Redering iMac

Lunau
Lunau Altair Community Member
edited October 2020 in Community Q&A

Hi,

 

I am on an iMac with a AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2048 MB-grafic...alright fast modelling and on simple renders. Are there any options I could use to get a faster rendering time? Any experience on having an external videocard or rigging up with an extra mac?

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Answers

  • ArjunA_22390
    ArjunA_22390
    Altair Employee
    edited March 2020

    Hi Lunau,

     

    Higher CUDA cores = faster rendering.

     

    Due to the technology we use in rendering that depends on CUDA, AMD GPUs will never be as fast as NVIDIA. Even an older gen 1080 will blow newer AMD out of the water.

    I have tried e-GPU with AMD card on Catalina but it did not work as expected due to several roadblocks implemented by Apple. They want developers to use their 'Metal' framework. This means we have to redirect all CUDA efforts to satiate limited users on Mac.

    However, you can leverage network rendering by using a very basic windows desktop with a good NVIDIA card. For ex: a basic interl core i5 with 16 GB ram and small HDD with a good mid range NVIDIA card such as a 1080 or 2060 super.

     

    If you are end up investing into a rendering desktop and can stretch your budget, I suggest either going for an RTX 4000 or similarly priced GeForce card.

  • Frank_Giese
    Frank_Giese Altair Community Member
    edited March 2020
    Altair Forum User said:

    Hi Lunau,

     

    Higher CUDA cores = faster rendering.

     

    Due to the technology we use in rendering that depends on CUDA, AMD GPUs will never be as fast as NVIDIA. Even an older gen 1080 will blow newer AMD out of the water.

    I have tried e-GPU with AMD card on Catalina but it did not work as expected due to several roadblocks implemented by Apple. They want developers to use their 'Metal' framework. This means we have to redirect all CUDA efforts to satiate limited users on Mac.

    However, you can leverage network rendering by using a very basic windows desktop with a good NVIDIA card. For ex: a basic interl core i5 with 16 GB ram and small HDD with a good mid range NVIDIA card such as a 1080 or 2060 super.

     

    If you are end up investing into a rendering desktop and can stretch your budget, I suggest either going for an RTX 4000 or similarly priced GeForce card.

    You are simply not a Mac Company. it would be a good for you idea to see what others can do if they support Metal.
    Just look at OctaneX as a side effect it will run on iOS too.

    Maxon is porting redshift to Metal actually. And it will be faster than the Nvidia based Version.

    You are loosing the game my friends.

    The announcement for the developers to use Metal instead of Open GL is 5 years old now! 5 years sleeping in development. 

    There are several benefits using Metal instead of CUDA. First of all system stability. And it will also run on Intel graphics.

    I'm pretty sure Microsoft will drop CUDA in short too, when Vulcan is ready.

    Do your homework, we payed for serious work, not for playing around.

  • Lunau
    Lunau Altair Community Member
    edited March 2020

    Thanks for your reply Arjun and also important what Frankg writes. Sorry for me it is not an easy task to get the max out of my Mac system. Needless to say I would really appreciate a solution that include Mac in a better way. I love Inspire.

  • Frank_Giese
    Frank_Giese Altair Community Member
    edited July 2020

    Otoy released Octane X for Apple Metal.

    You can look by yourself how fast it is. I tested on a MaBook 16' AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB.

    Works fluent, instant production ready renderings in a few seconds.

    So this is the proof that it is possible to render in realtime on the Mac.

    Read the press release here: https://home.otoy.com/octane-x-pr1/

     

    Best regards

     

    Frankg

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