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Officially giving up on the Mac Mini 2018 + 4K monitor dream
- Thread starter Tigerman82
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Native (not even the 2x retina stuff) definitely requires the least GPU processing. It does however require extra eyeball processing (commonly called squinting) for the vast majority of people.
I've never purchased from Newegg, so I'm of no help there. BTW, the original builds were HDMI 1.4. What bothers me about Dell is the runaround they make resellers go through with RMAs - in contrast, around a year ago I RMA'ed several P2715Q units that were A00 builds as they seemed a bit sluggish compared to the newer units, and Dell had replacement panels plus new cabling on my front door in under 48 hours in boxes that had free return shipping labels and UPS even picked up the boxes.
AFAIK some of the newer P2415Q/P2715Q builds are on A05 - A03 are the new panels, A04 is the first replacement refurb and A05 is the second replacement refurb. FYI it's been over 2-1/2 years since the HDMI 2.0 units hit the retail channel.
About Dell, they have all kinds of discounts (direct link, no personal affiliation as I don't roll that way) that fly under the radar, even sites like Slickdeals don't pick up on them. They have discounts if you're a credit union member, previous or current military, AARP, more. Click through on one of those portals, then go browsing and you'll get an idea of what the discounts are - and most of them are stackable with sale prices. And, their prices go up and down randomly - I bought a couple of P2415Q displays last year for $275, free shipping. BF and Cyber Monday are just around the corner...
I know. You’re preaching to the choir here.
Although I’m confident that the integrated GPU can handle even high resolutions just fine as long as they use integer-based scaling.
The UHD 630 is slightly better than the Iris 6100 in the MBP 13", which did OK with 4k external as long as you stuck to 2x (1920x1080) or 1x (3840x2160), with the former being absolutely fine and the latter having some minor UI glitches.*
(from a forum member to me:
"- External 4K screen
Only 1920x1080 HiDPI and native 3840x2160 have smooth scrolling, however 3840x2160 has some UI animation lag. From the rest of the scaled resolutions, 2560x1440 looks best and has the minimal amount of choppy scrolling and UI animation lag. Same behaviour for extended mode and clamshell.")
But the key thing that I have repaired (or replaced) in my many decades as a mac user has been the storage drive. A soldered in SSD in the mini, for me at least, pales in comparision to whatever other 'repairability' it may have.
And I've opened my 2017 iMac and replaced the spinning drive with an SSD, and it wasn't that hard, btw. To not have that option with the Mini really makes me pause.
I've had to replace storage drives in just about every system I've owned - Windows, Linux, and Mac. But that's all spinners - never had to replace an SSD. How often do current-technology SSD fail, particularly after the first year (end of Apple Care)?
No, because I don't have one. It would be worth the $15 or so to get one if it solved the problem. Anyone with experience?
Exactly.
While you can certainly open up an iMac, there aren't that many things to replace in there either. The SSD is not soldered, but you can't really source it anywhere other than from Apple - and they only sell it to you by fitting it into your iMac themselves.
I bought one of the $299 NewEgg ones earlier this week. It arrived quickly and was definitely a modern HDMI 2.0 one. The last HDMI 1.4 model was manufactured in early 2016, so the chances of getting one now are pretty low.
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I have one P2415Q plugged in with HDMI and one with Displayport. They both wake from display sleep (mini is not sleeping) pretty quickly. The DP one might be 1-2s and the HDMI 2-3s.
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I bought my last iMac with ssd specifically for reliability (and speed) to avoid opening it up for that. My 2010 mini has had an ssd for a while. I recently scanned it with DriveDX and the years older (1st gen crucial) ssd is in much better shape than the WD spinner on the outside.
The risk is not zero but it’s lower than the risk of obsolescence. And I say that as a dude rock’n an 8 year old mini.
Right. I just like to have the option, as the years pass and SSD's get much much cheaper, to replace the internal SSD with something much bigger down the road. So again, not having that option makes it quite a bit less appealing to me.
You wish. At that price point you can have a very capable and performant Mac Mini and most consumers will be very well served with that. I’m sure Apple’s next attempt at a Pro computer will be significantly more expensive and there will probably be little overlap with the Mac Mini pricing. I’d not be surprised if we’re looking at $5000 for an already very beefy base configuration.
-> Enable external booting and buy a Thunderbolt 3 to M.2 enclosure and a 'cheap' M.2 drive of your choice: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...YPE-C-aluminium-TYPE/710516_32952100894.html?
Given that the iMac Pro is, by Apple's own admission, a 'stop gap' to appease a part of the 'Pro' market not willing to buy the current Mac Pro, and the iMac Pro starts at $5K, I think this is probably quite accurate. Sure, the iMac has a 5K screen, but its also pretty limited in terms of configuration compared to what I imagine a new Mac Pro will offer. Maybe it'll a little lower, so there is overlap (presumably with comparable/the same parts) with the iMac Pro..
I was wondering the same thing. I really need to see first-hand OS X on a 32" 4k panel compared to OS X on a 27" 2k panel.
I was ready to order a new Mac Mini to replace my 'Late 2013' iMac until I started digging into the monitor situation. My second monitor is an Asus MG279 (27" 1440p IPS). I ruled out a 27" 4K monitor pretty quickly. I'm hesitant about buying a 32" panel both due to the physical size and the usability at native 4k. Even if I bought a second MG279 that's ~$500 plus the cost of the Mac Mini ~$1,299 and I'm well within 5k iMac territory (even more so w/ a refurb).
Since what I have today does work well enough, it seems that I'm left pining for either the eventual iMac refresh or better 27" 5k monitor options for the new Mac Mini or finding a way to get comfortable with a 32" panel on my desktop and native 4k resolution.
I received my 2018 mac mini today - i7 processor, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 10Gb Ethernet
I have two LG 27UD58P-B 27" 4K displays both connected via HDMI 2.0, and both running at 60Hz. I'm using scaled resolutions on both displays and not noticing any lag in the Mojave UI. So far I've been having youtube playing in theater-mode (not full screen) on one display, and browser and terminal sessions in the other. Not having any problems! Scrolling up and down long pages in Safari is plenty fast.
One display connected via HDMI 2.0 cable display came with. The 2nd display I'm using this USB-C to HDMI 2.0 cable: https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-USB-C-Supporting-Black/dp/B073H9RG9T
For comparison, I have a Mid-2017 15" touchbar macbook pro I use same two displays with but connected via USB-C to DisplayPort @ 60Hz. GUI feels the same to me.
I'm amazed how quiet this new machine is, its quieter than 2011 mac mini its replacing. But I've only had it a couple hours.
I have two LG 27UD58P-B 27" 4K displays both connected via HDMI 2.0, and both running at 60Hz. I'm using scaled resolutions on both displays and not noticing any lag in the Mojave UI. So far I've been having youtube playing in theater-mode (not full screen) on one display, and browser and terminal sessions in the other. Not having any problems! Scrolling up and down long pages in Safari is plenty fast.
One display connected via HDMI 2.0 cable display came with. The 2nd display I'm using this USB-C to HDMI 2.0 cable: https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-USB-C-Supporting-Black/dp/B073H9RG9T
For comparison, I have a Mid-2017 15" touchbar macbook pro I use same two displays with but connected via USB-C to DisplayPort @ 60Hz. GUI feels the same to me.
I'm amazed how quiet this new machine is, its quieter than 2011 mac mini its replacing. But I've only had it a couple hours.
Thanks for the report. This sounds very promising. Oddly, some users are still reporting lag when using scaled resolutions with 16GB.
I will also be replacing a 2011 mini!
Thanks for the report. This sounds very promising. Oddly, some users are still reporting lag when using scaled resolutions with 16GB.
I will also be replacing a 2011 mini!
What GUI elements specifically are people experiencing lag with? I've been reading the various threads as I was concerned while my mac mini was in transit.. but I didn't really see any specifics about what GUI elements were slow.
I've tried scrolling in Safari, dragging windows around and between displays. Opening apps, I even tried launchpad, mission control and some other animation-y tasks. My normal workflow seems fine.
The 2011 was a great mac mini - I have drives in both bays, upgraded one to an SSD, upgraded RAM. Not thrilled about soldered on storage
What GUI elements specifically are people experiencing lag with? I've been reading the various threads as I was concerned while my mac mini was in transit.. but I didn't really see any specifics about what GUI elements were slow.
I've tried scrolling in Safari, dragging windows around and between displays. Opening apps, I even tried launchpad and some other animation-y stuff. My normal stuff seems fine.
The 2011 was a great mac mini - I have drives in both bays, upgraded one to an SSD, upgraded RAM. Not thrilled about soldered on storage
Well that sounds fine to me. sending an app to full screen is another taxing animation. As is moving between spaces/desktops.
My 2011 mini (HD3000) is powering a 2560x1440 and 1920x1200, so I know a lot about UI lag haha!
The 2018 should be silky smooth by comparison.
I also fitted it out with 2x SSDs. It is a shame to lose that ability in 2018...but I think the speed will make up for it
I'd like to verify something with you. How long do you wait after the monitor is asleep before you wake it? On my system, if I sleep the monitor, the display immediately goes blank. Then, after about 5-7 seconds, the monitor displays a message saying it is going to power save mode. This message disappears and a couple of seconds later the monitor begins fading the power switch LED in and out.
If I hit a key within a few seconds of the monitor's power switch LED entering the fade-in fade-out mode, the monitor responds and I get the macOS login screen within about two seconds. If I wait longer (more than 10 seconds or so), then the response time to the macOS login screen is about 7 seconds. In either case, however, the monitor's power LED responds to the keypress within a second by going to full brightness and becoming steady.
I've futzed around with this a lot because it is so irritating to wait for the thing to wake up. I think I'm going to order a usb c to display port cable to see if it's an HDMI issue, or simply this monitor.