Which MacBook is best for Maya 2013

NonaPower said:

Hello everyone. I want to buy a new Macbook, but I'm not that sure which one is the best for me. I'm studying 3D animation. Currently using Autodesk Maya 2013. So before buying a new mac, I want to make sure I wont get problems while doing my homework. I have a few questions that I need to ask.

Which MacBook would be best to buy for Maya 2013?
Does Maya 2013 have problems on mac?
Does mac have problem with rendering a high poly scene?
Can mac handle high poly scenes?

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Mac handles all that just fine. Just look at any of the Weta video's, there are tons of Mac's with Maya on them.

As for which Mac I would suggest a Macbook pro, which one is up to you. Many schools will have a render farm for you to use but if you don't have that option I'd suggest getting the most you can afford.

Get a (Macbook) Pro, it should have a grphics card from ATI or nVidia, the onboards and Intel ones are not officially supported hardware, and you will have problems with graphics in viewports and hypershader if you use other than certified (yes yes I know a lot of people are using onboards and non-certified hardware and they are happy with that, but I work profesionally with Maya and I can't stand those small annoying bugs other people might be happy about, if you plan on using Maya all the time, might as well get certified hardware).

I'm a professional game developer, and I can say, hands down that the rMBP is the way you want to go. I use Maya 2011 on my Mac all day long. I was really surprised. The 2013 15 inch rMBP is about 90 percent as fast at doing a render as my 2009 Mac Pro octocore.

I'll tell you which Mac you do not want. An MBA. It will theoretically run Maya, and isn't super bad for checking meshes, but the interface is way too small.

I'll also say, depending on the kind of work you do - you might want to bite the bullet and buy a MacPro. If you're doing HP stuff with a lot of frame renders, a MacPro is invaluable. I've actually fried an MBP's logic board trying to do renders, because they are not built very well for that level of constant heat.

Hope that helps!

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PS - To answer your question, Maya 2011 is dead stable on a Mac. Or, at least as stable as any 3D program can be. If you get deeper into the work, you'll learn these are immensely quirky suites of software.

hmm, autodesk have become picky I see..

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servle...=19&release=2012&os=268435456&manuf=all&opt=1

they only lsit Mac Pro graphics, earlier (before Autodesk) I remember Macbook Pros where on there.

dan1eln1el5en said:

hmm, autodesk have become picky I see..

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servle...=19&release=2012&os=268435456&manuf=all&opt=1

they only lsit Mac Pro graphics, earlier (before Autodesk) I remember Macbook Pros where on there.

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Looking at the system recommendations on that site, MBPs are part of the recommended systems, so I'd say the cMBP and rMBP will be fine

NonaPower said:

Thank you for the information. can you please specify which model graphic card is certified?

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The best graphics card that is offered by Apple is a 2 gig a bit slow for my needs but it is certified by Autodesk....

It all depends on what you're doing in Maya as to how fast it is and when you will start to have trouble with high polygon count models...

I use 5 different 3D modeling programs for my job and the smallest graphics card I have is a 6 gig. My needs are different from yours though I'm sure. If you want the software to run the way it was designed to run, the first thing you're going to have to do is get past the brand name