Mac mini FUD

[F-Train]

But I just discovered i don't have a security torx 6 at home, so my cheap 32GB of RAM is on top of the mini doing nothing till i pick one up.

I don’t even have that excuse. I have the right screwdrivers, but the 32GB of RAM is still in its package. Maybe this weekend.

Interesting, though, that I’m using 8GB of RAM for things like editing RAW photos and 4K video, and playing games like X-Plane, and the world isn’t ending

 

[Ploki]

I don’t even have that excuse. I have the right drivers, but the 32GB of RAM is still in its package. Maybe this weekend.

Interesting, though, that I’m using 8GB of RAM for things like editing RAW photos and 4K video, and playing games like X-Plane, and the world isn’t ending

I know right? I'm running Logic like a champ here and even when it goes over and pages it's still manageable. Manageable enough I'm in no hurry to change it either.

 

[ElectronGuru]

Why is their this stigma surrounding Mac and games? Theirs some FUD right there..

I’ve been around long enough to remember the opposite. When the stigma surrounding Mac and games was that Macs DID do games and wintel was reserved for serious tasks.

It doesn’t matter the era, people are social beings who will always look for ways to rank ourselves. The thing to keep I’m mind is that the need to be and have better precedes the being and the having.

 

[Ploki]

I’ve been around long enough to remember the opposite. When the stigma surrounding Mac and games was that Macs DID do games and wintel was reserved for serious tasks.

It doesn’t matter the era, people are social beings who will always look for ways to rank ourselves. The thing to keep I’m mind is that the need to be and have better precedes the being and the having.

Wait what? When was Mac considered a gaming machine? In 1990s? I remember finding Prince of Persia original for Mac OS (Classic) some time ago.

 

[jerwin]

Wait what? When was Mac considered a gaming machine? In 1990s? I remember finding Prince of Persia original for Mac OS (Classic) some time ago.

The 1990s?
Soundblaster + VGA + DOS= killer game machine.

see for yourselves: http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=0&pub=0&id=500

 

[Ploki]

The 1990s?
Soundblaster + VGA + DOS= killer game machine.

see for yourselves: http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=0&pub=0&id=500

please. i had it.

 

[jerwin]

please. i had it.

There were some lovely mac games, and some great ports (at double the resolution). But the standard at the time was DOS.

 

[ElectronGuru]

Wait what? When was Mac considered a gaming machine? In 1990s?

I’ve been on Mac since System 5 in the 80s and I don’t recall the source but

1) this was the era of magazines, BBSs, and aol.

2) probably the early 90s when color was still novel.

3) it was a refrain. whoever said it was implying that Macs were frivolous. Frivolous games don’t need serious power.

 

[Ploki]

There were some lovely mac games, and some great ports (at double the resolution). But the standard at the time was DOS.

no i mean i had DOS machines.

 

[Spectrum]

The 1990s?
Soundblaster + VGA + DOS= killer game machine.

see for yourselves: http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=0&pub=0&id=500

great link!

 

[apolloa]

I think that the i5 is capable of running more modern games as well. The bootle neck would be the GPU but as you mentioned a eGPU solves this

I have a i5 * 6 cores/16GB/512Gb config.

I'm a developer, and run Xcode, visual studio Mac, IntelliJ, SublimeText, Visual Studio Code, Docker, Sql Server, Postgres, Safari, Firefox Developer Edition, Terminal with 4 long-running process (with .net, python, rust), iOS emulator, Android Emulator.... plus utils like Skype...

All at the same time.

Is fine.

------
P.D: The only complains I have with the mini: Wish storage/ram were cheaper, and a better graphic card for my ocasional games.

i7 doesnt overheat. I doubt that i5 under load will run all that cooler.


Oh nevermind then, seems that you know what you're doing.
You need some tinkering to get eGPUs working in Windows or nvidia in macos in but you should be ok

RAM is cheap.
But I just discovered i don't have a security torx 6 at home, so my cheap 32GB of RAM is on top of the mini doing nothing till i pick one up.

I used the i5 and an RX 590, which is a somewhat updated RX 580, with X-Plane 11. As you may know, X-Plane is very demanding of both CPUs and GPUs. I thought that the i5/590 handled X-Plane fine provided that I stayed clear of areas (e.g. Manhattan) that are highly detailed graphically, and therefore hard on X-Plane performance even on very strong computer systems.

For a number of reasons, unrelated to games, I now have an i7 and an RX Vega 56. The performance increase in X-Plane is noticeable, but I don’t think that I can pinpoint how much that has to do with the i7 and how much the Vega GPU.

On the question of CPU temperature, I am fine with the i7 temperatures that I’m getting, as reported by Intel’s Power Gadget. There are people who claim that the Intel/Apple engineers don’t know what they are doing and that the i7 CPUs will have a short lifespan. Personally, I have more faith in the engineers than in forum commenters, and in any event I have AppleCare+
[doublepost=1547243481][/doublepost]

An AMD external video card plus Boot Camp works fine with the mini. There is no tinkering required. See the video in post #34 above for a demonstration. This is contrary to statements on certain Apple support pages and apparently not true of Mac laptops. However, it is clear at this point that an AMD card plus Boot Camp works with the mini on a plug and play basis.

It is not currently possible to use Nvidia video cards. However, there are some posts in the last couple of pages of the eGPU thread that I mentioned earlier about statements from Nvidia support staff to the effect that Mojave support for Nvidia cards is coming.

I have a 2010 MacBook Pro and to be fair it will play Crysis in Windows, not at high settings of course, I need to replace it but I’m not paying nearly double it’s cost for a replacement which is what the new ones are! I was looking at the trash can Mac Pro but imagine next year it’s suppoet will be dropped as the cheese grater Mac has now been dropped.

So the Mini it is with an EGPU, it seems it’s easy to make an RTX work watching 9to5 Mac videos. But I have read about the i7 throttling, but it seems it doesn’t as much as I thought.. it’s something you need to look through the FUD on as if you want to keep a computer for another 8 years, you need to know if the lower spec processor would be up to the job.

 

[Ploki]

It runs at 3.5-3.6 GHz under load, that's 0.3-0.4 GHz above base frequency..

i got the i5 on the 13" because it has hyperthreading. Got the i7 on the mini because it has hyper threading

 

[apolloa]

It runs at 3.5-3.6 GHz under load, that's 0.3-0.4 GHz above base frequency..

i got the i5 on the 13" because it has hyperthreading. Got the i7 on the mini because it has hyper threading

Ah so the i5 on the Mini doesn’t have hyperthreading?

 

[Ploki]

Ah so the i5 on the Mini doesn’t have hyperthreading?

Nope, neither does the i3, only the i7.

 

[apolloa]

Nope, neither does the i3, only the i7.

Hmm thanks for that, interesting. I’ll have to see how it affects performance..

 

[stratokaster]

Wait what? When was Mac considered a gaming machine? In 1990s? I remember finding Prince of Persia original for Mac OS (Classic) some time ago.

By the way, the original Prince of Persia for Mac was (and still is) far superior to the DOS and Amiga versions.

 

[dogslobber]

The Mini 2018 could be usable for the next 10 years. In fact, this upgrade probably gives Apple a lot of breathing room as they know there are buyers even after 4 years of peddling 2014 models with neutered IO.

 

[WilliamG]

The Mini 2018 could be usable for the next 10 years. In fact, this upgrade probably gives Apple a lot of breathing room as they know there are buyers even after 4 years of peddling 2014 models with neutered IO.

How does the 2014 have “neutered” I/O? It has a replaceable drive, it has Thunderbolt 2 which is plenty fast enough for most people outside eGPU users.

The only thing you can’t do is upgrade the RAM, which is probably a larger downer than not being able to upgrade the internal hard drive to an SSD.

But in any case I wouldn’t call the 2014 neutered in terms of I/O.

 

[jeyf]

for gods sake people:
like any Apple hardware effort; i would wait a bit and see how the mini mac get reviewed

please dont consider buying the very first new mac mini that comes off the boat!

 

[Ploki]

for gods sake people:
like any Apple hardware effort; i would wait a bit and see how the mini mac get reviewed

please dont consider buying the very first new mac mini that comes off the boat!

It's been out for two months tho, and the reviews have been good

 

[ilifecomputer]

i am super happy with mine.

 

[philipma1957]

I don’t even have that excuse. I have the right screwdrivers, but the 32GB of RAM is still in its package. Maybe this weekend.

Interesting, though, that I’m using 8GB of RAM for things like editing RAW photos and 4K video, and playing games like X-Plane, and the world isn’t ending

The 512gb flash bails you out.

I ran a 2014 base Mac mini with 4gb ram and an external 2tb ssd via a thunderbolt. It was able to give me okay 4k monitor.

 

[Stephen.R]

please dont consider buying the very first new mac mini that comes off the boat

What boat? The "very first" Mac mini was delivered months ago buddy.

 

[Spectrum]

@Spectrum: that is indeed a crazy workaround but as it seems to fit your needs…thanks for your detailed answer.

Just an update: Like others, I just installed 2x16GB RAM and the macOS rendering is NOW much smoother. To the point that I can't really tell the difference between running 1x 2560x1440 + 1x 1920x1200 versus my pixel-doubled solution (which is more or less like running a 5K + 4K monitor). Even Launchpad is reasonably smooth now!
My Geekbench score even improved...

 

[Boyd01]

How does the 2014 have “neutered” I/O?

I agree, the I/0 wasn't "neutered" on the 2014 Mini, it has two thunderbolt ports instead of only one on the 2012 and also hase faster wifi. What was "neutered" was the base model that is so slow as to be almost unusable, and the fact that the top 2012 Mini was 50% faster than the top 2014 Mini.