Revit Running on Intel Mac

[iru69]

Parallels 6!

http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/
(website's getting hammered at the moment)

Apple Insider summary:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles..._features.html

Suppose to be way faster... look forward to checking it out.

I've been sticking with VMWare Fusion because I've found it noticeably more stable (YMMV), but I really would like to see a speed boost.

[Phil Read]

First impressions: significant speed boost and noticeably smoother 3D rotation to the point that I'm not sure how often I'll use Boot Camp now. Very surprised that Ambient Occlusion and Realistic Materials works in virtualization. I was having issues with this in Boot Camp as the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M is not on the approved/supported list.

Overall - realistic materials and smoother 3D views make this worth the upgrade.

It's actually so nice that I think even GuyR would be impressed.

All the best -

Phil

[blads]

I installed Parallels 6 last weekend and have been very impressed with its faster loading times (both Windows7 and Revit 64bit…) I haven't used Boot Camp in I don't know how long… I've even uninstalled off the laptop

[skpark]

First impressions: significant speed boost and noticeably smoother 3D rotation to the point that I'm not sure how often I'll use Boot Camp now. Very surprised that Ambient Occlusion and Realistic Materials works in virtualization. I was having issues with this in Boot Camp as the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M is not on the approved/supported list.

Overall - realistic materials and smoother 3D views make this worth the upgrade.

It's actually so nice that I think even GuyR would be impressed.

All the best -

Phil

This is exciting. I'd given up on Parallels and Fusion way back when. Sounds like it's time to give it another shot.


So I'm here seeking advice on configuring a new Mac Pro. Maxing out a new system costs about $12K, and ideally I'd like to spend half that, if not less. Should I spend my money on two 2.93 6 cores + 16 GB RAM, or two 2.4 quad cores + 32 GB RAM? IOW which is more important, processing power or RAM? Can I assume the Radeon HD 5870 plays nicely with Revit? Would the rendering engine gain a considerable performance boost from a solid state hd?

The other software I work with a lot is ACAD and SketchUp. Thanks to anyone for their thoughts in advance.

[iru69]

1. RAM is dependent on how much you need. It's kind of hard to imagine you need more than 16 GB RAM? Even if you left 4 - 8 GB on the Mac side, you'd still have 8 - 12 GB on the Parallels side. That should handle some pretty huge projects! I hate to sound like a broken record player here on the forums, but having more RAM than you need doesn't improve performance. Having less than you need does hurt performance.

2. 2.4GHz is too slow (*especially* for that kind of investment). If you can't afford at least one 2.93 GHz, then don't bother with getting a Mac Pro.

3. Think of the CPU as the engine of a car and RAM as the gas. You need to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. Which is more important, the engine or the gas? As long as you have enough gas, the engine is most important - the more horse power it has, the faster you can get there. If you have more gas than you need, you don't get there any faster. If you run out of gas on the way there, it's going to really slow things down.

4. I don't know about the 5870 specifically. Can't assume very much when it comes to video cards & Revit unless someone can offer their direct experience with it. IIRC, word is that the Radeon HD 5xxx series is working fairly well with Revit on the Windows side.

5. SSD does virtually nothing for Revit performance, other than opening Revit when you first get started. SDD make Windows/OS X and most apps boot faster, makes copying/moving large files faster, that sort of thing. Revit performance is generally unaffected by drive performance.

6. SketchUp is obviously OS X native already, and AutoCAD soon will be. We currently get the Revit-AutoCAD bundle - would be interesting to know whether the Mac version of AutoCAD will be included as part of that?

7. My own thoughts (without knowing anything about the work you do): I think spending upwards of ~$7.2K on a dual 2.93GHz + 16GB RAM + HD5870 is kind of insane (and usually I'm having to talk users into spending more money) - the dual CPUs are pretty overkill unless you do a TON of rendering. I mean, if you happen to be on the wealthy side and it's not that big a deal, by all means, go for it! But don't expect it to last you five-plus years for Revit use. Fortunately, Apple equipment retains a very high resale value, so you'll recoup some of that if you sell it. If an iMac isn't the computer for you, and you'd like to get the price down a bit, I'd suggest considering a single 3.33GHz 6 core + 12GB RAM (get RAM at crucial.com or similar) + HD5870 = ~$4.4K.

This is exciting. I'd given up on Parallels and Fusion way back when. Sounds like it's time to give it another shot.

So I'm here seeking advice on configuring a new Mac Pro. Maxing out a new system costs about $12K, and ideally I'd like to spend half that, if not less. Should I spend my money on two 2.93 6 cores + 16 GB RAM, or two 2.4 quad cores + 32 GB RAM? IOW which is more important, processing power or RAM? Can I assume the Radeon HD 5870 plays nicely with Revit? Would the rendering engine gain a considerable performance boost from a solid state hd?

The other software I work with a lot is ACAD and SketchUp. Thanks to anyone for their thoughts in advance.

[skpark]

It's kind of hard to imagine you need more than 16 GB RAM?

I don't render often, but on the occasions that I do, I have never been close to satisfied by the amount of RAM I have. Of course I have also never had anything close to 16 GB, so maybe it's plenty sufficient, it's just hard to imagine having more than I need!

Think of the CPU as the engine of a car and RAM as the gas. You need to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. Which is more important, the engine or the gas?

Interesting. I had been taught that the difference between a fast processor and the fastest processor is usually not worth the premium one pays for the latest technology. Sort of like buying a car that's last year's model, gently used, or buying a brand new car.

I'd suggest considering a single 3.33GHz 6 core + 12GB RAM (get RAM at crucial.com or similar) + HD5870 = ~$4.4K.

Thank you for your thoughts, they are much appreciated. I haven't actually shopped workstations in a long time, so I didn't even know 3.33 6 cores were out. I will consider your suggestion as I research performance benchmarks.

[rrs.silveira]

Hey,
i was reading the post here, and im thinking about
buying a new notebook, max $2,5k
i was wondering about the asus g73w gaming laptop
i7 740m/8gb/GTX460m

I´m thinking about upgrading it for 16gb of ram, and also a SSD drive
but i don´t know if its worthy,

using revit, cad and skecthup,
rendering in revit and a little in max

thanks

[Limbatus]

i have recently installed Revit 2011 64-bit on my macbook pro and I have been getting a lot of problems.
my video card is not being recognized, andI am getting the crash protection warning when i mirror elements in the conceptual mass editor. I installed Update 2, but it does not seem to solve the problem. Has anyone had similar problems? If so could you explain how to solve them. thanks

[Design Apparatus]

Try updating your Bootcamp drivers to the latest ones (v. 3.2). Mine did the same thing at one of the Bootcamp updates (cannot remember which one). I run a MBPro 17 (2009) and it has the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT video card in it. It ran great for 2011, but alas when I updated to 2012, it will not allow hardware acceleration and runs in "software emulation mode". I have not noticed any graphics slowdown except when I get a project file that runs up to 40-50 MB, then it is noticeable (3D views orbiting with shadows as an example).
To update your Bootcamp software, go to Apple Software Update in your programs and see if it detects that you are running the latest Bootcamp (or right click the Bootcamp icon in the system tray and click "About Bootcamp".
Hope this helps.

[sultarc]

I recently installed the revit suite on my imac running parallels and windows 7, 64 bit. Some of the programs will not work. All the Revit programs seem to work, but not 3d studio max and others not revit specific. anyone know a solution?