topic Re: Revit on Mac M1 in Revit Architecture Forum

Revit on Mac M1

n11270373 — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 04:10:32 GMT

Hi there,

I am about to buy a new laptop and I am looking at two options:

-Dell XPS 15'

-Apple Macbook pro 14'

I would like to know if anyone using an M1 or M2 chip have been having any issues with Parallels and Revit.

I am leaning to get an Macbook pro because its hardware. I always used Windows, and I feel that Windows computers dont last as long as an Apple. Plus, I used to like to do anything I wanted on a Window 7, and now a days Windows are as restricted as an macOS.

Re: Revit on Mac M1

DarrenP — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 14:05:03 GMT

@n11270373 wrote:

Plus, I used to like to do anything I wanted on a Window 7, and now a days Windows are as restricted as an macOS.

do you have an example?

lots of threads on this subject i recommend reading through them: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false&filter=location&location=forum-board:133&q=Revit%20and%20M1

Revit will always be a Windows OS exclusive it will not take advantage of any of the Apple hardware since its never been developed for Apple hardware

Re: Revit on Mac M1

mhiserZFHXS — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 14:05:39 GMT

If you're using Revit, just go Windows. Why deal with the hassle of Apple?

Re: Revit on Mac M1

pendean — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 15:03:01 GMT

Greetings @n11270373

https://www.parallels.com/pd/general/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA8t2eBhDeARIsAAVEga1RBKDfNk9jTag2umc3PYBWGMkguI8Hvd3o8dXCQvR11T80ZWc5_9oaAtP4EALw_wcB

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-Autodesk-Revit-2023-products.html

Re: Revit on Mac M1

ola6n4qrvdsr — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 02:42:07 GMT

Revit on Mac hardware has been a long-desired option.

The prospect of the M1/M2 hardware's performance is appealing, and you don't need to buy an expensive workstation card on top of the system cost to get smooth, slick computing on OSX: https://www.macrumors.com/review/macbook-pro-m2-pro-m2-max/

The problem is Windows applications don't run on OSX, so you have to run some additional virtualisation software that makes the Mac chips run a 'virtual' Intel x86-based hardware that Windows will support. The options are Bootcamp which is a dual-boot system or Parallels.

Bootcamp works pretty well in some respects, but you can't run Windows and Mac applications side-by-side, and more importantly doesn't allow you to install Windows 11, only earlier versions and will have ongoing future issues with software compatibility going forward, as Autodesk and other software gets updates.

Parallels run inside OSX, so you can run Mac and Windows applications side-by-side. However, the software Parallels uses to emulate the hardware has no access to the Mac's device's physical graphics cards. Instead, Parallels Display Adapter driver interfaces with virtual hardware, actual acceleration is achieved by translating Direct X commands from the guest OS to the OpenGL API on the macOS side. In short, Mac desktop standalone graphics card, known as "discrete graphics" (if you have one) or the M1/M2 GPU graphics chips (if you have those) can't be used by the Windows applications. The graphics and 3D acceleration are all done by CPU cores, a performance layer which is much slower than a cheap entry level graphics card would be. For basic Windows applications like Word or Excel, you probably wouldn't see much difference, but for a graphics-heavy program like Revit, the performance hit is often very obvious if you're accustomed to using Windows native computer hardware.

If your heart is set on a Mac M1/M2/Mx computer, just stick to native software that runs directly on OSX, don't waste your money -- or buy a good Windows computer instead.

Re: Revit on Mac M1

bewivobsrea — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 23:55:43 GMT

Hey, Parallels runs on M1 and M2 Macs, but Revit isn’t natively supported on macOS and can have some performance or compatibility issues running through Parallels. When considering m1 vs m2 MacBook Air performance, the M2 offers better speed and efficiency, which can help with virtualization tasks like Parallels. The MacBook Pro has excellent hardware and longevity, but if you need full native Revit support, a Windows laptop like the Dell XPS may be more reliable.