Are the Apple M1 computers going to handle Terragen ???

[pclavett]

Wondering about the M1 computers that Apple is now selling and whether these processors will work with Terragen ??? I am in the process of buying a new laptop and this may help me chose whether I go with the older Intel chips or the newer M1 ! Thanks for any info on this !

[WAS]

There is a lot of talk going on right now with the M1. Enterprise users are finding a lot of compatibility issues. Software simply not launching, but they are advised to report these conflicts so they can work on forward and backward compatibility.

There is a chance Terragen won't run on the M1 processor, but it may.

My main concern is performance. These ARM based processors are meant for low-power tasks and lean to the conservative side, and Apple is trying to flip that, while loading more onto the SOC and bloating it. A lot of the systems are only being configured 16/32gb RAM too, with no option to get more too.

This is all they crammed into the M1's in the image below. It says "High-Performance Cores" but how many out of the 8? Lol And how much is a high-performance core used for other performance based tasks like GPU/Image Processing, etc, that may happen with the OS during rendering?

[WAS]

To sum up, I think this is Apples answer to Chrome Books, and cheap 120 dollar PC laptops in classrooms and other lower-to-mid range computers targeting consumers for specific tasks on the lower end.

There was a time when almost all schools in my state relied on Apple, even leased computers in high-school and college. Now they're all chrome books for the cheaper end, and cheap PC laptops for select software. Even the computer lab i did my placement testing for recently all had SOC window systems in those tiny boxes for the computers. Lol, there was like 4 work stations for higher end stuff.

[bluejfk]

Terragen 4.5 launched fine without any problems so far... I have not put it through all of the paces but it seams fine. 


@WAS The M1 is not Apple's answer to chrome books. Its their answer to Intel stuck at 14nm where as the M1 is at 5nm.  The performance is off the charts on my M1 Mac mini.

The M1 Macs and iPad Pro's come with 8 and 16GB of memory. Final Cut Pro is beyond fast.  Apple has had 10 years optimizing iOS to their Apple Arm processors and thus leaped over everyone.  The 16inc Mac Book Pros are rumored to have 16 and 32 core processors with ridiculous battery life and no throttling due to heat.  The previous generation iPad Pro's could out benchmark a 2017 4 core i7 with 4GB of video memory...  It will be very interesting to see what the developers do with that.

Even Linus from Linus Tech Tips was blown away....  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MkrEMjPk24

Apple's rivals may never be able to catch up to its powerful new chip
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/21/tech/apple-m1-chip/index.html

[WAS]

I mean, its presenting it as I stated. Even in Linus's video they are sure to compare it to low end CPUs. See what's going on here? The cinebench scores are only marginal compared to a Ryzen 5 5600....

M1 is going to handle specific tasks it expects but it literally doesn't have enough fast cores to really compare to current workstation CPUs.... By leaps and bounds.

Ryzen 5 5600 is only slightly better than my Ryzen 5 2600, and its terrible for Terragen. Especially if you want to PT. Ryzen 5 in general is low to mid range.

[Kevin Kipper]

We've received feedback from several users indicating that Terragen 4 does run on the Apple M1, including an entry in the Terragen 4 Benchmarks Results on 02/15/21 with a render time of 0:12:14.

It would be great to hear from more users about their experiences using Terragen 4 on the Apple M1.  You can download the Terragen 4 benchmark project and also submit your render results here:  https://planetside.co.uk/terragen-4-benchmark/

[WAS]

including an entry in the Terragen 4 Benchmarks Results on 02/15/21 with a render time of 0:12:14.

As expected. Slightly faster then my CPU (and I can't even do large populations of sprawling scenes, even with 32gb or RAM cause the GUI gets so slow trying to process everything on the CPU I get constant CTD; a single settings change causing the client to gray out and go unresponsive for moments, or just locking up in general with every click/change)

I do have to say the benchmark should be updated to include more commonly used settings, like a stream up close, and wet shores, focal areas of a lot of renders. Benchmark is pretty fast for sure, and not representative of most scenes rendered imo (render time wise or features on screen in focal). There isn't even any low level detail, all the terrain is far enough to be modulated quality wise by distance from cache/div settings.

[Nala1977]

i just upgraded to amd 5950x and this cpu is a monster..

[WAS]

I'd get it (if I could), but I'm not sure if it's compatible with my board. I know the 3950x is. My manufacturer hasn't updated the list on support since 3950x so I think it's the EOL for it.

I was going to get a whole new computer, and a GPU, to upgrade the GPU in this one, and use the other for rendering, and this one for gaming. But prices went through the roof and extinguished any hope there. Lol