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Mini 2018 as advertised

macdos

macdos

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Original poster
Oct 15, 2017
604
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Just replaced good 'ole cMP 3,1 22GB/HD 7950 3GB with MM 8,1 i7/64GB, and all is good.

UHD 630 has no problem operating 2 x 3840x2160.

4K HEVC movies play with no more strain than Itunes, it's barely noticeable.

Adobe flow is snappy. Indesign effortlessly handles a large and complex 5000x2000 mm document with 900 images in HQ display. Bridge generates RAW previews fast. Photoshop filters like Alien Skin Exposure and Topaz Labs work like a charm. Never saw a more repsonsive system on Windows.

Put slow files on an 8TB LaCie, using old 3TB spinners as backup media via IcyBox.

Typical user has no need for an eGPU.

Product is solid, and as advertised.
 
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Do you think 64gb made the difference or would it have smoked like that with “just” 32?
 
macdos said:
UHD 630 has no problem operating 2 x 3840x2160.
Click to expand...
Is that at 3840x2160 'native' (i.e. 1x) or at a scaled resolution (i.e. 'looks like AxB' in display prefs)?

Did you get the 64GB as a BTO or aftermarket? Last I heard there were no after-market 64GB kits available.
 
Ramias said:
Do you think 64gb made the difference or would it have smoked like that with “just” 32?
Click to expand...

32 GB is good for most users. 16 GB is simply not enough. My current basic usage (system, web, terminal, itunes, mail) is 13 GB + 4 GB cache, and OS X loves to fill the cache with crap and then never release it.

If you handle very big documents or data flows, just max out.
[doublepost=1542102077][/doublepost]
Stephen.R said:
Is that at 3840x2160 'native' (i.e. 1x) or at a scaled resolution (i.e. 'looks like AxB' in display prefs)?

Did you get the 64GB as a BTO or aftermarket? Last I heard there were no after-market 64GB kits available.
Click to expand...

That is native. I prefer maximum screen estate.

I bought 64 GB BTO from Apple, therefore I received it only yesterday.

Added a 512 GB SSD. 256 GB will be too small once you fill up with image cache and apps.
 
Interesting. I can have Intellij IDEA with several classes open, SceneBuilder working on two FXML files, browser with usually 4+ tabs open, and I never got above 40 percent memory pressure with 8 GB of RAM installed.

I might get along just fine with 16, and then install more if needed. But, that seems like a waste of money, so, it might be better to go with 32 GB right away.
 
Stephen.R said:
... I have to assume we work in different fields, but what exactly do you mean by 'image cache'?
Click to expand...

Previews for RAW and PS in Bridge/Lightroom/Camera RAW are cached. If you have full monitor size previews (4K) and tens of thousands of images, it will fill up fast. You typically don't want to offload cache files on slower media. Add some Premiere/iMovie projects, and you will soon find yourself out of space.
 
macdos said:
32 GB is good for most users. 16 GB is simply not enough. My current basic usage (system, web, terminal, itunes, mail) is 13 GB + 4 GB cache, and OS X loves to fill the cache with crap and then never release it.

If you handle very big documents or data flows, just max out.
[doublepost=1542102077][/doublepost]

That is native. I prefer maximum screen estate.

I bought 64 GB BTO from Apple, therefore I received it only yesterday.

Added a 512 GB SSD. 256 GB will be too small once you fill up with image cache and apps.
Click to expand...

The more ram is available the more mac os will take, it's just the way a system is designed, as long as there is no swap used then there is no benefit in increasing RAM, so to steal a random image from the web, in this case the ram was enough to never had to use the HD, yeah bigger cache can increase speed but to be fair the SSD is super fast anyway.

Activity-Monitor-in-Mac-OS-X-Mavericks-illustrating-memory-pressure-and-use-of_Q320.jpg
 
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Could you please check how much VRAM is being used by the UHD 630 even for when 64GB is equipped? I read in support docs that the macOS limits itself at 1.5GB but it sounds quite disproportional if this is the case.
 
Chancha said:
Could you please check how much VRAM is being used by the UHD 630 even for when 64GB is equipped? I read in support docs that the macOS limits itself at 1.5GB but it sounds quite disproportional if this is the case.
Click to expand...

1536 MB.
 
macdos said:
1536 MB.
Click to expand...
Thanks. "Good" to know having more RAM doesn't help at all. I am frankly rather surprised how smooth you claim your setup has been, compared to the threads outside discussing the UHD 630 and its problems with scaling interface.
 
Chancha said:
Thanks. "Good" to know having more RAM doesn't help at all. I am frankly rather surprised how smooth you claim your setup has been, compared to the threads outside discussing the UHD 630 and its problems with scaling interface.
Click to expand...

More VRAM is not gonna help that. Scaling is compute intensive.
 
This is promising.
I was considering a Mac Mini for my FCPX editing.
My BTO would be:

i7 CPU
8GB RAM (to be upgraded to 32GB min)
512GB SSD (have plenty of external TB3 storage)
10GBe

The only thing that put me off was as I don't want the added expense, or the added desk space taken by the eGPU.

I generally create small projects in FCPX of 10mins or less (for my YouTube channel) which are currently in 1080p, but Im looking to move towards 4K very soon (HEVC?).
Based on your experience so far, do you think the MM will be able to handle this with its stock GPU?
 
Ifti said:
I generally create small projects in FCPX of 10mins or less (for my YouTube channel) which are currently in 1080p, but Im looking to move towards 4K very soon (HEVC?).
Based on your experience so far, do you think the MM will be able to handle this with its stock GPU?
Click to expand...

Probably. Just tried iMovie with an old project, although only 1080p. Encoded in 1/3 times real time, no strain on system.

EDIT: Downloaded a 4K clip to play with. Added some transitions, titles and stuff. No problem at all. Still exporting faster than real time, Apple ProRes codec, high quality, 4K. Simple movies are a breeze.

Of course, if you use After Effects and have twenty layers of transitions and effects, it might be a good idea to add a rather powerful GPU.
 
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I'm curious to this as well Ifti. I have the same cMP as the OP, but I found myself using it less and less as i don't have the I/O to transfer my large video files to the the external disks. It just takes too long over usb2 and I don't have a FW card reader anymore. I was about tho buy the i7 mini, but the BTO option added too many days and I needed one asap for a project. So I bought a second hand MBP 15" late 2013 maxed out. Editing 4K prores on this machine worked fine until I started adding all the text graphics the project needed. It was only a 2 min film, but I started to see the beachball a lott towards the end. (I had the project on the internal 1TB ssd and it has a second graphics card of 2GB). I'm worried the Mini will struggle a lot once you add some text or graphics to a project, but I haven´t found any reviews or tests so far. Any info appreciated
 
StellarVixen said:
Interesting. I can have Intellij IDEA with several classes open, SceneBuilder working on two FXML files, browser with usually 4+ tabs open, and I never got above 40 percent memory pressure with 8 GB of RAM installed.

I might get along just fine with 16, and then install more if needed. But, that seems like a waste of money, so, it might be better to go with 32 GB right away.
Click to expand...
Mine is at 13gb ram. I'm transferring files and have activity monitor open, fan control open as i'm monitoring temps and such. Safari with about 8 tabs. Plex server and sonarr running in the background(but not actually doing anything atm)
 
macdos said:
Probably. Just tried iMovie with an old project, although only 1080p. Encoded in 1/3 times real time, no strain on system.

EDIT: Downloaded a 4K clip to play with. Added some transitions, titles and stuff. No problem at all. Still exporting faster than real time, Apple ProRes codec, high quality, 4K. Simple movies are a breeze.

Of course, if you use After Effects and have twenty layers of transitions and effects, it might be a good idea to add a rather powerful GPU.
Click to expand...
I'd be curious how your times hold up while using compressor. I use that a lot.
 
Wow, you just max out Mac Mini :D

Just wondering which version photoshop are you running?
 
Does the i7 provide a significant upgrade for playing HEVC? I'm now streaming HEVC, with alot of buffering on Plex, from a 2016 Macbook Pro i5. Otherwise i would get the i5 Mac Mini if it is barely noticable
 
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