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GPU better than the HD 6630M in next refresh?

E

earwax69

macrumors member
Original poster
May 7, 2012
71
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The next mini refresh will upgrade the HD 3000 to a HD 4000. Fine. But do you think Apple with upgrade the 6630m for something better?

I want a mac mini but I'm in no hurry and can wait the refresh. Hopefuly it's not going to be in 6 months... I'll wait the WWDC in any case.

thanks
 
earwax69 said:
The next mini refresh will upgrade the HD 3000 to a HD 4000. Fine. But do you think Apple with upgrade the 6630m for something better?

I want a mac mini but I'm in no hurry and can wait the refresh. Hopefuly it's not going to be in 6 months... I'll wait the WWDC in any case.

thanks
Click to expand...

THEY will be a lot better the 4000 will be a nice improvement and they will up the gpu for the discrete . As to the wait. july or aug at best. oct at worst.

(just a guess on the update timing)
 
Updating in time for WWDC would make sense, I guess.

As for the GPU, there are just two real options, which are faster and nearly as power efficient as the 6630M: the AMD Radeon HD7750M or the NVidia GeForce GT 640M.

Both are nice upgrades. The first offers about 30% more power, the second nearly 60% more power than the HD6630M, and both come with more GDDR5 VRAM, so we may well see 512MB or even 1 GB VRAM. As for size and power usage, the 640M seems a lot better, but then again, Apple prefers AMD chips currently and the 7750M is cheaper (around 100 USD).
 
earwax69 said:
The next mini refresh will upgrade the HD 3000 to a HD 4000. Fine. But do you think Apple with upgrade the 6630m for something better?

I want a mac mini but I'm in no hurry and can wait the refresh. Hopefuly it's not going to be in 6 months... I'll wait the WWDC in any case.

thanks
Click to expand...

Assuming that Apple makes another Intel Mac with a Discrete GPU, they will almost certainly have to put a faster GPU in than the 6630m. The HD4000 is supposed to be dramatically better than the HD3000 so the benefits of a 6630M over the HD4000 will be almost negligible (so why would anyone by the mid-mini then?). Again, this all assumes that Apple makes another Intel Mac Mini with a discrete GPU. The current mid-mini was the first Intel Mac to have a discrete GPU, so it's hard to say if that trend will continue or not (I assume it will, but with Apple anything is possible!).
 
Does it matter to me?

I use my mini to play DVDs; ripped DVDs; streaming video through Amazon or Netflix; and normal web surfing. I don't play games or do other graphics-intensive projects. When I upgrade, should I bother with the discrete GPU? Perhaps this isn't the best thread for this question, but ....
 
sbk1799 said:
I use my mini to play DVDs; ripped DVDs; streaming video through Amazon or Netflix; and normal web surfing. I don't play games or do other graphics-intensive projects. When I upgrade, should I bother with the discrete GPU? Perhaps this isn't the best thread for this question, but ....
Click to expand...

Not really. The HD3000 is more than fast enough for everything you might want to consume. It's about as fast as the 9400M I use in my MBP all the time when I'm not playing games, so you shouldn't have a problem.
 
Lance-AR said:
Only if you want the extra thunderbolt display.
Click to expand...

This... Although the reason I will be upgrading to the Mid-Mini w/ discrete GPU is that I can't run 1080P monitors with my current base mini and if I had gone with the Mid, I would be able to. Although I have seen rumors that the HD4000 will allow for more monitors to be used with it than the HD3000 so it may not be a requirement for me in the next revision after all (all depends on what Apple allows us to do).
 
Thanks for all your replies. Very appreciated. If they update the video memory it will be worth a wait. 256mb in 2012 is a real pain. I'll wait a bit.

Here Skyrim at low+tweeks on the 6630m... not really playable as you can see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn2pnAS_88E

Of course I dont buy the mini to play game but I guess my kids would like a bit of playing on the TV and a better gpu will certainly help.

I am getting this mini to test is OS X is really worth it. If it make my life easier with my work. I will try Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Logic Pro Knowing of course that it is sub-par hardware. It's more to see if the workflow is better than on windows. Then I will put the mini in the living room as an internet/movie station.

What would be best for couch control? the magic trackpad?
 
I suspect that the HD4000 may be the only option. It is good enough for casual gaming, and the mini is not intended to be a high end gaming machine.


edit:
If you buy an input device, get a trackpad. OS X makes good use of them and the apple trackpads are awesome. it will work with any PC mouse you have laying around also.
 
If it was a redesign I believe they could put out dicrete gpu completly but it's going to be a simple refresh no?

mmm... but yeah, they might put it out completely. That's rather annoying!

the HD 4000 is still 30% less good than the current 6630m.
 
Damn, there's a deal on Kakaku.com and I could buy the 2.5ghz/6630m for 570$. I think I am going to do just that!!

EDIT: ordered it for 569$... Got a new question:

I just notcied that the display adapter that come with the mini is a HDMI to DVI cable. I thought it was a displayport to DVI at first. I got a dell ultrasharp that have a native 1600x1200 resolution. HDMI to DVI mean that the maximum will be 1920x1080???
 
Last edited:
earwax69 said:
Damn, there's a deal on Kakaku.com and I could buy the 2.5ghz/6630m for 570$. I think I am going to do just that!!

EDIT: ordered it for 569$... Got a new question:

I just notcied that the display adapter that come with the mini is a HDMI to DVI cable. I thought it was a displayport to DVI at first. I got a dell ultrasharp that have a native 1600x1200 resolution. HDMI to DVI mean that the maximum will be 1920x1080???
Click to expand...

Probably a good decision if you don't need heavy duty video editing or gaming.

As for single link DVI, the maximum resolution is 1920x1200 (HDMI supports even higher), so you're fine. And be happy it's HDMI to DVI, so you save the Thunderbolt Port for something special. ;)
 
I do use After Effects a lot however it does not use the gpu so much. I plan to try FCP X though...

For editing I though I could get a thunderbolt external HDD in the future but they are not out yet... my 5200rpm 500gb is clearly the bottleneck for HD footage.

As for gaming, I cant wait to try the mini on my hdtv. I got a GTX 285 on my workstation but my big 30inch monitor is just too huge for gaming. Im sure Diablo 3 at low/medium settings will be lovely on the mini in the living room!
 
Poki said:
Not really. The HD3000 is more than fast enough for everything you might want to consume.
Click to expand...

I am not too impressed with its ability to drive the Thunderbolt display to be honest. 2560x1440 pixels seems to be a bit of a challenge with some of the OSX animations a bit too clunky. It's not *terrible*, but it is far from lovely.

HD4000 will probably be OK though, because I would say HD3000 on the TBD is borderline.
 
earwax69 said:
For editing I though I could get a thunderbolt external HDD in the future but they are not out yet...
Click to expand...

What?!?! Holy 2011 Batman, Thunderbolt external drives have been out for quite some time. Pegasus, Little Big Disk, El Gato, Seagate, Western Digital... All have some form of thunderbolt external drive in both SSD and Mechanical.
 
Really? Ive just search amazon.jp and could not find any. I'll do another try. Thanks.
 
Haaaa I see!

Yeah, that look like a winner for video editing! EVen with the high price, it will make sens if I got a big HD project that include a lot of footage.

thanks for the link. I guess by next year we will see more of this + external GPU!!
 
Got my mini! It's a looker. Larger than I though but less high. Could use it as a under plate warmer!
 
earwax69 said:
Thanks for all your replies. Very appreciated. If they update the video memory it will be worth a wait. 256mb in 2012 is a real pain. I'll wait a bit.

Here Skyrim at low+tweeks on the 6630m... not really playable as you can see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn2pnAS_88E
Click to expand...

I don't know what they did to make it look like that, but I can assure you that with my view distances set to max, and all of my settings on medium or high, FXAA checked, and a metric ton of mods, Skyrim is quite playable on a 6630m, even if you have Visual Studio + Emulators running.

I know this because I am doing it right now.
 
At 1920x1080??

I saw footage of Modern Warfare that looked way better than this. I think the FRAP apps caused the framedrops. This is good news indeed and I'm glad I went with the 2.5ghz model. I'll test it when Diablo 3 is out.
 
earwax69 said:
thanks for the link. I guess by next year we will see more of this + external GPU!!
Click to expand...

External GPU would be nice for gaming,and would probably help a little with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Affects. I'm really hoping the next Mini is out by June/July.

I love my Thunderbolt display,but I would like to see more use for Thunderbolt other than just an external HDD.
 
Well the new MacBook Pros are converting to Nvidia GPU's so I would say that to strike a better deal with Nvidia that they will buy more GPU's for other devices as well. Just like they struck a great deal with retina displays first with the iPad then with all there new products this summer. The more you buy the cheaper it gets. And on top of that the HD4000 would compete to close to the AMD 6630m and there would be less incentive to purchase the higher model. So they will most likely bump both up as todays movies, games, apps, etc require much stronger hardware. Especially since we will start seeing much more 1080p and higher content. :cool:
 
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