iMac 3ds max performance in parallels/fusion?

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metabo

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Hi, I'm thinking of buying a new iMac 24 inch. However, I'm wondering about how 3ds max will perform inside of parallels/fusion. Searches I made on the net tells me that I can only expect to be able to do "light modeling", but what I want to know is, how light is light?

Anybody has any hard figures, e.g. i loaded a 10k poly textured character inside parallels.. i created a 50k poly scene inside fusion.. etc...

Will choosing the 8600 GS BTO option make a big difference? Or bumping the ram up?

Thanks alot!
 
Using BootCamp (which comes free with a new iMac) would be a better choice. You'd need to partition your hard drive, so getting the biggest HD is wise. Parallels and fusion just won't cope with 3D.
 
Thanks for the reply. I know boot camp is better, but I'm just wondering how much I can get away with in parallels/fusion. Besides, constant rebooting between os x and windows might cause the licensing to break...

So, anyone tried before and can give me some rough guidelines as to what I can expect? :)
 
You can expect pretty crappy 3D performance. Probably along the lines of using a Pentium III. If you're an experienced 3ds max user, I can guarantee you'll be nothing less than disappointed with the performance... while it may be "usable," it will not be "enjoyable."

I highly recommend using Boot Camp instead, as mentioned earlier.

The amount of reboots you perform has nothing to do with the licensing of Windows XP nor Mac OS X. Your Windows partition will remain perfectly "licensed" even if you reboot between Windows XP and Mac OS X one million times in a row.
 
Actually, I was referring to licensing for 3ds max. (Quite alot of forum posts on how boot camp seems to break 3ds max licenses.)

Anyway, I guess that kind of killed my hopes for getting a mac instead of yet another windoze box, since I'll be using 3ds max quite a lot. Even though it'll mostly be around psp level graphics...
 
Ah, I see about the licensing thing.

Well, you could look at it this way: you can get a Windows PC and run Windows or Linux. Or, you could get a Mac, and run Windows or Linux or Mac OS X just as well as any generic Windows box.
 
I know, but I'll end up spending most of my time in windows, which kind of defeats the point of buying an iMac in the first place? Especially since it's more expensive than a generic windows box and not easily upgradeable too. And if i dual boot too many times the licensing breaks...

I mean, I really don't wish to deal with windows anymore, but unless someone tells me that parallels/fusion performance is ok, or autodesk makes a mac version of 3ds max (dream on) it looks like I don't have much of a choice. :(
 
metabo said:
I know, but I'll end up spending most of my time in windows, which kind of defeats the point of buying an iMac in the first place? Especially since it's more expensive than a generic windows box and not easily upgradeable too. And if i dual boot too many times the licensing breaks...
Click to expand...
The "more expensive" thing is kind of an illusion -- it's just that Apple doesn't offer any ultra low-end Macs, whereas you can build a cheap PC for $300 or so. Feature-for-feature, though, they're pretty much on-par with each other in terms of price.

I mean, I really don't wish to deal with windows anymore, but unless someone tells me that parallels/fusion performance is ok, or autodesk makes a mac version of 3ds max (dream on) it looks like I don't have much of a choice. :(
Click to expand...
Well, I'm not against Windows -- I'm all for purchasing the computer that will work for you. If you spend a lot of time in 3ds max, then by all means, get a Windows box and go for it... that will provide the best working environment for that program.
 
Wow, you're fast. I'm not going for the low end, but iMacs are still more expensive for me. I suspect it's because they use notebook parts, but have to compete with desktops.
Anyway, if 3ds max ran on it, I'll buy one in an instant since the value of having mac os x is worth it to me. You may not be anti-windows, but I am :p
 
I went ahead and bought an iMac anyway. Just in case anyone out there is thinking of doing the same thing, I'll post some info.

Windows XP SP2 (100GB boot camp partition) running in parallels desktop 3
Default Parallels virtual machine configuration (512MB RAM, 16MB VRAM
3DS Max 9
software rendering mode

Real system specs
iMac 24 inch
C2D 2.8GHz
4GB RAM
500GB HDD
nVidia 8800GS 512MB VRAM
Mac OS X 10.5.1

I opened a ~100k poly file, and it managed around 8 fps according to Max. Can definitely feel a bit of lag, but much better than I expected. I've yet to fiddle with the parallels settings nor install more software in windows, though.

The file I opened is rigged and textured, but the texture links are broken (aka did't show up in viewport) because I was too lazy to re-set up the paths :p

That said, using 3DS Max through parallels does have its disadvantages. I have to keep press the fn keys to access F1-F4, which is a drag. I know I could change the preferences on the mac side, but I'm reluctant to. There are many other cases of the wrong OS responding to your key commands, which is kind of jarring. Also, I had to open on screen keyboard in windows just to get numlock on? Or am I missing something obvious? (Is there an option for parallels to capture all your keystrokes when you're using it?)

Finally, I'll just like to add that while I'm still trying to figure everything out, it's insanely mind blowing to be working in Max while enjoying everything else Mac OS X has to offer at the same time. :D
 
metabo said:
I opened a ~100k poly file, and it managed around 8 fps according to Max.
Click to expand...

What does it do normally?

At work, I use VMWare a lot for product testing and debugging. As a result, I've come to really really hate VMs.
 
Viro said:
What does it do normally?
Click to expand...

I just boot camped into windows, and I had to duplicate that model 6 times before it felt about the same as parallels. Moreover, I had fixed the texture links this time so the model in the view port is fully textured. About 650k poly total (versus ~100k poly in parallels.) Of course, since the models are copies you could argue that that makes it less intensive on the system.

For the heck of it, I also created boxes and went crazy with turbo smoothing (turning them into spheres :D) and could manage 833k+ polys while still maintaining a smooth 30+ fps.

Max was running in Direct 3D mode all along (it was software render in parallels)

All in all, I guess parallels gives me roughly 1/7 of the performance of boot camp, depending on what you're doing. It's actually good enough for my needs, just that when I'm working in Max, I keep pressing the mac shortcut keys and Mac OS X keeps interrupting. Any way to make parallels capture all your keystrokes and prevent Mac OS from interrupting?
 
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