Why is my iPhone 12 faster than my Workstation M1 Ultra Mac?

nick_papageorge073

The graphics are flawless on my now old iPhone 12 Mini (not the pro model). Spinning and zooming is instant. And it seems graphics loading time is also faster. All the physical computers I've tried, including linux machines set up for AI with 3080 Ti GPU's, and my main machine an M1 Ultra with a lot of GPU cores and 64GB of shared memory, are noticeably slower on the graphics redraw time, and the responsiveness of spinning things around. Especially for assemblies with pcba's. Why is this?

S1mon

It could be that your desktop browsers are not set to use the correct GPU settings. Try running the check:
https://cad.onshape.com/check

On that page is a link to further graphics debugging:
https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/webgl.htm?cshid=webgl

nick_papageorge073

@S1mon My computer maxes out those GPU tests, and I have the hardware acceleration turned on for all my browsers. Have you tried opening your biggest assemblies in the iPhone or iPad iOS app? For me, it's much more responsive. It's not slow on my computer by any means, but it's noticeably more responsive on the iPhone. That's what is surprising to me. Maybe there are special optimizations made for the iOS app? I don't know.

S1mon

@nick_papageorge073
Yes. I have opened the most complex things on both. iOS does feel pretty smooth for spinning stuff around etc. However there are way too many things that just can't be done on the browser. Cross sections are next to impossible. I see it more as an emergency tool. I should spend some more time with the mobile version now that the iPad version has been improved, or possibly try running the iPad app on my M1 mac.

nick_papageorge073

Oh I agree completely. I can’t use the app for real work. I’ve been putting off doing training on it as I like using a full computer. My main point was “why” does the graphics feel faster. There must be something going on under the hood that can be implemented on ios but not on a web browser. 

john_mcclary

My m1 mac seems to do ok. 
It's nothing like my pc with descrete graphics, but that's to be expected. 

I had an iPhone for a couple weeks and it was pretty fast. You should try using it on an android. Holy crap! It may take you 20minutes to attempt a zoom in. Even on small models. I'm sure Onshape devs really don't give an F about Android. Since most updates and features are on ios, and Android has way too many varieties 

john_mcclary

See, it only took a few seconds of attempts to zoom in, it worked a couple times, but it's so choppy the app thinks I'm holding pinch to zoom then attempts a window selection. Then freezes completely.. 

NeilCooke

The Metal graphics engine on iOS is rather good - another reason why we use an app, rather than mobile web browser.

nick_papageorge073

Ah, so is the iOS app using Metal, whereas the desktop browser app on a Mac uses OpenCL? Or something like that (I probably have the computing terms confused).

If we were able to side load the iOS app onto an M1 or M2 Mac, would it be just as fluid as the iOS app, since the Mac has Metal also and the same chips now?

Thanks.

S1mon

I wondered the same thing, but it seems that the iPad version of Onshape isn't in the App Store for Apple Silicon Macs.

☹️

nick_papageorge073

S1mon said:

I wondered the same thing, but it seems that the iPad version of Onshape isn't in the App Store for Apple Silicon Macs.

☹️

When the Apple silicon for Mac chip was in developer beta (and possibly the very first few months after release), anyone could load any ios app onto macOS. Apple quickly blocked that so only if the developer offered a MacOS version of their ios app could it be done. 

That might have the potential to be the most graphically powerful desktop cad system if it were enabled. 

I suppose the downside is it may lose its platform independent browser based concept. 

john_mcclary

well, apple needs a way to force obsolescence so you can buy the next version next year... 

S1mon

Even if you can run an iPad app on MacOS, there are likely to be things that don't work well unless the developer spends time to update the app. It's a little like how when the iPad first came out, many apps were only available as scaled up iPhone apps. The aspect ratio, resolution and other details were not optimized to be on both iPhones and iPads. The two platforms have become distinct enough to become iOS and iPadOS.

In the App Store, there are very specific ways to say which platforms an app is designed to run on. If a developer mistakenly allows their app to be downloaded an run on a platform on which it wasn't designed/tested, they can end up with a bunch of bad reviews and they can't disallow future downloads on that unsupported platform without de-listing the current app and making a new listing (loosing their star ratings and app store rankings).

So it's very important to app developers to carefully choose which platforms they will support.

All that said, I would love to be able to test out the iPad app on my Mac.