New iMac purchase and Chief X4 question

[cumbles]

As an interior designer, PC & CA X5 user, I have been eyeing the IMac 27" for a few months and I am ready to take the plunge, bootcamp and all. Are there any other interior designers out here on chieftalk that think I might regret it? This will be my first major jump into the Apple world other than the phone and ipad. I am all ears.

CherylUDesigns
Chief Architect Interiors X5
Newark, DE

[lbuttery]

Here is the Win 7 memory limits

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...mits_windows_7

so I was mistaken
Home Premium is 16 GB
Home Basic is 8 GB

all other versions are 192 GB

I thought the Premium limit was higher than 16 GB

Hmmm. not sure why Vista 64-bit is only 128 GB ???

Lew

[Joe Carrick]

Windows limits Memory use and is limited to actual use of 4 gigs instead of using all 8

Windows 7 64-bit should be able to use all 8 GB and much, much more
same with Vista

I believe that it depends on the Application. Some - if not all - can access only up to a certain limit (maybe 4GB). OTOH, multiple Apps running concurrently can use more memory. That way, a Windows PC becomes a true multi-tasking system.

[lbuttery]

Joe:

yes, each app has its own limits depending on whether it was programmed for 32-bit or 64-bit etc

but the question was - what is Win 7's limit

Lew

[BSB]

I use parallels .. new MacBook Pro (june ’11 purchase). Im new to both and have not tested out Chief much, but I haven’t had any problems. Bootcamp is free .. but how to operate without multi tasking might drive me nuts!

[dchaley217]

Guys, that is what I read as well but when I use resource monitor to watch it work it looks to me to use only 4 gigs. Frustrating as I know I could get things done faster. If you find anything that I am doing wrong I would be sooooo happy to know. I will throw the switch like right now!

[noomaking]

I am curious how the AMD Radeon worked out in production. We are considering the purchase of an iMac27 i7 configuration. The only question is the AMD Radeon graphics processor. I have not seen a report card on this configuration in regard to CA. Anybody know??

[lbuttery]

is it rated as a good/fast gaming video card ???

Chief works best with gaming cards

Lew

[johnnyprc]

When I used Mac (I switched to Win 7/8 a little over a year go), bootcamp was the ticket. I will say that some of the ATI cards in the iMac have some visual issues - and if you look it up, it was more to do with driver issues - its a well known issue to Apple.

Going back and forth drove me crazy, - and so I ended up just going with Win8 - which I now love. It took some getting used to. Obviously the Mac version of Chief can't come fast enough for you guys.

[perryh]

Chief likes "NVidia" over "Ati" cards

[flgator]

I have a MacBook retina pro - I tried running chief ( and others) via parallels but was not happy with the performance within the coherence mode - it seemed to work okay once I exited coherence - however last night I made the change to bootcamp (with win 8.1) and there is no difference now - chief is very fast and efficient in all modes now

[rongobong]

I'm a PC fanboy - self-admitted. I have some "food for thought" to offer after reading these posts and checking out the Apple website:

I noticed that all of the graphics cards specifications have a model number followed by an "M", as in NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M, or AMD Radeon HD 6700M/HD 6600M. These are "notebook" computer-class video cards, amirite? According to Videocard Benchmark.net, my GeForce 660Ti ( blows away the GeForce GTX 675MX, with PassMark - G3D Mark benchmark ratings of 4,701 for the 660Ti and 2,491 for the 675MX. Mobile video cards and discreet video cards are not created equal, regardless of the amount of RAM they have. The smaller form factor is a trade-off for performance. Hot processors in confined spaces are throttled back so they don't melt down, which is why my 660Ti has a fan blowing above it to keep it cool, along with a case fan on the side exhausting hot air. I realize that Chief uses the processor for raytracing, but for screen rendering you are relying on a mobile graphics solution that won't even compare to a desktop.

Given the form factor of the iMac, I don't see how it could sustain higher processor frequencies (especially not the 4.4Ghz OC on my i7-3930K) due to heat buildup issues (I realize this is an assumption), especially when comparing it to tower cooling and water cooling solutions available for PCs.

I used to use a 17" Sony VAIO I bought in 2008 for running Chief, and as my Chief projects got larger and more complex in X5 I was forced to upgrade to a desktop solution. The mobile processor and video card just could not keep up. I just don't see how using an iMac to emulate a Windows environment using a throttled-down CPU and mobile graphics can compete with a well-built mid-tower PC solution.

I admit though, an iMac does look pretty.

link for videocard benchmarks: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

[DHerber]

Wanted to chime into the thread again. I've since upgraded RAM to 16 GB with 2 sticks of 8 GB (from Amazon) and relatively inexpensive. The change is significant.

Also running Parallels 8 in lieu of Bootcamp and really like using in side-by-side Win 7 Pro. Also run AutoCAD 2014 and Revit 2014 with no problems. To make it a "true" Win 7 machine, I sometimes plug in an old PC keyboard for any screen capturing or other PC commands.

The only thing I've noticed with Chief X4 is when I'm rendering a large file, the iMac makes a little noise while it's Raytracing the image. Also becomes a little warmer than normal along the top vents.

Other than these small insignificant details, the Mac is everything I need in a personal computer. Can't wait until Chief for Mac becomes available in 2014 and will upgrade immediately.