Is anyone running a new Macbook Pro? I am looking for a travel computer that I can run Rhino on but I am worried the new Macbooks don’t have the horsepower to run the software.
Running a 14MBP M2Pro with 16Gb ram…which I have been told is not enough RAM but I find it fine.
I work mainly in subD to design jewellery. Much faster than my old 15MBP i7 which I have been using to run R5/tSplines in Windows in emulation using Parallels for about 12 years.
Never gets hot…I use it mainly in clamshell on an external monitor.If I used it more on the road I would have gone for a bigger screen.
For what I do it is plenty but others doing more complicated things might find it different. Perhaps give an indication of what you are going to use it for to see if anyone else is doing the same.
cheers,
Sochin
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Hilgard:
I’m running v7 on an M1 MacBook Air with 16 GB memory with no problems. I just opened a 182 MB file on the Air and it is slower than my iMac, and I should have carried over my 3D Connexion Space Mouse, but it works. The iMac is a 3.6 GHz 10-Core Intel Core i9 iMac (2020) with an AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB and 64 GB of Ram.
Bottom line, a new MacBook Pro should be just fine. One suggestion - if you do a lot of rendering, get Bella - the speed difference is astounding.
Happy Rhinoing!
Brian
Brian G. R. Hughes
Director of R&D
Insolia®/HBN Shoe, LLC
San Antonio, Texas - Central Time
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I would recommend against it. I have been a longtime Rhino on Mac user, and currently run it on the older M1. I would say it was a big mistake: the overall performance for the work I do (CAD, architecture) is very, very poor - much worse than my old intel 2015 Mac used to do.
Rhino for Mac also has many, many bugs, and several small annoyances (no save-as, etc…) which add to a fairly bad experience IMO. I would strongly, strongly recommend against Rhino on a Mac until RH-8 comes out, and instead very much recommend sticking with windows. FWIW.
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File → press option → Save As appears
Processor M1 or M2 → use WIP / V8 as it is optimised for this hardware uses Metal Graphics (V7 does not as fare is I know - supports only Open GL)
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I have been running Rhino since it first came out in 1998. I used to run Parrallels until Rhino 6 for MAC came out. I have been running Rhino on several iMacs for several years now, no issues and I am doing very large files, assemblies. My iMac is fully loaded but its not the new M1 or M2 chip. I need a travel computer and the most RAM I can get is 96GB but its also the new chip which I know is very capable. I am mostly wondering if anyone has any experience with the newest M2 chip. I can always upgrade to Rhino 8 when its ready but I am not switching to a PC.
Ok, this is helpful. Thank you.
hi @Hilgard_Muller
I moved recently from a 10 years old MBP to a M2 Max [maxed out 96gb]. also traveling so that was the best Mac option currently available.
You get good FPS on the WIP, Cycle GPU is fast. [you need the 96gb Ram to get the 38core gpu]
The new built In display is truly wonderful. and I use an iPad 12.9 as a second display on the move, it is good as it has the same type of display as the computer.
I must say that I hoped for better GPU performance in rendering speed. The Blender cycle benchmark app put it somewhere around the speed of a 3060… so a lot less than what PC users can get out of their new gaming laptops…
But it has 76gb available for the GPU, so if you need to do large renders with very big textures… you are not limited in that respect.
BTW, I didn’t even bothered to install R7 on the M2… Just use the WIP, it’s not just the performance issue with 7, The UI is so Different that going back and forth between the two is very confusing .
Akash
How much ram did you have in the old MBP Akash? My mid 2012 15in maxes out at 16gb. I think even the 17in maxed out at 16gb. Quite a jump in ram for you to 96gb 
cheers,
Sochin
Hi @sochin
I had 16 on the old 2013 MBP + 2 on the little Nvidia 750
It’s good to keep in mind that new versions of apps that run natively [or not] on apple M chips, Take a lot more RAM they used to.
I Rhino 8 WIP, just one ring [yes with a little large mesh in it, but not that large] is 3 gb, and when rendering just small test in the view port, it goes up to 7, And then if you have more then one rhino doc open …
even just having a few pages open in Safari uses a few gb
And if want to use the computer for proper rendering [hi res image, and large textures]. Rhino native [cycle] render now runs on the GPU, and the size of the GPU is tied to the amount of RAM, The 38GPU which the most they offer currently for MBPs is only available on the 96gb configuration [I think ]
[if I had a home I’d probably get the Studio with the Ultra chip]
if you have no need to render your jewellery…? or use a Windows machine for that, then I imagine you should be good on R8 with your 16gb because the M2 can use the disk for extra memory very fast…
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Hi @Akash,
Thanks for the info. Is the WIP that much more RAM hungry than R7?
I do not render. I take photos of my finished pieces and Capture One and Photoshop are my major RAM hogs.
I don’t use Safari… have not for years. I find Brave does not cause me much grief with RAM.
If I could buy it again I would get more RAM after this discussion with you but for now things are fine.
cheers,
Sochin
I actually don’t remember [ don’t have 7 on this machine]. it’s probably not a lot more the 7… but likely a lot more then 5.
[but again] as these new machines can write memory to disk very fast, things should be ok with 16
[I think I mentioned in some other thread that once because of a bug, had over 600gb ram used, and didn’t notice until the computer complained at 650gb…