Mac running Softimage on Windows.

#1

So lets start with this.

I use Macs for:

Adobe CS4 Master
Apple Final Cut Pro
AutoDesk Maya

…mainly and for job reasons.

I own a:

Apple Mac Pro 8-Core 2.93GHz (Nehalem)
Apple MacBook Pro 15" 2.93GHz (Unibody)
Apple 24" LED Cinema Display
Apple Time Capsule 1TB
Apple iPhone 3G 16GB
Apple TV 160GB

Apple Wired/Wireless Keyboard
Apple Wired/Wireless Mighty Mouse

But since there is no version of Softimage for Mac OS X, i had to use Windows via Boot Camp and i don’t know which version of Windows should i use to run Softimage flawlessly.

I want my 8-Cores to run while i render.

#2

vista or XP 64 bit definitely.

Nice setup by the way :slight_smile:

Do you have the ATI card in there? You have to let me know how it runs with xsi. Also how is the performance with maya and cs4 under osx?

#3

Nice Rig but get a better chair Bro:buttrock:

#4

I have the ATI Radeon HD 4870 512M and Autodesk Softimage 7.5 64bit version.

For anyone looking for a collection of referenced benchmarks between the 2009 Mac Pro, here are a few initial links and images. Seems we have seen fragmented benchmarks, leading to a considerable amount of confusion and anxiety.

If anyone has additional thoughts / benchmarks, link them or add the graphs here. Overall, the midrange octo 2.26 has some distinct advantages, all cost considerations aside.

Engagdget 2.26

All charts below (grey and red) courtesy of Rob at barefeats:

http://barefeats.com/images09/neh04_ae.gif

http://barefeats.com/images09/neh04_ps.gif

http://barefeats.com/images09/neh04_com.gif

http://barefeats.com/images09/neh06_mot.gif

http://barefeats.com/images09/neh06_ima.gif

http://barefeats.com/images09/neh03_cin.gif

http://barefeats.com/images09/neh03_g32.gif

http://barefeats.com/images09/neh03_g64.gif
Digital Arts review, March 18, 2009. Mac Pro 2.26

This one shows an advantage to the 2.8 by a 3% gain in the single render category yet an advantage to the 2.26 in the multi render category of 6%.

http://tesselator.gpmod.com/Images/_Equipment_n_Tutorials/Cinebench10_Numbers.jpg

#5

Good lord, you should sacrifice few cores for get a decent chair…

And anime otaku use pc, not mac!! :smiley:

#6

Yea i dont care for those benchmarks since none of them answer my question. Which is: How is XSI 7.5 running with the ati card you have. Any lag?

#7

You could even consider Linux as an option as well. I personally prefer XP64 to Vista64, but I am much looking forward to the upcoming release of Windows 7, at which point support for both XP and Vista is going to be slim to none.

#8

Unless I screwed something large during my install Bootcamp will not support XP 64 bit only XP 32 bit and 32 and 64 bit versions of Vista.

#9

Sorry, that should be that XP 64 will load, but when you go to install bootcamp drivers for devices it will tell you that you need XP 32 bit or Vista … no XP 64 bit drivers.

#10

You can find workarounds for that on Google. I have evil Mac friends who have done it.

#11

I’d suggest Vista X64, for the simple reason that contrary to WinXP x64 it’s supported with Bootcamp.

Also, I know this is not the best, but have you thought of getting Parallels? The latest version, 4.0, will support ALL the cores of your Mac Pro, contrary to VMware, which only supports 2 (or 4… can’t remember exactly). Obviously performance wise it’s not the same, but depending on what you need to do, it might be fun to save yourself the hassle of always rebooting. :wink:

I’m about to start a new job with XSI and was thinking of working on my Mac Pro for it, so I was also going over these same questions. :slight_smile:

#12

I believe there are some licensing problems with Autodesk Softimage and running XP/Vista under Bootcamp?

Has anyone resolved these issues?

(Got my MacBook Pro coming in a few weeks and I’m hoping 6.5 will work without constant phone calls to Autodesk licensing)

#13

6.5 does not use Autodesk licensing, it uses SPM. No problems with that on Bootcamp.

I have had no reports of problems with Softimage 7.5 liceninsing on Bootcamp.

#14

XSI 7 or soft 7.5 on vista 64 is very stable.
The issue you may have is if you have an ati card in that mac.
ATIs are very flakey with xsi, always have been except for a few rare times. Benchmarks mean nothing
I got 50 mac pros for our crew at Warner Bros last summer and threw the ATIs out for cheap nvidia 8800GTs that worked flawlessly with XSI on bootcamp. I did try the ATIs out with XSI for giggles and as expected they didn’t work well with XSI.

#15

Just upgraded to 7.5 and running it on a Mac pro with XP 32bit via bootcamp (bought my mac too early to go 64) I had a crash using ICE with 100,000 particles but that’s it. Still a little too early to say yet. Saying that, it was a right pig to set up the license. In the end I had to get si to remote into my machine and fill in all the missing bits. Weird thing also, windows related, I can’t seem to get service pack 3 to install on my machine. Not enough memory it says. I’ll report back if anything horrible starts happening.

#16

Cool stuff.
Do you have a link to the wallpaper on your Mac Pro? It looks quite nice.

#17

I plan on getting something like this in a month or so, and its 1k cheaper than that new mac pro
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=9648485
The processor should be able to be easily clocked to 3.6 GHz on air.[size=2][/size]

#18

^ Probably not the point of the thread and likely more than enough bait to start a flame-war, however since you posted with details I would say that depending on your actual needs you are quite likely spending way way way too much money on that build, without in fact future proofing yourself any further down the line.

$2,329.92 total, without monitor(s)\Raid???

I’m not at all challenging your capability or plans for the system. But just looking at it, it just looks over-priced for what your going to get out of it.

That motherboard is so so so a waste of money.

The video card is priced right but you can get nearly the same performance for almost half the price for possible gaming needs, and for workin in 3D real-time viewports it likely won’t make any difference.

It probably doesn’t matter anymore but I don’t understand picking 3x ram, when you can pair up to 4x @8gb. I mean, I built my system for less than you, with Dual 21" widescreens years ago and I got it with 8gb ram on the day I built it.

Your case and power supply are simply overpriced, no offense but really $578.99 for a case and an over-achieving PSU, why?

The HDD is nice, but why a Xenon Server processor? That doesn’t make any sense in this system??? Why are you building a server with a $350 graphics card? If your intention is to build a server, you shouldn’t be using it for 3D/Games.

I’m serious, you can knock the price way down without sacrificing quality, reliability, features, speed or power. In fact you can likely knock the price down and improve in the speed and power categories at the same time.

I guess I might as well ask what your full intentions on using it are so that you can streamline this concauction a bit better before you actually buy the parts. But again, you posted it here, in this thread, for a reason, and as a hybrid server/workstation it’s not making a whole lot of sense to be completely honest.

#19

Sorry, didn’t mean to cause the mac or pc is better argument, Some of my best friends use macs :p. Just trying to say you can get dual i7 pc’s now too. What you use mostly depends what other apps you use and whats your work flow like. Some people need access to apples for their jobs, others have a preference, Its cool to have your own taste. Some people live or die by apple or pc, but when it comes down to it, they are both different solutions for the same problem. One isn’t more evil or the wrong choice over another. I just hate the apple’s don’t even compare to pcs or visa versa arguments (Hell, I use macs for ~2 hours a day, too).

Shouldn’t the i7’s be future proofed for a long time? I mean the next generation i5’s are just for home users?

I wasn’t my build and I really didn’t look TOO much at it because I don’t plan on buying one in another month or so. I know they prices on the motherboards and parts will change a lot

EDIT: forget, you need to use server processors on server boards

#20

That’s a funny comic. Yeah, gl with new build in a month or so then, sounds like fun. I personally could use a new video card, but luckily I only spent approx $150 in the first place, and there are some very very nice ones in the $150-$200 price range now that way out-preform what I could have bought originally at $350 two years ago…

If you are not building high performance server. You can pick a different motherboard/CPU entirely and get something more powerful for less money. The video card on your list is nice but what I was indicating above, it’s cheaper to get something comparable for much less, and use the $100-$150 you save a few years later for a brand new video card that will run circles around the older more expensive one you didn’t buy. Bang for your buck.

Good luck man, custom built PC’s are awesome when done right. Too bad it’s still technically illegal to install OSX on custom hardware builds because with the right selection of parts it not only outperforms what Apple sells hardware wise, but it is also half the cost. That is my one biggest gripe regarding Apple’s business model. They are mainly an OS/IPod developer, yet their OS is purposely and legally made proprietary to their own hardware, even though it works and runs just fine on other configurations since there is nothing in actuality special or unique about their 1st party hardware… They do sell fairly strong computers, and the OS is nice and something unique but they have a perfect monopoly on OSX based machines because of their proprietary buisiness model, and I don’t play nice with monopolies. That and, I bought a $4,500 Mac several years back directly from Apple, which came in the mail dead on arrival and rather than replacing it, they refurbrished it and treated me like garbage. I ended up selling it weeks later, since I paid in cash and had no credit card company to back me up, and it sold for a $2,000 loss on my end. Funny enough, I was able to take the remaining $2,500, build a custom PC that was considerably more powerful and still had near $1,000 left over. But that experience put a severely bad taste in my mouth when it comes to buying electronics that have fruit engraved on them.