch up with Nvidia in some markets, it needs to offer more powerful GPUs, and that can be a challenge if Apple's GPUs are more expensive to manufacture.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
3D Rendering on Apple Silicon, CPU&GPU
- Thread starter vel0city
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I don't think Apple intend a laptop chip to catch up to NVIDIA in those markets.
It's purely academic at this point until they release something that targets that. It would be interesting to see what Apple can do with a 650-750 mm² SoC that targets desktop level power draws.
Personally I could imagine them using UltraFusion together with a GPU die to increase performance in the interim. A Mac Studio with an M2 Max 38-core GPU coupled with a 76-core GPU die would net you 41 TFlops at only 1.4GHz.
The same thing at 3nm on a 650-750mm² SoC plus GPU die would be thrilling, especially if there is room to clock it higher.
thanks for yor information
I have no idea about coding and I don't have an engineer mindset either. All these years I have a fear about learning Houdini, it looks very complex to me. I tend to be work free from technical details. Because of that ZBrush suits me for modeling more than Maya. Maya's UI and mindset more parametric than C4D, so that I switched to C4D years ago. On C4D even simple expreso panel stretch my nerves .Particles and volumes has got a kind of solution with Pyro on C4D. I can not compare Pyro with Houdini capabilities because I have no idea. You can simulate quite much with Pyro on C4D very easy. Again I do not have enough knowledge about liquid simulations, however I have use Turbulance FD and know Pyro for thick paint flows/Smoke etc. for productions.
Recent updates gives easier and more controlled workflow for animations on C4D. I know it can not compare with Maya on this subject. Also Maya has got very powerful USD workflow which is a must for proper productions.
I want to explore Houdini for character rigging and dynamic animation capabilities. Rendering is not my primary concern on Houdini and Redshift usage is a plus.
My main reason for exploring Houdini is native AS release. If I can arrange spare time from work schedule I will give a try to Houdini
.
Thanks for your response. As a freelancer my workflow starts with ZBrush/C4D goes over Adobe products back and forward, sometimes use Painter and ends up on Davinci Resolve. I can create simple character animations and scenes. I do not like ready to use data/models/characters. I try to built up anything for each project. I am looking for more powerful character rigging/control and dynamic animations at same time (Maya or any Autodesk software is not an option for me because of current workflow and employee situation even I used Skeleton 5 many times for rigging).
I have been keep my eye on Houdini for many years but never find a chance to learn.
Let's try again. When I asked last year about which 3D programs and benchmarks we should post information on the wiki post, I got this answer.
I wouldn't mind starting the wiki post, but I honestly don't know how to do it. So I'm hoping someone with more seniority on the forum and more 3D knowledge can start the wiki post. If not, I could learn how to do it.
You can add V-Ray to taht list it has own benchmark.
I don't know anything wikipedia, but I could contribute.
It could be helpful for lots of users to see all of them on a list so anyone can have an idea about software/hardware.
it could be worth looking at the vellum solvers (hair, cloth, softbody) to start with, as SideFX have wrapped them up pretty well so you don't need to write any code to get started. Plus they're really fast and fun to play around with and there's also plenty of tutorials for them. The pyro solver is also wrapped up pretty nicely as well, and you can run the minimal solver on the GPU to see what various setting do.
In terms of character stuff, you can bring in characters via fbx (or usd skel), which brings in the skin, rest and animated skeleton and then edit the motion, add secondary motion or physics and do simulations, before exporting the baked mesh out for rendering. Since joints are just points with transforms in Houdini you can treat them as you would any other geometry; collide them with object, add lag or jiggle etc
In terms of rigs, there currently isn't anything equivalent of Skeleton 5 and atm, there are the low level tools for building that kind of thing, but the high level rig controls aren't fully fleshed out. Hopefully in the next version of Houdini, but for now would really use it for motion editing and transfer and secondary animation rather than full rigs. This tutorial goes over where things are at. Also has example files, which is always nice.
Thanks for your info about Rigs/characters, I should check it out.
Thanks again for your time and patience
Only a selection for system will be good like OS and Latest release. In time database could grow based on this two parameter. Start with current releases makes sense. Representing past releases could be difficult.
Arnold would be great. Somehow it could compare with V-Ray. I have try last release on Ultra works well not too behind from Redshift. Great suggestion
Arnold would be great. Somehow it could compare with V-Ray. I have try last release on Ultra works well not too behind from Redshift. Great suggestion
Amazing. I would love to see your results with the Ultra and Arnold. My workstation is starting to bog down for me and I am eagerly waiting for the new Studio or Mac Pro announcement. The MacBook Pro is tempting but I really want to replace my desktop with a desktop.
If it helps to you, you can upload a file I can render it out with C4D/Arnold Base spec Ultra.
That is very kind of you! Thank you! Unfortunately, I don't have C4D. I will take a look at these sample Arnold Sample Scenes, they are the same among Maya, C4D, Houdini, etc. Once I figure out which is relatively heavy for character work, I will run benchmarks on both my workstation and M2 Air, and let you know. If you could test it on your Ultra, that would be very much appreciated.
Help
help.autodesk.com
ok I will download couple of them, and will post resultsThat is very kind of you! Thank you! Unfortunately, I don't have C4D. I will take a look at these sample Arnold Sample Scenes, they are the same among Maya, C4D, Houdini, etc. Once I figure out which is relatively heavy for character work, I will run benchmarks on both my workstation and M2 Air, and let you know. If you could test it on your Ultra, that would be very much appreciated.
Help
It has but I think there is not a proper benchmark for modeling.
However someone could built up a scene for simulations which could be useful for compare C4D/Blender/Maya
We should agree on how to describe the status of each software. I would find useful to know whether the application runs on macOS, whether it has native Apple Silicon support, and whether it is optimized for Apple Silicon.
I would consider a 3D modeling software optimized if it uses Metal instead of OpenGL and a CPU Renderer if it uses ARM Neon.
3D modeling software:
- Blender
- Cinema 4D
- Houdini
- Maya
- Zbrush
3D rendering software:
- Arnold
- Cinema 4D
- Corona
- Cycles
- Eevee
- Octane
- Redshift
- V-Ray
We should also agree on the benchmark we should use. At the very least, we should find a benchmark that takes advantage of Apple's GPU features.
I would consider a 3D modeling software optimized if it uses Metal instead of OpenGL and a CPU Renderer if it uses ARM Neon.
3D modeling software:
- Blender
- Cinema 4D
- Houdini
- Maya
- Zbrush
3D rendering software:
- Arnold
- Cinema 4D
- Corona
- Cycles
- Eevee
- Octane
- Redshift
- V-Ray
We should also agree on the benchmark we should use. At the very least, we should find a benchmark that takes advantage of Apple's GPU features.
I would find comments on how the software responds as useful as benchmarks.
Last edited:
Only 4 scenes couşd be download, other scenes links could be broken or they do not exist anymore.That is very kind of you! Thank you! Unfortunately, I don't have C4D. I will take a look at these sample Arnold Sample Scenes, they are the same among Maya, C4D, Houdini, etc. Once I figure out which is relatively heavy for character work, I will run benchmarks on both my workstation and M2 Air, and let you know. If you could test it on your Ultra, that would be very much appreciated.
Help
2 of them could give you an idea. Other two scene are car studio lighting and light saber. Both of them takes 2 seconds render out.
All 20 core are works as they had to be.
Hope this will helps
Attachments
I am totally agreed with you. You could shape out compare list/system and I will contribute any area I can
might as well add karma in there as i can test it.
Do we want a simulation category as well? was vaguely thinking of putting together a Houch i test scene for that. was going to do something fancy, but will probably end up just wrapping up the preset examples.
Render wise the difficult thing is finding an example scene that it relatively representative of a production scene. Had thought that Alabs would work, but it has some issues, and blender can't load usd properly yet. The Moana scene is a bit of a pain to get up and running from the sounds of things...
Good point, you are right about finding an example scene. Maybe it's end up with an FBX file which has UV's and texture maps. An FBX file could be easy solution.