High End Mac for 3d CGI and Rendering using Sidefx Houdini 3d Coat and DAZ Studio

[hoypolloy]

hey man, so how is Houdini working? how's the experience, viewport? for me it's buggy with nVidia on 10.13 and also no openCL, Vellum can work only on cpu. Does it work for you?

 

[osiyostudio]

Houdini 18 and 18.5 are running great - using dual monitors and running AMD Radeon Nitro+ RX 5700 XT 8GB
over clocked cpu 5.1 very few issues and really enjoying it. also using otoy Octane stand alone PR3 2 thumbs up!
...adding 5900 when it comes out!

running 10.15.7 takes full advantage go GPU

 

[louiefriesen]

hey man, so how is Houdini working? how's the experience, viewport? for me it's buggy with nVidia on 10.13 and also no openCL, Vellum can work only on cpu. Does it work for you?

You should probably upgrade to an AMD GPU, as it runs much better in macOS.

Houdini 18 and 18.5 are running great - using dual monitors and running AMD Radeon Nitro+ RX 5700 XT 8GB
over clocked cpu 5.1 very few issues and really enjoying it. also using otoy Octane stand alone PR3 2 thumbs up!
...adding 5900 when it comes out!

running 10.15.7 takes full advantage go GPU

I'm guessing you mean 6900 XT.

 

[osiyostudio]

Correct

 

[osiyostudio]

louiefriesen is a genius! he can help you out - his help was invaluable in getting the equipment and setting it up!​

 

[hoypolloy]

thanks guys!!
Yes, I'm on a crossroad now with the GPU upgrade path, as many in CGI field are now. I use Redshift, and it's been working very nice on High Sierra with 2x1080ti, faster than on windows lol. But Houdini is less nice with these cards. OpenCL doesn't work (Vellum can only run on CPU). And I heard people are having issues with that in Catalina as well, so that's why I'm checking this point.
Can you tell if new H18.5 GPU minimal Pyro solver works "realtime" and as good as it should with Mac? And of course if Vellum runs fine with GPU? (I had to force OpenCL to CPU in order to make it work).

 

[osiyostudio]

right now I'm using flip fluids and it works fine. I will try Vellum & minimal Pyro solver later this week