mac bootcamp

[rdwarrior1]

I work for a high school and it is time to upgrade out cad hardware. The current administration wants to go with a mac platform of hardware. I am trying to find out if most of the software will run on a mac using bootcamp with windows 10? The suites I look up do not give any info if they will work on bootcamp. I know some have a mac version but the current deployment on win 7 systems has a large number of products so I am looking for info on bootcamp in order to keep a majority if not all of the programs they now have.

[Darin.Green · Accepted solution]

@rdwarrior1

Will it run, yes, however... The issue you're going to run into is lagging and performance issues over time depending on the applications being used. If the class is primarily CAD, then just get a Windows PC instead.

I recommend getting a PC, because that's what most of the industry is using.

[natasha.l · Accepted solution]

Hello @rdwarrior1,

Which products do you need to run on BootCamp? Revit & AutoCAD work just fine on BootCamp. 

Boot Camp is a utility provided with the Apple operating system that enables you to create a separate hard drive partition (on Intel-based Apple computers) on which you can install a Microsoft Windows OS.  Boot Camp allows you to specify which operating system to boot when starting the computer.  If you start the computer in Windows you can install and run Windows applications at native speeds. Boot Camp does not include a Windows OS. You must purchase the Windows Operating System software separately. If you have questions about installing and operating Boot camp, contact http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/. 

The Windows operating system you will run via Bootcamp will have to meet the system requirements for the software you choose to run on it. Please review the System Requirements. 

Please "Accept As Solution" if a reply has helped resolved the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community.

[dgladfelter · Accepted solution]

My current machine is a MacBook Pro (16 GB RAM, Intel i7 @ 2.8GHz, NVDIA GeForce 750M), and I use both Parallels and Boot Camp to run Windows 10. I have personally run a Mac laptop for at least 6 years now, using graphic-intensive software like Autodesk InfraWorks without any issues. The experience (with Boot Camp) has been just as good (if not subjectively better) as any Windows laptop I have used.

I wrote a blog post on this very topic some time ago: http://bit.ly/2jwo9AM

You can get a more detailed explanation in the blog post, but to summarize...

Parallels provides the benefit of running both Mac and Windows applications at the same time, but comes at the cost of performance. Boot Camp doesn't let you run Windows and Mac applications at the same time, but has the advantage of performance (as it utilizes all available hardware). 

Bottom line is if you can run it in Windows, you can run it with Boot Camp without any differences in performance over an equally configured Windows-only machine.

[Darin.Green · Accepted solution]

@rdwarrior1

The mere fact that you have to use middle-ware to use a specific product is not good. However, it's your decision, but we have customers who thought the same way as @dgladfelter and regretted making that decision mostly educational and government customers...

Whichever solution you choose, make sure you have a minimum of 3.2Ghz processor, 16GB RAM, and if possible downgrade windows to Windows 7.

We'll still be here supporting your needs regardless of the decision you make... 

[dgorsman · Accepted solution]

I have seen mention of problems with Boot Camp and Win 10 on Mac systems; although, that may have just been a Mac user unfamiliar with the Windows environment.

Unless you have Mac-only software you *must* run, take a serious comparison between the two systems before committing.

[dgladfelter · Accepted solution]

As a precursor, I should mention the reason I run a Mac is because my company (an Autodesk Reseller) had a growing number of clients asking questions very similar to the ones expressed in this thread, and we didn't have anyone who could answer them. I became a Mac user out of a need to properly support and advise my own customers.

With that small disclaimer out of the way, there seems to be some confusion about what Boot Camp is. In the most simplest of terms, Boot Camp is a BIOS that allows Windows to boot, and a package of all the necessary drivers for Windows to run on a persons Mac hardware. Running Windows on a Mac with Boot Camp is no different than setting up your PC to dual-boot between Windows and Linux.

Speaking in the most general of terms, I too had some customers run into issues surrounding their upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. In most cases, this was due to the user not upgrading the version of Boot Camp they had installed. Windows 7 required Boot Camp 4 or 5.1. By contrast Windows 10 requires Boot Camp 6 to run properly on a Mac.

In this way Boot Camp isn't what I would define as middle-ware, but instead a complete driver package for the version of Windows you choose to install. The need to upgrade Boot Camp is not unlike a conventional PC user needing to update drivers as part of their Windows 10 upgrade process. The big difference here is Boot Camp combines the Broadcom driver for my NIC, the Cirrus Logic driver for my audio interface, the proper driver for my keyboard and so on, and assembles all the proper drivers together into a single package.

Generally speaking, so long as you keep your Boot Camp drivers up to date, the chance of having issues with Windows is no less common on a Mac than it is to have issues with Windows on a conventional PC. That's to say out-of-date drivers will just as commonly introduce issues with Windows 10 as an out-of-date version of Boot Camp will. 

Like most things related to technology, there's plenty of business factors that go into determining what hardware is best for you. Without getting into that subjective debate, the bottom line is you have to maintain Boot Camp like any Windows driver, but from a technical standpoint there's no difference in a standard PC and a Boot Camp PC.

[rdwarrior1]

Thanks for the information I appreciate it. I will pass on the information to the powers that be and see where we end up.

[natasha.l]

Hello @rdwarrior1,

Thank you for returning to the forum and contributing by providing your feedback on our suggestions.