It would be nice, to see authentic official Octanebenchmarks for Intel Multi GPU (Dual), M1, M2 ultra etc. Macs in direct comparison.As already established by Otoy via NVIDIA PC octane benchmarks. Even better: compare WIN PC/Nvidias to Apple/AMD and to Apple/Silicon.
Spoiler:
I doubt, that M2 Ultra brings Octane to an acceptable performance for Pros. Not even compared to Apple Intel/AMDs. Despite PC/Nvidia.
ComparisonWe compared rendertimes of the identical 2GB VRAM Scene with same R25 C4D and identical Octane Version (PR14), PMC on Monterey:
Mac Pro Intel/128 GB/ 2x Dual AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo 32 GB plus 2 x AMD Radeon PRO W6800(one integrated, one via TB Link)
7 Minutes per FrameAND
MacBook Pro M1 Ultra 64 GB
2 hours ! per frameThat showed us, that Apple Silicon – again is far behind professional demands regarding Offline Rendering Tools like Octane or Redshift.
Even with triple octane/silicon render performance, with M2 ultra (76 gpu cores) you do net even get close to that, what our Multi AMD GPU (each with 24000 cores!!) Intel MacPros would be able to fulflll, not mentioned the MultiGPU NVIDIA 4090 powerhouses within our render cubes.
Yes, M2 Ultra is a powerful 5nm made CPU. But Octane needs traditionally
GPU power:
In Geekbench, the gpu performance of M2 ultra is reported equally to a single lowend NVIDIA 4060ti.
This performance again is nearly similar to a 1080ti from 2017!
check:
https://gagadget.com/en/258869-the-appl ... ore-power/
But making the bad even worse: By eliminating performative AMD GPU Support (no longer supported in future Otoys Octane 202x releases) even the new MacPro 2023 with several PCIe Slots is now useless for professional octane, because consequently MultiGPU architectures are not supported by Apple anymore.
Instead of triple-boosting the octane performance as advertised by Apple, for 3D MultGPU AMD Mac Pro Octane Users its in fact a substantial backstep. It only boosts up compared to silicon predecessors – but not to former Intel/AMD based Apple Multi GPU Systems. It would be nice to see Apples Octane 3D GPU performance comparision between MacPro 2019 Double MPX Moduled and new Flagship MacPro 2023. At least to proove me wrong.
Constructive Advice we will test, if Mac Studio (9000 USD plus X invest for maximal core!!!) will at least pass low pre-edting/construction demands.
For offline production rendering we will transfer and continuously use our PC/Win Octane Renderfarm or try to integrate via the Octane 2023 networking clients.
Perspective:Apple just entered the VR goggles market ... We think, that they are focusing on realtime rendering via Unitiy, with far less hardware gpu demands. Both, Unitiy and Unreal (native support Silicon) are already established and maybe Otoys brigade can somehow, sometime catch up, lateron.
Conclusion After 15 years Mac / octane fanbase: Apple is a nice intuitive 2d/AV platform. Its true, that After FX / Final Cut performs 50x faster, BUT especially using Octane seriously in production environment:
If you go 3D Pro: don't buy MacPro (silicon).
Sadly.
Anyway. its honorable, that Octane is still aviable for Mac.Therefor thanks to Otoy. (keep support for intel Macs!!!)
p.s.
This is, to what M2 ultra MacPro 2023 needs to catch up to, Octane-performance-wise: