Mac Pro 2013. Vray 2.0 Sketchup

[jackoreilly]

Hi All,

 

I am concidering processing with an upgrade to a Mac Pro 2013 from an old 2008 Mac Pro tower. I have some queries with regards to the change.

 

Specifically - has anyone been using sketchup with Vray 2.0 on this machine? Do you find it works well? And have you any issues using Vray RT or all areas of vray.

 

All help, and experience with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[ScottDeW]

I love my Macbook Pro, but for the work you're looking to do... I would go PC. And more importantly, I'd get a desktop. If you're looking to do VrayRT you're going to want the power of the desktop GPUs, especially the NVIDIA ones. And you'll want to get more than one GPU. Trust me, I've got three in my desktop. I only use my Macbook for my Photography and Graphic Design, but only when I'm on the road.

 

You're not going to get "amazing" VRayRT performance out of the Macbook. And considering how thin the MacBooks are designed, I'm afraid to even render with the GPU on those things. Mine (a 2012 model) gets super hot enough with me just opening a 3D app, I can't imagine what it would do the system if I put it under full load with the GPU.

 

Long story short, you'll get more bang for your buck with getting a PC Desktop. If you need a laptop, go PC Laptop with a few additional machines as render nodes.

[unclefarkus]

I understood it to mean he was looking at the Mac Pro (cylinder desktop thing)

But I still agree with your answer. The Mac Pro would be better than the Macbook Pro, but not by a ton.

[ScottDeW]

I understood it to mean he was looking at the Mac Pro (cylinder desktop thing)

But I still agree with your answer. The Mac Pro would be better than the Macbook Pro, but not by a ton.

 

Oh yes... I totally miss-read his comment. I always forget about that new Mac Pro. I'd still highly recommend a PC Desktop over that. Definitely more bang for your buck.

[unclefarkus]

I think Apple has also forgotten about it

[jackoreilly]

Thank you all very helpful. They never released the 'new' Mac Pro this year at WWDC anyway. The wait continues - I think a switch to a PC desktop is likely.

[Francisco Penaloza]

Even tho Scott was mentioning a Macbook pro, the rest of his statement still apply.

V-Ray tech is windows PC oriented, and more specifically anything with GPU rendering. The big winner is NVidia, because they are the creators of CUDA tech that most of the GPU renderings engines are based on.

 

Apple's Mac pro are using AMD gpu, they do not support officially CUDA. They only uses Open CL and that has lower performance on GPU renderings.

 

Not to start a fig Apple versus PC, but Mac tech is way behind with anybody else on windows based Workstations.

If you want to stay within Apple environment. Sketchup will work great, but not V-Ray or V-Ray RT even if you run Windows on the MAC.

You may have an advantage if you only use CPU, but anything related to GPU will be slower if it works.