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Question about upgrading Mac OS and compatibility with formZ 6.7.3 !?


christian812

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Hi guys,

 

I actually have a MacPro 12 cores from around 2011.

Still on Mac OSX 10.8.5 and formZ 6.7.3… together with Modo and Moi 3D > I can model any design required by my customers !

 

But my actual problem is not really related to formZ > I have to upgrade my OS to get a Safary Navigator compliant with my Banks !

Very funny… well, not really since i have to pay my bills as all of you beginning of December > very close !

 

So my final question is > to which Mac OS can I upgrade and keep formZ 6.7.3 stable as it is my main tool !?

 

Thanks for fast answers,

 

Christian

 

 

 

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Christian,

I have same MacPro12 core on OS 10.12.1 ... Do not use formZ 6.7.3 other then to prep older projects to import into fmz8.5. I have not had any problems on this & all previous OS systems. Suggest you get an answer from tech support to confirm. You do know you will do better using only 6 of your 12 processors for your renderings.

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Hi Dennis,

Thanks for your answer.

I think I'll try to download OSX 10.10 and install Firefox or other only to use with banks if Safari still doesn't work.

Which Navigator would you recommand on Mac ?

 

Will wait for Ztech to answer if 6.7.3 will run with no problem at all on 10.10… which will be a problem for me.

I'm a stong believer that it is the user and not the tool that makes great designs !

 

How do you set your MacPro to run on 6 processors (Render Zone and Maxwell) ?

 

Christian

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If i may suggest it... "Not so fast on dumping old OSX versions" 

 

The newest Z versions calculate 3d drawing tool operations just as well on OSX10.7.5, with the exception of rendering,... I think i heard that and do very little renderings myself, besides the simpler renderings...

 

Once your HD has the upgraded versions, it cannot be downgraded, in case you do not wan the fluffy stuff they pass off as upgrades.   At the least, buy/use a new HD to install via Timemachine or Migration.

 

As to V6+...  It might be stable for short term uses but perhaps not for heavy uses, of the old days.  Besides i really love the upgraded Zs and am getting over most of the lost tools... I can run v6 for really worthwhile needs, on my MacMini.  The world has many loses like birds and bees, which deserve my greater attention. Buy a separate HD and use Migration or time machine install for newer OS X installations.  Keep the old one intact, as-is, if it currently runs well.

 

BTW... I keep my Macpro2012 off line except for special downloads... It matters not how many protections one installs, the computer back doors are all wide open IMHO.

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Hi Bo,

 

Tks for infos !

 

I'm just like you… I'm not jumping on any new stuff when they come out !

I  just don't feel "under powered" with my 3D softwares and the pipeline I've set to model and render anything I want, and really don't need a new OS !

Z 6.7.3 remains a fantastic and stable tool which I master quite well… well, I think so !?

Call me "old fart"… I just don't mind !

 

TeleBanking is another problem that I'm about to solve… even if it changes my habits.

 

Christian

 

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Christian,

I use Safari for my browser. I also have Firefox which I use for a Webinar that does not run on Safari. Fmz is not upgrading 6.7.3 , but if you are using 8.5 & find any problems on newer OS X, then let them know so they can investigate it.

 

I remember when earlier Fmz had issues... they were all fixed by 6.7.3. Between you & me I generally like 8.5 better all except Component Issues compared to symbols in 6.7.3.

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You do know you will do better using only 6 of your 12 processors for your renderings.

 

How do you set your MacPro to run on 6 processors (Render Zone and Maxwell) ?

 

This is not the case in 6.7.3. 12 cores are faster. It was a bug that appeared sometime around V7 and fixed in later versions of 8.

 

I use 6.7.3 in Mavericks 10.9.5 and there is a bug when rendering with "set image size" that is avoidable. My experiments with versions beyond that have introduced other issues that are more problematic.

 

10.9 should be a big step up from 10.8 for your banking issues, but it is already lagging behind the latest Safari and I don't expect Apple will support it much longer. Whatever you do I would highly suggest just buying a new SSD to install the new OS on. Maybe start with the latest 10.12 and see how things work for you, if you have problems wipe the drive and step down to 10.11, etc.

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Christian,

I have same MacPro12 core on OS 10.12.1 ... Do not use formZ 6.7.3 other then to prep older projects to import into fmz8.5. I have not had any problems on this & all previous OS systems. Suggest you get an answer from tech support to confirm. You do know you will do better using only 6 of your 12 processors for your renderings.

 

Not exactly.  On a 12 core Mac Pro, there are 24 threads because of Hyper-threading, and the newest version of RenderZone seems to be about 5% more powerful when set to use only 12 threads instead of the full 24.  

 

There was an earlier issue where only 6 cores was the fastest on a 12 core machine, but that has been resolved in the newest update.

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Justin you are correct... as per my performance post July 13, 2016

12:15:47  Xeon  Mac Pro 2 x 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon (Mid 2010)    OS 10.11.5  used 6 CPU

12:12:25  Xeon  Mac Pro 2 x 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon (Mid 2010)    OS 10.11.5  used 8 CPU

12:10:28  Xeon  Mac Pro 2 x 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon (Mid 2010)    OS 10.11.5  used 12 CPU

12:11:09  Xeon  Mac Pro 2 x 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon (Mid 2010)    OS 10.11.5  used 24 CPU

 

Glad to see finally times down compared to earlier fmz builds took up to 1.5hrs using 24 CPU's

Seems 12 CPU ad fastest time. I noticed in Activity Monitor that when 24 CPU were selected it only used 12 CPU's for about 98% of render time

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Hi Dennis et al,

 

In order to fully utilize the 24 cores, you will need to compare the render time tests using formZ 8.5.6, as older ones could be slowed down by that many CPU's on a Macintosh.  If you find any files that are slower with 24 vs 12, please send the file so we can see why that might occur...

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Just weighing in on Maxwell, since it was mentioned earlier in this thread:

Keep the "Threads" parameter (Maxwell Display Options> Scene tab) set to 0 (auto), and it will use the optimum number of threads for your system. The more cores the better; Maxwell CPU rendering performance scales almost linearly with CPU core count.

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Hi Dennis et al,

 

In order to fully utilize the 24 cores, you will need to compare the render time tests using formZ 8.5.6, as older ones could be slowed down by that many CPU's on a Macintosh.  If you find any files that are slower with 24 vs 12, please send the file so we can see why that might occur...

 

 

Tech,

 

According to the Performance Test thread over in the Tutorials forum - http://forums.formz.com/index.php?/topic/194-performance-test-thread-how-fast-is-your-computer/page-2

 

All of us with 12 core / 24 thread machines on OSX are getting slightly faster times with the CPU set to 12 instead of 24.  Hyper-threading in OSX I'm sure is to blame, but if you can find a way to speed it up even more, great!  

 

This is using the provided benchmark file from you all, so you should be able to test it and see what is happening?

 

Thanks!

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Yes, all of the reports after my UPDATE post are using the new v8.5.6 - http://forums.formz.com/index.php?/topic/194-performance-test-thread-how-fast-is-your-computer/?p=14505

 

Don't get me wrong, I am much happier with v8.5.6 performance, but it would seem that something is not quite right when enabling the HT threads on OSX.

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Hi Justin,

 

I have been looking through the thread you linked above:  http://forums.formz.com/index.php?/topic/194-performance-test-thread-how-fast-is-your-computer/page-2 ...and only see reference to v8.5.4.  Whose reports are v8.5.6?

 

Thanks in advance - we will run some tests -- but just wanted to understand exactly what others are getting with v8.5.6...

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Hi Dennis,

 

You can resave the file -- or not -- as you like.  

 

We see a few cases where 12 cores can render slightly faster with Hyperthreading disabled -- or with it enabled and formZ set to use 12 Processors.  

 

We will see if any additional performance improvements can be added for the future.  ;)

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