Late 2012 Mac Mini or Current

[Inspector John]

It probably couldn’t. In theory you could add an eGPU, but the massive hike in energy consumption contradicts the idea of a small machine that could run 24/7 and still only sip on power ...

Can you help me out on this one? I have a late 2012 with fusion 2x SSD and it's still an awesome machine so I'm considering the 38wk95c. Could it achieve the full resolution using switchres?

thanks,
Miguel

 

[MRrainer]

There little point in using an eGPU on a 2012. The bandwidth is limited (TB1) and the OS doesn't really support eGPUs on that hardware anyway, AFAIK.

Save the money towards a 2018 model - and saving you need

 

[Neodym]

I would agree. For the 2012 the 38wk95 is probably overkill and you’d need to jump through hoops to make it work (if possible at all). Not to forget the 38 is USB-C, so you’d need to figure in the cost for an adapter as well on the 2012 (unless you’d want to block the only TB port on the 2012 with a direct DP connection).

So I’d either go for the 34” and stay with 3440x1440 - which is already impressive on its own and costs significantly less than the 3840x1600 - or indeed go for the 2018 mini to accompany the big monitor. However, THAT would be a significant investment, with both mini & monitor replaced at the same time ...