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Maya on new MacPro?

14 REPLIES 14
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Message 1 of 15
tom
Contributor
5467 Views, 14 Replies

Maya on new MacPro?

Anyone running Maya (2014) on new MacPro and is it working... we are a completely Mac studio and have been for almost 10 years... need to make decisions on new hardware or a studio-wide switch to Linux

14 REPLIES 14
Message 2 of 15
Anifex09
in reply to: tom

Maya 2014 performs quite well on a MAC with OS X 10.9.2. I actually have found that simulation (Fluid,Particles,NCloth, NHair) are slightly faster than on a Windows 7 Platform. I have not tested this on a Linux OS. I custom build my PCs so that I can get the most for my money such as the latest and Graphic cards (a fast evolving technology). A minimum of 128 gb of ECC RAM (Much cheeper than MAC's RAM upgrade) I mention this because some brands of ECC Ram will cause OS X 10.9.2 to crash. I hope this helps
Message 3 of 15
tom
Contributor
in reply to: Anifex09

This is on one of the new MacPros that look like a black coffee can?

Message 4 of 15
Anifex09
in reply to: tom

I have not tested this on the New Mac Pro. But know everything their is to know about the components in the coffee can. The greatest benefit you will discover with the Black coffee can is a significant boost in reading and writing files (this means when you are reading in large files such as fluid cache files you will notice a tremendous increase in performance). The solid state drive used is top notch and extremely expensive to purchase on it's own. You are not getting ripped off with the hardware if you match spec for spec at customer prices - you are getting what you pay for (of course this isn't the case for apple but well you know 65 percent profit margin) anyway it has plenty of OpenCL power for physic engines and GPU based renders such as VRAY RT . You can expect excellent performance when using Viewport 2.0 OpenGL. Listen the bottom line is you won't be disappointed great hardware decent operating system combined with the new Maya 2015 and you got yourself a excellent workstation.
Message 5 of 15
tom
Contributor
in reply to: Anifex09

The solid state drive is an obvious... but the rest of the new MacPro is a completely different animal.  We've been using Apple special-build hardware for 10 years now for our Maya work and every new OS or slightly upgraded hardware configuration has had issues. We always use top of the line configurations.  Ordered some of the newest 12 processor servers early last year (OSX 10.8) to beef up our older xServe render farm rack and couldn't even load the Maya software.  In workstations, the nVidea FX 4xxx graphics cards have changed with each new release and require workarounds.

 

No doubt, the new MacPro is hot.  But it's rebuilt from the ground up, AMD graphics replacing the nVidea graphics and internally Apple's processing approach will probably require Maya software engineers to rewrite a good portion of the code to take advantage of what's in there.

 

Autodesk has not and will not give any input when asked... so that means there are issues they don't want to talk about yet... more than just a short list of a few bugs.

 

The top configs of the new MacPros also are about $2K more than the older ones... so short of just buying one and installing Maya to see what happens, I was hoping someone else had already tried.

 

Can't seem to get that kind of experienced input... unless you are an anonymous Autodesk software engineer leaking secrets?

Message 6 of 15
Anifex09
in reply to: tom

 

I understand your pain.  One of the reason I use a PC vers a MAC is simply due to limitation when problem solving.  After reading your comment I decided to do some research on compatibility with AMD's top-of the line FirePro W9000 graphic card used in the new MAC PRO.  I wanted to start with the Video Cards simple because there is no data about the ability to upgrade the cards.  One of my biggest issues with MAC is AMD.   Why do they keep using this as a standard graphic card when almost every Video Editing and CG software program out there is making tools for Nvidia.  So big red flags with almost every software program I use (Mari, Nuke, Adobe After Effects) all had issues with performance on the New MAC PRO.  Maya actually scored fairly well when using Viewport 2.0 but the Nvidia K5000 card was faster.  So after further research I cannot recommend the new MAC PRO due to the limitation of the Graphic Processor.  I admire the innovation of the product but I feel it is not a wise investment in the every growing CG industry. 

 

Message 7 of 15
tom
Contributor
in reply to: Anifex09

The Apple MacPros have always had nVidia graphic cards to use with Maya... wether Apple built it for you or you put it in yourself... the fast (and expensive) FX4xxx series... the new MacPros don't have that option since the config is not standard and AMD is apple's choice now.

 

Macs are very good in the production pipeline and memory management for a render server is old-style unix-like, much better than windows... if you use macs in your pipeline, windows is a major downer as an option... the better route is linux, which follows the same unix-like environment... the only issue is adobe software which doesn't have a linux port...

 

Will wait for a release of some qualification info from Autodesk...

Message 8 of 15
Anifex09
in reply to: tom

Many of these pipeline integration you speak of have been resolved with Windows 8.1.  Also the issues with RAID performance has been resolved.  I am a part owner of a small CG Studio.  I am also in charge of about 70 percent of CG and Video Production.  I was a software developer for several years (mainly C++). We look at hardware formulas every time we need to build a new workstation.  Linux is an excellent OS for render farms but, for a production workstation it is not the best choice.  People put MAC Unix base platform on a pedestal but, I have had the new OS X crash more times than I can count.  If you understand the architecture of how both Unix and Windows 7 manage memory they are very similar.   This is why it is very difficult to completely lock up a windows 7 or 8 machine.  The program will just fail and the isolated memory is dumbed Operating system remains stable. At one time this is what made Unix OS so amazing but, that just isn't the case anymore.  You keep looking for Autodesk to give you some kind of answer.  We live in a world of information at our finger tips.  It is our job to educate ourselves enough to know how to look and  utilize the information itself.  I found four areas on the web of people using Maya 2014 on the new MAC PRO.  I took this information and came to the conclusion that MAC PRO will be a good workstation computer for MAYA but when I started to add in programs that I use on day to day basses (NUKE, MARI, Adobe Products, and CUDA based plugins) MAC PRO with no flexibility for the GPU is a bad investment.  I also should add my workstation is a 15,000.00 dollar computer dual Xeon (16 solid core 32 mt)  - 128 gb of ECC RAM - Quadro 5000 + Tesla - 8 TB Raid.  Once the next generation of hardware presents itself as being almost twice as fast we will build a few workstation and move the older ones to be used in the render farm or as dynamics work horses for Fluid or Massive Population sims.  The idea is not to buy to much of one generation of technology.  

Message 9 of 15
tony.su
in reply to: tom

When Maya 2014 released, Mac OS 10.9 wasn't released. So we we didn't test it on Mac OS 10.9, and there isn't Mac OS 10.9 in Maya system requirements list.

 

You can try it on Mac os 10.9. But we don't know if there is any issue on it.



Tony Su
Product Support
Message 10 of 15
tom
Contributor
in reply to: tony.su

Yes... that I understand... we had issues with OSX 10.8 on new servers that would not even allow install of Maya2013... but then 2014 woked fine.  Was more concerned with the hardware / graphic card side of the new MacPros and any issues there... we always have a few bugs to deal with in the new OS releases, but graphic cards are a concern now since the new Macs have gone a different route.

 

Thanks for the post Tony, I will assume Maya2015 may be what we need to wait for before proceeding with the retooling of the studio.

Message 11 of 15
sohanhayes
in reply to: tom

hi Tom - i'm running Maya on the new mac pro can. no good news, i'm afraid. running maya under 10.9.5 is currently causing system-wide graphics instability and drawing errors. i'd say give it a little longer before transitioning to this new hardware platform.  

Message 12 of 15
tom
Contributor
in reply to: sohanhayes

We are working on OSX 10.9.3 on the older MacPros with nVidia 4000 graphics and there are some issues, but it sounds like the graphics cards in the new Pros is a bigger problem... thanks!


************************************************************
H o m e R u n P i c t u r e s

Tom Casey
President & Creative DIrector

100 First Avenue Suite 450 Pittsburgh, PA 15222 412-391-8200
HomeRunPictures.com
Message 13 of 15
Nudist
in reply to: tom

Hi just read this thread with interest and about my options with my Mac Pro 2013. I have been running 3d Max under Windows 8.1 for the last year or so and have not been very satisfied with the stability and rendering performance. For example the system will not see both of the GPUs or run them in parallel. I have been informed that the product is not optimised for AMD and have been told by the people over at chaos software the makers of Vray that I should trade in my Mac Pro and buy a Windows PC running a Nvidia chipset . So my question is which of the two systems should be quicker a Mac Pro running windows running with 3-D Max or are Mac Pro running maya natively.
Message 14 of 15
tom
Contributor
in reply to: Nudist

On any computer, running native is always going to be better than emulating another operating system... especially complem apps like Maya and 3dStudio. An emulation will not see all the hardware and take advantage of it since it is a software "fake." It might be better and cheaper to change over your license to an OSX version if you want to keep you MacPro or don't want to buy a new PC.


************************************************************
H o m e R u n P i c t u r e s

Tom Casey
President & Creative DIrector

100 First Avenue Suite 450 Pittsburgh, PA 15222 412-391-8200
HomeRunPictures.com
Message 15 of 15
Nudist
in reply to: tom

I should add that on my system windows is running under Boot Camp so it is not emulated. Can someone confirm whether using Maya on Mac OS the GPUs run in parallel when used with AMD crossfire. My computer has two D 700s, the fastest GPUs available on the 2013 Mac Pro which if run in parallel supposedly deliver 125% rendering performances over single GPUs when are used with Vray RT the active renderer.

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