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GOODBYE, APPLE.
- Thread starter aaronhead14
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Well, I'm out after +20 years as a Mac owner. I'll keep my MacBook for day to day use, but my workstation is now a dual Xeon who's price performance ratio can't possibly be matched by Apple. Yes, it's Windows 10 and while it's not as elegant as OS X, it's going to work. It's also comforting to know that from now on there will be a consistent and predictable upgrade path at a more reasonable cost.
I'm not sure what programs everyone uses here that needs the power of 12+ core workstations, but I just needed to move to windows for the other half of my classes due to Autodesk inventor not being offered for Mac.
Geekbench.app is a popular software around here.
Isn't that for benchmarking?
That's a small percentage of the people needing it then? Like I said, I'm only an engineering student and don't need high CPU use, but how many people need to benchmark a similar machine each time or rather is there a population of users that use geek bench that make up more than 5% of the users that use MacBooks pros?
I don't know
But people here don't really provide their use of the computer. It makes it difficult to understand what they want.
I explained mine but can explain further if anyone cares to wonder the workflow of an average engineering student to put in perspective what my uses are.
For me at least - visual art and animation is the primary use. Heavy use of Adobe suite, Maxon Cinema 4d (Maxon is thankfully dedicated to keeping parity for mac users)
- Higher core count = faster rendering in CPU bound renderers.
- Faster clock speed = faster calculation of single threaded tasks, certain plugins, and more responsive editors and viewports
- Better GPU offerings = significantly faster rendering in GPU bound engines, significantly faster calculation of certain types of effects like fluids, but most everything in 3d is CUDA based (nVidia only).
- More ram = more room to do some of the really dense stuff like fluid, fire, and smoke sims.
- More hard drive slots (internal) = more room to store dense data sets like LIDAR and fluid sim, opportunities to speed up cache and previews in photoshop and after effects with SSD dedicated cache drives.
At least for the foreseeable future, most, if not all, 3d rendering engines will be going to GPU acceleration. Those software vendors that don't have one have seen much of their client base move to a third party engine to stay competitive, decrease preview time.
I can make do with an iMac if I need to, but I would hope Apple updates the mac pro/imac ASAP (dependent on intel)
Thank you for the response.
It seems that animation seems to benefit a lot from a much beefier computer.
After watching Jonathan Morrison's video on the macbook pro for video editing and watching Dimitri's video from hardwarecanucks, I feel that if you get a macbook at this point, its mainly to use the software meant for it.
It seems that if you want to do things with the adobe suite, it might be best to invest in a more powerful windows laptop.
Mind you, he is a very PC oriented user, a power user for video editing, and a gamer, but he appreciates the apple ecosystem and optimization.
What I'm getting at here is, i think if people claim to be professional, they would learn to use the tools they need whether it is windows, linux, or mac for that matter. Most of my engineering classmates with macs have no problem installing a bootcamp partition on their mac for the needed software, and just do it to be able to get the homework done. So, if you need will do what you have to in order to work professionally you could say.
For those, who speak badly of windows 10, i get that its not as elegant, but at the same time, the filing system isnt that much more different than windows, and just takes a slight adjustment period to get use to it. I use my mac for personal use and school, and my windows desktop for my engineering classes.
My only complaint really about the new macbook pros is that they are very expensive compared to windows alternative with better specs.
It's not about not wanting to learn a new OS. Speaking as a professional, I moved away from Windows because the OS started taking control over itself. The auto-updates interrupting work, or requiring frequent maintenance in terms of getting infected with malware and viruses, which requires reinstalling the OS in a lot of cases when you can't un-infect them. Also they tend to be inefficient in even doing simple tasks like saving files to the last directory you were working from as the save as dialog box resets to a default location like your home folder.
As a professional, I don't want to deal with those issues. I want to get work done for my clients. It's why I came to the Mac platform. I'll take a slight performance hit in favor of being more productive, more often. But what I really want is for Apple to cater to pro needs, and not water down it's products for the masses.
I see. I understand your standpoint, and I'm fortunate so far to not have encountered malware issue or auto updates on my system. I do tweak some of my settings to remove certain things from acting on their own, and I'm currently on windows 7 and now 10 at the moment.
Is the workflow and productivity drastically different from what it was on windows?
Resolve, Nuke, Modo, VUE, Terragen, Octane
Got a GTX 1080 as the GPU and can add three more if needed.
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F5 thinks we should all be sitting on terminals with no more than 16GB of RAM and working from the cloud. Anyone in need of more than that is simply showing off.
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I have had no virus or malware issues in the 3 years I have been running Windows 10 along side my Mac. Windows Defender and Malwarebites are all I use.
Beside that, every os has security issues and flaws. OSX isn't an exception. The major advantage is the low adoption rate of OSX compared to Windows. Why try to fish the single fish in a pond when you can cast your line in a massive school of fishes.
Rootkit exist on OSX, key logger exist on OSX, malware exist on osx.
i have more than 16GB RAM in an imac.. also, i never work from the cloud.
what i really think is that you should try to understand my points a little better.
huh?
i posted in this thead this afternoon.. then hank made a response regarding what i said.. then i responded back to hank..
you see that, right? not sure what rock you're talking about
Are those all on Mac as well?
I've only heard of resolve, which I believe you are referring to divici resolve for video editing.
If those platforms were made for both OS X and windows, wouldn't it be best to purchase/build a windows machine to put all the power to better use? I would probably go for that option if it meant a much more efficient work flow.
Likewise if I needed something that OS X offered that provided the best alternative for, let's say video editing, I would probably go with final cut and a Mac Pro since it provides the most efficient rendering time. (I don't video edit really but, you get my point).
These are all just situational and I don't know much about the differences in video editing between primeire, final cut, or resolve.
But now I'm curious as to what tools does primeire have over final cut that people don't like final cut for. Final cut seems awfully cheap in compassion to primeres CC's subscription cost.
And just for better understanding of my uses, I don't make much money and have been using my 13 inch cMBP from 2012 as my daily driver until i searched around asking for old computers to finally get a windows machine and do a fresh install.
Core-i3-2130 3.4ghz
8gb DDR3 @1600mhz
500gb 7200rpm HDD
GTX 750 ti ($120 only thing purchased for it)
And just used the windows 7 key that was already on the case it came with to reinstall windows.
All is good with both really, and I always believed that I needed a super powerful system to run inventor, but my windows system runs inventor just fine.
As far as my mac goes, runs autoCAD pretty well, haven't had major issues. Specs in my sig.
inventor is going to run best on fast cpus.. like a quad i7 4.0ghz..
if you're doing huge assemblies then RAM in the area of 32GB will be beneficial.
2-4GB vRam.
like, a top-end imac would be awesome for running Inventor.
(if you're willing to bootcamp it although i believe autodesk supports inventor in parallels).
if you get something non-apple, look for something with the specs of a top configured imac and you'll be good to go.. and probably spending less than $2g.. (and even less than that if not needing a new display to go with it)
and this is if you're looking for best performance.. you can go lower/cheaper on these specs and still get good performance.
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...for about 30 seconds, then it overheats and throttles.
you sure it's not more of the opposite?
the masses are buying far more potential than they'll ever make use of when getting something like a mbp/imac
?
likewise, just about every new (main) feature in Sierra is aimed at power users.. not 'the masses'.. the OS is continually improving to suit pro users.. it's not being dumbed down.
i don't know if any of you all are making use of desktop syncing in sierra yet but it's seriously sweet (for a number of reasons).. i'm about 100% positive this type of flow isn't made with everyday_ray in mind..
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nah.. these types of applications work in quick bursts of high speed.. i don't think you could overheat or throttle an imac with a CAD app unless you just sat there orbiting the model for 10 minutes straight.. (which is just something that's never going to happen in any type of real world use.. i imagine someone could make some sort of torture test benchmark thing that simulates this occurring but it seriously means nothing for actual use.)
there are certain functions that you'll peg the CPU for minutes on end but again, i don't think they're going to be throttling since it will be a single core at 100% instead of all cores.. the single core probably won't push it past the heat threshold.
(I don't know this for sure however.. maybe it will still slow down some with one maxed out core?)
that said, if you're using a rendering application/function to give the model a photo-real look then yeah, you're going to throttle an imac fairly quickly which is going to add to your overall rendering time.. longer than what the specs may suggest.. and potentially lessen the lifespan of the computer if you do this too often.
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Never heard of anyone running Inventor on a Mac but I suppose you could use Bootcamp. I have run Inventor since the first Beta release and always used a dedicated CAD/CAM Windows workstation. Very easily upgraded when necessary and always reliable. Mac just don't make sense for CAD/CAM work.
An engineer or designer should be a master of their tools and not enslaved buy an OS or eco system.
that's changing somewhat..
to keep it on topic, apple does their cad work on mac using applications made for mac (autodesk's Alias and mcneel's Rhinoceros (which is what i use))..
for CAM, i imagine they're using windows based software.. because yes, mac doesn't make sense for CAM work.
but i use mac for CAM also.. via fusion360.. however, i only need 3axis stuff and i suppose apple needs at least5.. (but they're probably driving their 7axis+ robots with custom software.).
autodesk is very soon releasing a higher capability version of fusion (@$1500/yr) with 5axis CAM..
and fusion cam isn't maker-kiddie-CAM.. it's HSMworks (i.e. solidworks CAM)..
so, at the very least, there are today a couple of legit avenues to drive CNC machines using macOS.
well, at least the sentence started off well. ; )
not sure why you can't master tools on macs
?
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When the time calls for it, they sell used core i7-3770's on amazon for less than 200. And GPUs won't be a problem. Sadly though, this mother board only had two ram slots and supports only max 16gb max.
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