ArchiCAD iMac Decision

[theosg]

Need Therapy.
We'll be using ArchiCAD 19... nothing else as demanding.

Mostly due to the thread about length of Build to Order process and delivery, I had to get ours placed.
So I ordered without that satisfied feeling I usually have after a decision.
The feeling I do have now seems more akin to combat fatigue.

Here's what we ended up ordering through the Apple Business Team:
(They really are great helping us as a small business - ~10% discount basically equivalent to sales tax)

Qty 1
27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display
• 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz
• 8GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM - two 4GB
• 256GB Flash Storage
• AMD Radeon R9 M390 with 2GB video memory
$2,399.00 List

Qty 1
27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display
• 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz
• 8GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM - two 4GB
• 256GB Flash Storage
• AMD Radeon R9 M395 with 2GB video memory
$2,549.00 List

Qty 1
27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display
• 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz
• 8GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM - two 4GB
• 512GB Flash Storage
• AMD Radeon R9 M395 with 2GB video memory
$2,749.00 List

I almost added the 395X to the 3rd machine, but...
I'll echo a comment made elsewhere: Apple just didn't provide enough info to sell me a 395X

So when I get these, I'll be able to shed more light on: m390 vs m395 and 256 SSD vs 512 SSD
It seems to me that 395x will be well covered.
I stopped considering the Fusion based on Archicad user reports of SSD speed improvement.
and after I found the SATA iMac power/data cable on iFixit in case we want to add internal SATA SSD later.

As far as I'm concerned, my decision won't be final until delivery +14 days ish.
Welcome any thoughts, comments, ridicule... Fire Away

 

[ixxx69]

Need Therapy.
We'll be using ArchiCAD 19... nothing else as demanding.

Mostly due to the thread about length of Build to Order process and delivery, I had to get ours placed.
So I ordered without that satisfied feeling I usually have after a decision.
The feeling I do have now seems more akin to combat fatigue.

Here's what we ended up ordering through the Apple Business Team:
(They really are great helping us as a small business - ~10% discount basically equivalent to sales tax)

Qty 1
27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display
• 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz
• 8GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM - two 4GB
• 256GB Flash Storage
• AMD Radeon R9 M390 with 2GB video memory
$2,399.00 List

Qty 1
27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display
• 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz
• 8GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM - two 4GB
• 256GB Flash Storage
• AMD Radeon R9 M395 with 2GB video memory
$2,549.00 List

Qty 1
27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display
• 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz
• 8GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM - two 4GB
• 512GB Flash Storage
• AMD Radeon R9 M395 with 2GB video memory
$2,749.00 List

I almost added the 395X to the 3rd machine, but...
I'll echo a comment made elsewhere: Apple just didn't provide enough info to sell me a 395X

So when I get these, I'll be able to shed more light on: m390 vs m395 and 256 SSD vs 512 SSD
It seems to me that 395x will be well covered.
I stopped considering the Fusion based on Archicad user reports of SSD speed improvement.
and after I found the SATA iMac power/data cable on iFixit in case we want to add internal SATA SSD later.

As far as I'm concerned, my decision won't be final until delivery +14 days ish.
Welcome any thoughts, comments, ridicule... Fire Away

Should be great machines for that usage... as long as you don't do a ton of long (multi-hour) renderings. You might be a little short on RAM for larger projects, but that's easy enough to upgrade when needed.

I would have really liked to see the m395X compared, but not sure how much archicad really takes full advantage of GPU... it's still mostly a single-thread CPU driven software, so the top end i7 is the way to go there.

 

[theosg]

Thanks for your reply.
Yes, we're getting RAM elsewhere and will hit 16GB or 24GB right away and 32 later.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Thanks for your reply.
Yes, we're getting RAM elsewhere and will hit 16GB or 24GB right away and 32 later.

And remember they now support up to 64GB if needed.

 

[campyguy]

I'm in need of a workstations but also not in a rush - holding off until the iMac reflects the newer I/O ports is also a factor in my purchasing plans. We're also using ArchiCAD 19 on a few of last year's riMacs, settling on the top-end video card configuration and all 512GB SSDs.

My hesitation regarding the new iMac with the M395 is that it's a tweaked but reduced-clock-speed "update" of last year's M295X, and we found that the M295X chugged a bit more than I would have liked on a production machine - what I don't know is how much work went into improving the new driver as AMD/Apple has had a year to modify its graphic drivers (I haven't compared driver versions yet on our existing Macs yet - too busy...). Don't be too surprised to see some lag with that iMac...

My "hope" regarding that specific card is that I've read that Alienware will be installing a version of the card/chipset in one of its high-end laptops. If Alienware - nee, Dell - cranks out some drivers for this card maybe we'll see some love from Dell regarding their displays. But, yeah, I'm not holding my breath.