Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Capture One laggy on Mac Mini 2018?!

G

gnohz

macrumors member
Original poster
May 4, 2019
45
21
My Mac Mini specs: i7 3.2GHz, 32GB RAM, 500GB SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 630

I have read in reviews that Capture One is speedier than Lightroom in several areas. My experience has been surprisingly different.

There's a noticeable lag when using sliders during editing such as Exposure, White Balance, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows etc.

And during browsing, despite rendering previews (3840px) larger than the photo sizes, they appear blurred at first it takes 1-3 secs before they are rendered sharp.

My display is 4K but my Capture One window is resized to half of my screen size.
Are these observations normal?

For reference, I only imported 8 Nikon D850 RAW files into a new catalog. Tested with hardware acceleration off and on.
 
It’s due to the anemic iGPU in the Mac mini.

I had the same issue. eGPU fixed it.
forums.macrumors.com

Capture One 20 slider lag

Thanks, I suspect the GPU is what is letting it down. I have a 2018 Mac mini with the LG Ultrafine 4k. The URL you provided recommended 4GB RAM.
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
LiE_ said:
It’s due to the anemic iGPU in the Mac mini.

I had the same issue. eGPU fixed it.
forums.macrumors.com

Capture One 20 slider lag

Thanks, I suspect the GPU is what is letting it down. I have a 2018 Mac mini with the LG Ultrafine 4k. The URL you provided recommended 4GB RAM.
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
Click to expand...
I sort of suspected it. However, the lag was very bad when I used catalog. Under sessions, the lag was virtually gone! Beats me why sessions is so much more responsive hmm... And seems like C1 doesn't utilise the GPU much except for exporting. In any case, I believe a GPU should solve my issues 😀
 
Last edited:
Contrary to popular belief, Capture One does not leverage the GPU all that much (seems to be reserved for specific functions like export).
Your issues are GPU related, but more as a system-wide constraint at 4K. Things improve somewhat if you upgrade a mini from the base 8GB RAM (you possibly have noticed). But there’s only so much system RAM MacOS will allocate for VRAM; and this memory is not as fast as on-board discrete VRAM.

edit: and it’s also important to note that C1 doesn’t utilize Metal in favor of deprecated OpenCL.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gnohz
whiteonline said:
Contrary to popular belief, Capture One does not leverage the GPU all that much (seems to be reserved for specific functions like export).
Your issues are GPU related, but more as a system-wide constraint at 4K. Things improve somewhat if you upgrade a mini from the base 8GB RAM (you possibly have noticed). But there’s only so much system RAM MacOS will allocate for VRAM; and this memory is not as fast as on-board discrete VRAM.

edit: and it’s also important to note that C1 doesn’t utilize Metal in favor of deprecated OpenCL.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your input! That makes a lot of sense. I guess for the system-wide constraint at 4K, an eGPU might help take the load off the system VRAM and speed things up slightly🤔 C1 doesn't seem to want to switch to Metal (maybe never lol😂)
 
Last edited:
gnohz said:
Thank you for your input! That makes a lot of sense. I guess for the system-wide constraint at 4K, an eGPU might help take the load off the system VRAM and speed things up slightly🤔 C1 doesn't seem to wait to switch to Metal (maybe never lol😂)
Click to expand...
I have an eGPU (Sonnet Breakaway Box + Sapphire Pulse 5600xt) with a TB3-only Ultrafine 5k.
The eGPU did make a big difference in overall system performance, 3D apps (I use Set.A.Light 3D at times and it was a huge difference) and Lightroom CC.
Capture One performance was improved, but not as significantly.

I’m not holding my breath for CaptureOne to embrace Metal or even support Apple Silicon any time soon. And honestly, since i dropped Fuji in favor of the Nikon Z system, Adobe CC has been amazing for my Mac mini + iPad Pro workflow. So great, it’s boring. ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: gnohz
One challenge for Apple Silicon, or at least for the current models, is that eGPUs don't work. This makes some sense since the drivers probably don't work property, as all eGPUs are using graphics cards designed for x86 machines. I don't know if Apple plans to overcome this, or maybe they will just start making their own eGPUs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gnohz
Darmok N Jalad said:
One challenge for Apple Silicon, or at least for the current models, is that eGPUs don't work. This makes some sense since the drivers probably don't work property, as all eGPUs are using graphics cards designed for x86 machines. I don't know if Apple plans to overcome this, or maybe they will just start making their own eGPUs.
Click to expand...
You're right! They just announced that the new macs don't support eGPUs. It remains to be seen if that will change for future macs.
 
I have an eGPU - Asus Vega 56, attached to my 2018 Mini. It does help with brushes and some tools in C1P and other editors. Not a great difference, but worth it.
At the time, I thought a Mini would be a better choice to replace my old iMac. The eGPU has presented issues for a lot of folks. Most seem to have been resolved through OS updates.
 
I like the idea of the eGPU, but it does seem like it could have issues from the start. GPUs like low-latency access to system resources, and when you get to really fast GPUs, it gets all the more important. Passing the signal through TB3 and then over a cable and into a box and back again adds a good deal of complexity, and GPUs are finicky enough as it is. I'm honestly surprised it works as well as it does!
 
Try this trick. Get info of the aplication C1 and select tickbox Low Resolution. This will improve the petformace with minimal picture quality loss
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back