Specific advice on iMac (intel), MacBook Air (intel) and M1

vijayasimhabr

Hello folks. I understand that there is already a thread called Mac FAQ. I have gone through it and have obtained most of the information I am looking for. The additional stuff, I hope, its alright to create a new thread. 

As of now, I am doing all my Daz work on my main RTX 3060 windows computer. Yet, today, with the new update, I thought, I got a couple of Apple computers that I use for Photoshop work, Perhaps, I can use it for Daz too. So, before I jump in, please help me with some clarifications.

1. So, I have an iMac from the old days. It is powered by Radeon Pro 560. I understand, IRay is NVIDIA only. I am assuming, this means, I wont be able to render using IRay on the iMac. The Macbook Air has the default Intel graphics card. So, there is that. 
2. Continuing from question 1, perhaps, a simple solution will be to use the iMac and Macbook to setup the scene and all that, and then pass on the rendering duties to the windows computer. Of course, without being able to preview anything in IRay, there is not much use to it, but at least it's an option (I assume)
3. I am waiting for the Apple hardware refresh this year. I will eventually end up with the new M1 (or M2 or M1X or some name apple will give) Apple silicon computer. In the general MAC FAQ I see people talking about render times and such. So, this confuses me. If IRay is NVIDIA only, what are these folks referring to? I dont understand. 

Ultimately, I dont think I will be using Daz on Mac computers. However, I see no harm in considering it, as I already have Apple computers being used in my home office.

PerttiA

You can still render in IRAY without Nvidia GPU, but the the rendering is done by the CPU, which in general takes hours instead of minutes.

vijayasimhabr

"hours instead of minutes"

I doubt I have that kind of time luxury.

Also, I have reading up some thoughts from this other forum

https://forum.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/506346/daz-studio-5-development-update/p26

It looks like, for someone like, who has access to proper windows computers, best to stick to windows. Perhaps I am concluding too early, but it's clear the Mac platform (with or without the new M1 silicon chip) is not a good choice for Daz work.

bytescapes

If you use the Iray renderer, then Windows is a better choice than Mac. GPU acceleration of Iray renders depends on Nvidia cards, and Apple and Nvidia are no longer friends. At this point, it seems safe to say that Macs will never be compatible with Nvidia hardware again. That means that while you certainly can do Iray renders on Mac, the renders will use the computer's CPU instead of the GPU, and so will take significantly longer. The performance of CPU renders on the new Macs with Apple Silicon inside is said to be surprisingly good, but they're still slower than on a PC equipped with a modern Nvidia card.

Of course, if your scene is too large to fit in the VRAM of the graphics card you're using, then a Windows machine will also fall back to CPU rendering, at which point the difference between the two largely goes away.

Thanks to recent updates, DAZ Studio itself now runs on recent Mac OS versions and on the new hardware. You could certainly do your scene setup on Mac and then export it to Windows for faster rendering if you wanted to work that way (although you'd need to ensure that your DAZ libraries on both machines contained the same content, or use Nvidia's Iray server). There are also other renderers, such as Octane, that may offer good performance on Mac.

Generally speaking, you're right though. If you do Iray renders, a Windows machine with a powerful Nvidia card is your best bet, and that's not likely to change.

vijayasimhabr

@bytescapes

Thank you for that lenghty explanation. I have said it before and I will repeat it agian. I am currently under deep depression due to multiple and ongoing personal tragedies and the community has always kept me happy, especially with these responses.

(now, enough of my personal problems, and to actual Daz stuff)

Pre-pandemic, I had a signifiant investment has a hobby photographer. Now, I can no longer do it. For one thing, my regular models are 2000 kilometers away due to work from home. And so many other problems. So, all my sets of small setups with a few props and backdrops and such, mimicing my photo studio. Daz has essentially become my tool to do virtual photography and it's the closest thing to the real deal, given the circumstances. So, I think, this wont be a problem on the M1 Mac I plan to purchase before the end of the year, or if I dare to use my existing and ageing iMac and Macbook Air. My scenes are small by design.

But still, yes, 3D performance on the Macs will be bad. I remember this one time I tried to run Fortnite (or some Mac games on Steam). Wow, it was a horrible experience. 

Yes, all my Daz files are synced across all of my computers, so, yes, I think, I will consider using Macs only for staging. For instance, the RTX 3060 is rendering, and instead of waiting, I could get started on the next scene on the iMac. Then again, i have a second windows computer (also powered by Nvidia graphics card) anyway, so I could just use the second windows machine. But, yes, I am glad you said that, I could use the Mac for staging only. I will remember that. 

All said, yes, I am further glad you mentioned that I have come to the right conclusion that windows is the better platform for Daz platform. As of now, my state of mind, does not allow me bandwidth for experimentation and endless troubleshooting. So, I will stick to the safe harbor of windows. 

Perhaps next year, when I am better off, mentally speaking, I will try Daz on Mac. 

Thanks as always.