Officially giving up on the Mac Mini 2018 + 4K monitor dream

[HeavyMantra]

I've been using a 32" 4K Ultrafine for a few months now. Everything works very well, no lag or other problems except when watching 4K video. And even then it only takes a second to load when skipping through the video, stuff like that

I had to disable turbo boost to make 4K video watchable, the fans go crazy otherwise

 

[SteelBlueTJ]

I am about to buy a 2020 Mac Mini i5 6 core 16Gb. I am thinking of getting the 32" LG 32UK50T 4K monitor from Sam's Club. I also have a spare 27" Dell 2560X1440 that I want to pair with it as a secondary display in portrait mode. Would this setup work or would it cause severe lag? What do you think? Thanks!

 

[streetkm12]

I'm getting the i5 Mac Mini and will probably stay at 8 gigs of RAM for a while. I buying this computer as a desktop replacement for media consumption and word processing for the next 6-8 years. I was dreaming of getting something like the LG 27UK850 4K monitor and scale it at 1440p so that everything is just the right size and the text is crispier that that of lower-res monitors (yup, you could drive the monitor at 4K and zoom the text but not every app is optimized for this).

Then I started hearing about folks noticing UI lag with Mac Minis connected to LG UltraFine 5Ks. I then start reading and it seems that even Macs (or MacBooks) with better GPUs than the Mac Mini's lackluster Intel 630 have trouble working smoothly when you use a scaled-down res (unless you scale it down to 1080P which then makes things a bit too big). It just may be the case the Mac Mini isn't meant for 4K unless you run it in native res (a problem for me who works with apps like MS Word and who reads a lot of PDFs).

As I'm in this for the long haul, I dare not risk getting issues with lag with a 4K monitor (a big investment, I might add) connected to the Mac Mini. I'm probably going to go for something like the brand new Dell U2719DC as it seems to have all the boxes ticked: USB-C connectivity, height adjustment and 27" at 1440P native res (I'm told the sweet spot for WQHD is the 27-incher). This should at least guarantee that GPU bottleneck that the Mac Mini doesn't come too apparent.

Anyone else have similar thoughts?

Don't give up. I had a Lenovo 4K computer monitor and could not use the 4K setting. Changed to an LG 4k monitor and it's perfect. The text and images are nice and large and super clear and I can use the 4K setting without scaling.

 

[suisse]

anyone can report how external 4k usage is with the new M1 mac mini?

 

[sauria]

My Mac mini 2018 and LG - 27UL600-W 27" has no lag and great text with integrated graphics or eGPU Vega 64 via DP.

 

[suisse]

The lag will appear if you configure display scaling, for sure....

 

[TallManNY]

This is a very old thread. But I will add that I'm running a 2018 Mac mini i5 and it is driving the Apple Studio Display just fine.

 

[LionTeeth]

This is a very old thread. But I will add that I'm running a 2018 Mac mini i5 and it is driving the Apple Studio Display just fine.

I’m also running an i5 2018. I put 32gb of ram in it and run it to a 43” 4K tv. Works perfectly. Tons of screen real estate, and the menus aren’t too hard to see.

 

[TallManNY]

I’m also running an i5 2018. I put 32gb of ram in it and run it to a 43” 4K tv. Works perfectly. Tons of screen real estate, and the menus aren’t too hard to see.

Ha. I also put 32gb of RAM in mine this Summer. Figured it might be the last time I can open up a Mac to do some modifications before they become completely self contained and soldered together, so I might as well do so. I got the Apple Studio Display after doing this. So maybe with the original 8gb I would have seen issues more often.

 

[Spectrum]

32GB RAM makes the difference. I have i7 2018 Mac Mini running two displays (27inch plus 24 inch) both at "scaled" resolutions via SwitchResX. No issues with lag for past3 years.

 

[boswald]

32GB RAM makes the difference. I have i7 2018 Mac Mini running two displays (27inch plus 24 inch) both at "scaled" resolutions via SwitchResX. No issues with lag for past3 years.

I have an old i3/8GB Mac mini (2018) that struggles a little when scrolling through websites. No third-party software (clean install). Does extra RAM really make that much of a difference for such a thing? I thought it’s just the crappy Intel integrated graphics.

 

[gusping]

I have an old i3/8GB Mac mini (2018) that struggles a little when scrolling through websites. No third-party software (clean install). Does extra RAM really make that much of a difference for such a thing? I thought it’s just the crappy Intel integrated graphics.

Makes a huge difference. 16GB should be minimum in 2022, even if all you do is light work (web, emails, word docs, etc).

 

[OLDCODGER]

I have an old i3/8GB Mac mini (2018) that struggles a little when scrolling through websites. No third-party software (clean install). Does extra RAM really make that much of a difference for such a thing? I thought it’s just the crappy Intel integrated graphics.

I also have the 8GB i3 2018 mini, attached to a Dell S2721QS screen which has been scaled to 2560 x 1440. No matter how many tabs are open, it scrolls smoothly at all times (running Iridium).

 

[Spectrum]

I have an old i3/8GB Mac mini (2018) that struggles a little when scrolling through websites. No third-party software (clean install). Does extra RAM really make that much of a difference for such a thing? I thought it’s just the crappy Intel integrated graphics.

32GB made a difference to me—especially evident on the "Launchpad" animation—which dropped to <1 frame per second and transiently used 1 GB of RAM (swapped to disk) with 8GB. But no swaps and smooth with 32GB.
I think 16GB would be enough though to smooth things out to be honest.

There was a long thread about all this a while ago:

Mac mini 2018 bad UI-performance with LG 5K-Display

Hi, got a new Mac mini (Core i3, 8 GB RAM, 512 GB) a few days ago and I thought using it with the LG UltraFine 5K Display would be the ideal combination. The Display is great, but the Graphics-performance not so much. I'm experiencing frame dropouts all over the place (for example with...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[boswald]

32GB made a difference to me—especially evident on the "Launchpad" animation—which dropped to <1 frame per second and transiently used 1 GB of RAM (swapped to disk) with 8GB. But no swaps and smooth with 32GB.
I think 16GB would be enough though to smooth things out to be honest.

There was a long thread about all this a while ago:

Mac mini 2018 bad UI-performance with LG 5K-Display

Hi, got a new Mac mini (Core i3, 8 GB RAM, 512 GB) a few days ago and I thought using it with the LG UltraFine 5K Display would be the ideal combination. The Display is great, but the Graphics-performance not so much. I'm experiencing frame dropouts all over the place (for example with...

forums.macrumors.com

Thank you for the information. I should crack it open someday and upgrade the RAM since AppleCare expired.

 

[boswald]

I also have the 8GB i3 2018 mini, attached to a Dell S2721QS screen which has been scaled to 2560 x 1440. No matter how many tabs are open, it scrolls smoothly at all times (running Iridium).

Really? Maybe it’s a Safari thing.

 

[Neodym]

I think 16GB would be enough though to smooth things out to be honest.

As the process requires significantly more work (and caution) on the 2018 compared to the old 2012 mini, IMHO if someone takes the effort to open the 2018 mini and upgrade Ram, I’d take 32GB as minimum.

Otherwise Murphy‘s Law may strike and a few weeks after upgrading Ram to “only” 16GB, one finds a new app/hobby that would like to have a bit more Ram - or Apple in its infinite wisdom releases a new MacOS that makes 16GB look a bit sparse again 😄

 

[DVD9]

Makes a huge difference. 16GB should be minimum in 2022, even if all you do is light work (web, emails, word docs, etc).

Yes, 16GB of RAM should be the base configuration Apple sells.

 

[crowe-t]

I also have the 8GB i3 2018 mini, attached to a Dell S2721QS screen which has been scaled to 2560 x 1440. No matter how many tabs are open, it scrolls smoothly at all times (running Iridium).

Does your 8GB i3 2018 mini run hot or is the fan is noisy with the 4K monitor? How does the scaled image look nice and sharp?

 

[crowe-t]

I'm looking at a 2018 Mac Mini i3 with either 8GB or 16GB of Ram. If I use a 4K monitor will the 16GB of Ram be the better choice. I'll most likely scale it to 2560 x 1440. This 2018 Mini will be used for Illustrator and Photoshop mostly. It won't be my main computer.

 

[gusping]

I'm looking at a 2018 Mac Mini i3 with either 8GB or 16GB of Ram. If I use a 4K monitor will the 16GB of Ram be the better choice. I'll most likely scale it to 2560 x 1440. This 2018 Mini will be used for Illustrator and Photoshop mostly. It won't be my main computer.

100% get 16GB RAM. As the RAM is used as VRAM, 8GB and a 4K monitor is a very dangerous game. Unusable I would say.

 

[crowe-t]

100% get 16GB RAM. As the RAM is used as VRAM, 8GB and a 4K monitor is a very dangerous game. Unusable I would say.

8GB and a 4K monitor not being good pretty much applies to the 2018 Mini?

 

[crowe-t]

I have the i3. Processor is never stressed, barely goes above 10% except for the briefest of moments.

Our work patterns are similar, perhaps I'll take a look at the Dell, although I fear the glare will upset my eyes.

How much Ram does your i3 have?

 

[OLDCODGER]

Does your 8GB i3 2018 mini run hot or is the fan is noisy with the 4K monitor? How does the scaled image look nice and sharp?

Worst I've had is 51c, and fan at 4000 rpm.

For my (very) old eyes, I find the resolution to be more than good enough.

 

[gusping]

8GB and a 4K monitor not being good pretty much applies to the 2018 Mini?

Yep. I would not go below 16GB on any computer (Mac or Windows-based) in 2022. It's just asking for trouble.