Revit on MacBook Pro M1 Max?

A quick stream using Revit on the new MacBook Pro M1 Max with 64GB of RAM using Parallels 17. The tl;dr version: it works! And it works pretty well. Definitely works well enough to do actual work on. However, for the price, it doesn’t work THAT well. And perhaps some/most of the reason why it feels that way is because of the slight lag. The slight jitters. The stuff I’m no longer used to because it doesn’t really exist anywhere else on the MacBook M1 experience where most everything is quick and snappy and lacking beach balls.

There’s definitely room for this experience to improve. The ARM version of Windows that Parallels is using is not the final version. Parallels may get better. Microsoft may make the OS better. App developers may make their Windows programs better and more ARM-ready. And who knows, maybe even Apple will chip in and help make a more traditional Bootcamp experience something possible again.

At the end of the day, I recommend installing this workflow to your MacBook Pro if you’re a Revit user who HAS to have a Mac for whatever reason. Otherwise, I recommend being patient to see how this setup improves in the coming months (assuming it does). Or going for a less expensive Mac and installing Parallels while also maintaining a Windows machine that runs Revit with no sacrifices to your workflow (such as lack of Enscape).

Still, it’s exciting that it works at all—and works well enough to rely on if necessary!