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Gargiulo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 6, 2022
2
0
I'm ready to upgrade my Late 2014 MacMini to either a 2018 Intel or a 2022 M1 (hopefully sooner than later). Now, I'm guessing it's a no-brainer—wait for the new M1's. But if anyone has any info to refute or persuade, please let me know. I'm a creative that uses the big Adobe Creative Suite apps: InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom, After Effects and Premiere...sometimes all at the same time!
 

magbarn

macrumors 68040
Oct 25, 2008
3,034
2,397
M1 is a no brainer unless you need to do a dGPU via TB3 or really need bootcamp. Apple is basically abandoning Intel at this point.
 

mcnallym

macrumors 65816
Oct 28, 2008
1,211
939
Only after effects not currently native M1 and that in beta.
Coming from a 2014 then even the current M1 mini will big leap forward

2014 only supported 16gb so unless hitting memory li it already then that shouldn’t be an issue.

So 2022 mini should be absolutely fine for you.
 

wilberforce

macrumors 68030
Aug 15, 2020
2,932
3,211
SF Bay Area
I'm ready to upgrade my Late 2014 MacMini to either a 2018 Intel or a 2022 M1 (hopefully sooner than later). Now, I'm guessing it's a no-brainer—wait for the new M1's. But if anyone has any info to refute or persuade, please let me know. I'm a creative that uses the big Adobe Creative Suite apps: InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom, After Effects and Premiere...sometimes all at the same time!
I have discovered that some Adobe apps (LR, PS) are memory hogs on M1, more so than on Intel. Keep that in mind when you upgrade.
 

pshufd

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2013
10,155
14,579
New Hampshire
How about a 2020 iMac 27? Stronger CPUs than the mini and discrete graphics and easy to upgrade RAM. These are starting to show up in the used market ahead of the rumored Apple Silicon launch.
 

wilberforce

macrumors 68030
Aug 15, 2020
2,932
3,211
SF Bay Area
Memory leak issue?
No, no memory leak, repeatable after restarting, does not increase with time. Could be poor implementation by Adobe, but nothing we can do about that, other than beg Adobe. It appears to be extra memory required for Adobe's GPU acceleration on M1 (which instead uses separate VRAM on an Intel machine). If you disable the GPU acceleration in LR and PS, the memory usage on M1 is about the same as on Intel. But disabling GPU acceleration makes for laggy and choppy response, so is not a solution.
 
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wilberforce

macrumors 68030
Aug 15, 2020
2,932
3,211
SF Bay Area
How about a 2020 iMac 27? Stronger CPUs than the mini and discrete graphics and easy to upgrade RAM. These are starting to show up in the used market ahead of the rumored Apple Silicon launch.
Yes, I still prefer my 2020 27" iMac to my 14" M1 Pro for LR and PS work. Relatively cheap and easy to upgrade to 32 or 64GB RAM.
5k screen is great. Get i7 minimum.
Then again, M1 update of 27" iMac is expected this year.
 
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pshufd

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2013
10,155
14,579
New Hampshire
Yes, I still prefer my 2020 27" iMac to my 14" M1 Pro for LR and PS work. Relatively cheap and easy to upgrade to 32 or 64GB RAM.
5k screen is great. Get i7 minimum.
Then again, M1 update of 27" iMac is expected this year.

If you need something now to generate revenue, then the 2020 27" iMac is a good option. There is a lot of liquidity in these things too and I subscribe to having a backup system.
 

satcomer

Suspended
Feb 19, 2008
9,115
1,977
The Finger Lakes Region
I am not traveling but I have a home NAS set up. There's just no access from the outside world though. It would be something to look into though.

Find the smart nat App Store and look for a VPN sever app in your Smart NAS and turn it on when you go out with your smart phone if you keep your music collection on smart NAS! This way you could turn your Smart phone VPN on not play all your music in the coffee shop or school!
 
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