Does 6-core i7 Mac Mini + BlackMagic eGPU still make sense?

[vett93]

After upgrading Lightroom to its latest version, I've found my 2013 Mac Pro too slow. It is even sluggish to apply, say, a gradient filter. So I am thinking to replace it with a Mac Mini with BlackMagic eGPU. I think the new M1 chip is great. But it may need a few years to stablize.

I am an Machine Learning/AI software developer. Most of my ML/AI work is done in AWS/Azure/GCP. So I need a responsive browser (Chrome or Safari). Photography is my hobby. I don't do video. But I have quit a few photography post processing software programs. I want to have a quiet machine. That is a key reason I want to stay with Mac.

I am thinking to get an i7 Mac Mini with 8GB of RAM and get Crucial or OWC 64GB RAM kit. For storage, I'll get 1TB or 2TB built-in SSD in the Mac Mini.

Currently, my Mac Pro has 3 4K monitors and 1 HD monitor. In the regular work mode, I use the 32" 4K monitor. When I do video conferencing, I'll turn on the HD monitor and move some tools to the HD monitor. When I do photography processing, I'll turn on the 43" 4K monitor as the 2nd monitor for Lightroom. I also have a 27" 4K monitor on a stand desk. When I want to stand up and work, I turn on this 27" 4K monitor and mirror it to the 32" 4K monitor.

Will I be happy with the 6-core i7 Mac Mini with BlackMagic eGPU?

 

[Stephen.R]

I don't know the specifics of what resources Lightroom uses most. In terms of GPU it *seems* like the Rx580 will be about triple the flops of a single D300, so maybe ~1.5x the pair of them, assuming Lightroom can use both?

CPU wise, I can't tell what you have now - there is no 10-core 2013 Mac Pro, AFAIK, so I don't know for sure what to compare against, but compared with the 8-core (which is 3GHz), it seems like trading a bit of multi-proc performance for a bit of single-proc performance.

 

[mdgm]

The SSD in the Mac Mini is soldered on so make sure you spec it out to what you need/want when you get it. Though you can get great performance with TB3 NVMe drives if you need more storage or would rather boot off an external.

 

[Stephen.R]

The SSD in the Mac Mini is soldered on so make sure you spec it out to what you need/want when you get it. Though you can get great performance with TB3 NVMe drives if you need more storage or would rather boot off an external.

This is definitely a good point to keep in mind, and they get faster as the size increases (quite dramatically).

 

[CC88]

I don't know the specifics of what resources Lightroom uses most. In terms of GPU it *seems* like the Rx580 will be about triple the flops of a single D300, so maybe ~1.5x the pair of them, assuming Lightroom can use both?

No. Lightroom is not able to use both GPU. I think the only software that can handle both is Davinci Studio.

 

[CC88]

After upgrading Lightroom to its latest version, I've found my 2013 Mac Pro too slow. It is even sluggish to apply, say, a gradient filter. So I am thinking to replace it with a Mac Mini with BlackMagic eGPU. I think the new M1 chip is great. But it may need a few years to stablize.

I am an Machine Learning/AI software developer. Most of my ML/AI work is done in AWS/Azure/GCP. So I need a responsive browser (Chrome or Safari). Photography is my hobby. I don't do video. But I have quit a few photography post processing software programs. I want to have a quiet machine. That is a key reason I want to stay with Mac.

I am thinking to get an i7 Mac Mini with 8GB of RAM and get Crucial or OWC 64GB RAM kit. For storage, I'll get 1TB or 2TB built-in SSD in the Mac Mini.

Currently, my Mac Pro has 3 4K monitors and 1 HD monitor. In the regular work mode, I use the 32" 4K monitor. When I do video conferencing, I'll turn on the HD monitor and move some tools to the HD monitor. When I do photography processing, I'll turn on the 43" 4K monitor as the 2nd monitor for Lightroom. I also have a 27" 4K monitor on a stand desk. When I want to stand up and work, I turn on this 27" 4K monitor and mirror it to the 32" 4K monitor.

Will I be happy with the 6-core i7 Mac Mini with BlackMagic eGPU?

I owned a MP 6.1 12core, 64gb of ram and dual D700 in the past. Due to the ARM revolution I sold my macpro for a great value and went for an i5 Macmini with 64gb of ram + Razer Core X and Vega56 GPU waiting an Mx machine (maybe a space gray Macmini with 4 thunderbolts and eGPU support).

I work in LR, Photoshop, FCP, Blender and Modo. I own only a 32" monitor.

The mini is blazing fast than my 12 core Macpro. It beat it in all the software I use (thanks to the eGPU also in FCP).

The only downside is the rendering time in Modo. Modo uses only the CPU for his internal rendering and the 12 core was faster.

For all my work I prefer my mini with eGPU than my previous MP 6.1 maxed out. The 50% increase in single core performance is noticeable. The -27% in multithread is less noticeable to me.

I'm not sure how it will perform with a multi monitor setup but I think the eGPU can support multiple monitor with no problem at all.

Have you already considered the new M1 macmini? It has triple your MP single core value and also some more points in multi thread. The above mini is not as silence as a MP 6.1 or a M1 one. When I import hundreds of file in LR the fan start and also when I start a preview rendering in Modo. Also consider the eGPU case and GPU fans (when I work hard in FCP the Vega56 start the fan and so the noise - not too much in my opinion, but I also have two thunderbolt raid etc around).

 

[MarkC426]

Something I noticed the other day:
On the Apple page for intel Mac mini, they have removed any mention of eGPU support (this was previously listed), whether newer versions of MacOS are not going to support it......?

Also in contradiction to the M1 specs, the BMD eGPU Apple sell suggests it works with any Mac with TB3 (Including 2018/2020 Mac mini).
Also mentioned for 2018 mini is Ram is not user replaceable.

 

[Steamers]

RAM for 2018 Mac mini IS user replaceable. I ran an eGPU and hated it. Without regard to Apple's claimed support it is figgety at best. There are frequent headaches in keeping it working. I would wait for the inevitable Mini upgrade of the M1 if the GPU it presently contains isn't sufficient. I have found a vast improvement above the Intel630 and I would expect the next iteration to be impressive.

 

[brandair]

I replaced my hardly utilized and noisy Akitio Node TB3 & RX580 with a Blackmagic eGPU RX580. Perfect fit for the Mac Mini 2018 Mojave in terms of silence, reliability, and design. It's basically whisper silent. Performance is good, too, but would of course prefer the Pro model with Vega. For the Mac Mini 2018, everything has been said already. Great machine and super fast for most needs.

 

[jelliottlein]

There's a comparison video by MaxTech that recommends the M1 over the i7+eGPU. I have an 2018 i7 Mac Mini with 32gb ram (no eGPU) that I bought refurb/new last summer, and it's good but not brilliant partly because it does get noisy in rendering video which apparently is no comparison to the noise of an eGPU (and yes, RAM is "user accessible" but after I watched the instructions on how to do it, I opted to pay B&H Photo to add the RAM when purchased). Now that the M1 is so much faster, I would definitely order the M1 with 16gb and skip the eGPU if I was in your shoes.

Video:

 

[MarkC426]

Very interesting video..... 👍

 

[brandair]

Apple's M1 chip performance is super impressive, indeed, especially on the graphics side. Reminds me of the performance difference back in old times when switching from a Macintosh 7300 to the Power Macintosh G3. It was about 7x times faster and came with a 4GB harddisk, LOL. And the M1 will likely pale in comparison to what Apple is currently developing for the next Mac Pro. So of course, for many users the M1 Mac Mini is an easy choice for the money.

But for those who still rely on specific 32-bit apps, or require fine-tuned Web/UNIX development setups, etc., the M1 is currently not an option. At least until you can run VM's without restrictions natively. Also, you have to run all your 64-bit Intel apps via Rosetta 2, which Apple might support for 1-2 years from today on and then phase out like in the past. A majority of Intel apps will have to be repurchased or upgraded sooner or later to get native ARM versions. Depending on which software you use this can get quite costly.

I'm curious how Apple will price their future Mac Pro line and sort of pity the buyers of the current MP models, given the steep prices for modest performance gains.

 

[vett93]

Thanks all for the info. The M1 Mac Mini does look interesting. Maybe I'll get one and see how it works in my environment first. For my current Mac Pro 6,1, it came with a 4-core CPU but I upgraded the CPU a year ago. Its performance is as follows.