Is anyone running Rhino OSX on a really beefy iMac? How is it performing?

I’m currently in the market for a new computer, as my 2011 MacBook Pro is proving to be limited, despite this laptop’s many heroic feats in the past.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to just build a PC, as I already have another license of Rhino for Windows, but if the iMac chalked full of upgrades proves to be really robust, then maybe that’s a good route to go as well. End of the day, I do like staying within OSX.

I’d like to hear what the forum has to suggest. Thanks!

i use this with rhino:

…and it’s really sweet to me… or, i don’t ever finding myself thinking “dang, i need something faster because rhino is glitching on me” (in part because you can’t get something else that’s going to run much faster or noticeably faster)…

…that said, you’ll have to be more specific about the limitations you’re running up against…
it’s possible a faster computer will be beneficial and/or eliminate the beach balls and glitches… but, depending on the problems you’re experiencing, it’s possible a faster computer won’t solve the issue.

so, can you give an example or two of ‘2011 MacBook Pro is proving to be limited’?

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That sounds like a great setup – I didn’t realize you could get NVIDIA cards in iMacs however – is that an option now as well? If so, maybe I’ll go for that as I hear NVIDIA cards are a lot less problematic with both Rhino and Modo (another modeling tool I use).

My laptop is a champ and does just fine, until as in recently, I have a project with just lots and lots of polysurfaces going on. Basically, I have a project right now with about 24,000 closed polysurface cubes each measuring 8 mm on edge. I will have many more projects like this in the future so I need to figure out my hardware situation pronto.

If you want to be my hero, make an 8 mm cube in Rhino OSX, and replicate it 24,000 times and let me know if basic navigation in the model space starts to get sticky and laggy, especially in ‘Shaded’ viewport mode.

Thanks for your advice nonetheless!

EDIT: some more food for thought here: https://www.slrlounge.com/lightroom-mac-vs-pc-speed-test-4k-imac-vs-4k-custom-pc-performance-test/

i’ll get back to you on that… accidentally did the array at 3000 x 8000 … so the program is not available for user input for a while. :wink:


so with 24,000 cubes in Shaded, it’s sluggish… not very responsive.
completely usable in wireframe though.

—EDIT
hmm… actually, when i use 24,000 cubes in rhino’s default Shaded mode, it’s ok and only starts stuttering when i zoom out to include the entire array…

i was in a custom shaded display mode before and it was noticeably worse… i’ll have to look into that. (maybe the thicker lines are slowing it down in the custom mode?)

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Haha! 24 million cubes, yeah, good times. Well it sounds like your 24k cubes are not affecting your ability to actually model, which they are in my case, so it sounds like the iMac passes the test.

But again, how did you buy your iMac with an NVIDIA card? Did you customize your rig?

the late 2013 imac was the last one using nvidia… also, it’s not a retina imac.

personally, i’d rather have the 5k display with AMD (and 4Ghz i7) instead of the 2013 model but not so much that i’m willing to replace mine right now.