Switching with new Mac machines back to Windows.

There are very few task I think you would notice the difference on. AC13 is as fast as I am, for all practical purposes, but I'm old:) I don't do major renderings, so I can't imagine I really could/would know it if AC13 were 32 or 64. It's fast period.

Andy wrote:
/....My question is just technical.

Andy, stay with Mac. Just updated to Snow Leo and
I am truly amazed at the difference to Leo.
The ease and swiftness of this quite painless update is so sweet.
The difference between OS versions in AC is so quick now in both 12 and 13.
Will I notice a difference when  goes 64 bit, well I don't really know.

As someone else asked, how fast is fast?
SL is fast, and I do not have an 8 core box, yet.
I left the "dark side" many years back, and my best decision.

Many thanks 

Andy wrote:
is it fair to expect from Graphisoft to split limited resources to develop AC on two platforms or simply make the best possible BIM on one, we all know which one, platform. The fact is that in previous version of AC we waited only few weeks for Mac releases, not few years like now, feeds my skepticism and I can imagine that all new tools and functions will be written in 64 environment and not so easily ported to OS X.

The reason for the delayed 64-bit version on the Mac has little to do with resources. The major reason is that moving to 64-bit on the Mac also necessitates embracing Cocoa (an Objective-C based framework used extensively on current Mac and iPhone development).

Applications older than Mac OS X have previously relied on a transitional technology called Carbon, which helped make the transition from OS 9 to OS X less painful. But Apple abruptly announced that 64-bit Carbon was unsupported, forcing all developers to move to Cocoa to make the leap to 64-bit apps. This means extensive reworking of the UI coding, and possibly for other sections (I/O, resources, etc). This should make ArchiCAD much better on the Mac in the long run, but is painful for developers in the interim.

Conversely, the move to 64-bit on Windows was purely a matter of ensuring data structures etc behaved consistently. Still a significant workload, but not entailing a platform shift as well.

As one of the people who has whinged most about Graphisoft's adoption of/adaption to OS X developments I can still safely say hell would freeze over before i considered switching back to Windows

The issue i have had has really been based mostly the future of AC, not any performance issues to date - although on occasion i would be one of those 1 in 1000 Karl is refering to (i was working on an 8GB Mac Pro which is why the RAM limit was frustrating). I agree that the vast majority would see no benefit from a 64bit AC on Mac today (32bit Windows is different as the limit is 2GB/3GB).

The future is of course a different matter. Having no practical limit on necessary RAM for ArchiCAD models and functions would really open up some possibilities for AC IMO. This is where my concern lies - what does it mean if the Mac version is still 1-2 versions away from being 64bit.

But for the moment it is really not an issue.

As for other applications where 64bit would show benefits - rendering and image manipulation - most Mac applications are already there or will be soon. Maxon have done a great job with Cinema4D which has been only a half-step behind OS X in this process. It is now a fully 64bit Cocoa app and really, really benefits from as much RAM as you can throw at it. No more huge scenes crashing due to RAM limits. Adobe found themselves in a similar position to Graphisoft when Apple pulled the 64bit-Carbon rug out from under them. Faced with a huge pre-OSX codebase they had relied on Carbon and were never going to get a Cocoa rewrite for CS4 out the door. However they have said CS5 will be 64bit on the Mac - quite an achievement i think given the number of applications involved. If only Graphisoft had a fraction of the resources of Adobe.

Just (dont) do it!

P.S .. Dalmatian Coast is truly beautiful isn't it. I spent 3 weeks making my way down it last year and it really was one of the most relaxing places i have ever been to. The water .... Enjoy it and don't worry about this stuff

obviously no-one here will agree that you should change back to Windows so I won't even try to convince you(you should), but if you do, make it Windows 7 64-bit.

It's very fast, very stable, and very pretty. I've been using it for the last 4 months or so and I haven't had a single crash or freeze yet.

the interface is a joy to use and hardware compatibility is very good(the only thing I can't connect is my 8 year old Palm so I have to use the free XP Mode feature to sync it).