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Officially giving up on the Mac Mini 2018 + 4K monitor dream
- Thread starter Tigerman82
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Want to pitch in. Got a Mac Mini i5 and an UltraFine 5K for an elderly relative. It doesn’t always turn on after a period of inactivity, then I came here and found out it’s a widespread issue. Going to return it and maybe try another USB C monitor, if it has the same issues then will return the Mac Mini and wait for a refreshed iMac 27”. Scaling to a huge font is essential and this experience has been disappointing so far.
Moving back to desktops after 10 years or laptops. Looking at the Mac Mini, i7, 32 ram. I want to use it for music production and watching video. The Mini seems like a good choice because I'm not editing video or doing other graphic stuff. I guess it would be nice to play some games, but this isn't a priority.
I have a poor understanding of both GPUs and monitors. Will the GPU in the Mac Mini be able to drive screens nice enough for a smooth Logic experience, and also watching Netflix and so on?
Will the Mac Mini with i7, 32 ram work with the monitors that will be released the coming years? Will it be compatible with the monitor Apple will release in 2019, do you think?
I have a poor understanding of both GPUs and monitors. Will the GPU in the Mac Mini be able to drive screens nice enough for a smooth Logic experience, and also watching Netflix and so on?
Will the Mac Mini with i7, 32 ram work with the monitors that will be released the coming years? Will it be compatible with the monitor Apple will release in 2019, do you think?
You can watch three 2160p movies simultaneously while your Logic Pro is doing its job using the remaining 95% of the processor power. New monitors will be supported for the forseeable future, directly or by adapters.
I'm using 2016 MacBook Pro 15" with 4k 27" Monitor scaled at 3008x1692 retina.
Even with my MBP, UI lags especially Launchpad.
I'm not sure if my Radeon 450 is fully working for ui or 530, but based on my general experience and repeated UI heavy stress I put on my MBP which still result in laggy response,, I highly doubt Intel 630 would give better result.
Even with my MBP, UI lags especially Launchpad.
I'm not sure if my Radeon 450 is fully working for ui or 530, but based on my general experience and repeated UI heavy stress I put on my MBP which still result in laggy response,, I highly doubt Intel 630 would give better result.
Thanks. Some people report problems with the Mac Mini and 4k and 5k displays. Is this because of the iGPU not being powerful enough, or is it software related?
Most of the problems seem to be related to not enough memory.
Having said that - with 64GB, running 2x 4K in a non-2x scaled resolution I occasionally get a little glitch. Not enough to concern me, but it's not 100% 'perfect'.
Supposedly for scaled resolutions first upscaling to 5K then downscaling to some fraction of 4K. That is bound to be processor intensive for any GPU. Doesn't happen with scaled video windows or anything else in native resolution.
It's not as elegant or ideal, but before giving up the dream why not consider mac mini + eGPU? Some are around $400. To save on cost you could skip SSD upgrades and instead put your home folder on an external SSD which works great, and also delay RAM purchase and stay with 8GB + eGPU, until you feel like you need it and/or ram prices come down.
EDIT: I do have to clarify eGPU tech isn't perfect, I think there is potential for the tech to mature given time, for Apple to improve macOS and be more stable. I personally have to unplug hdmi sometimes when rebooting the mac, and I've had some situations where it doesn't wake from sleep. I'm personally happy, but I'm also used to hackintosh quirks, so if you want a perfect setup this might not be for you.
EDIT: I do have to clarify eGPU tech isn't perfect, I think there is potential for the tech to mature given time, for Apple to improve macOS and be more stable. I personally have to unplug hdmi sometimes when rebooting the mac, and I've had some situations where it doesn't wake from sleep. I'm personally happy, but I'm also used to hackintosh quirks, so if you want a perfect setup this might not be for you.
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Too many compromises. It should just work out of the box.
And one shouldn't purchase tech for it's future potential. Evaluate it for what it can do for you now, not some future that might not even come.
A much cheaper 27 inch 4K monitor run in 2x scaled (looks like 1920x1080) may be much more suitable.
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Yeah, I'm not surprised at all. This is like rendering a 6K screen and then downsampling to 4K. To maintain 60 fps is potentially pretty taxing even for a dGPU. I think people are not realising how much GPU power is needed for this.
Running 3008x1692 on a 2016 4K iMac (Intel Iris Pro 6200 GPU) is generally smooth, but drops to 1 frame per second for the Launchpad animation. For some reason that is just incredibly GPU intensive.
Notably, app window resizing appears to be mostly CPU intensive, whereas Mission Control, switching Spaces, and Launchpad all appear to hit the GPU.
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Since my last post, I've got a new 2018 Mac Mini i5 base spec with 8 gig of ram. And I'm using LG 27uk850 4k monitor with it.
Based on my experience, with the setting best for the screen, everything runs smoothly. In launchpad, the things hiccup somewhat, but almost flawless. Then, when I change the resolution to what looks like 2560x1440 (I don't really remember the exact number, but it's between best for the screen and 3008 x something), I can see the launchpad stuttering, but most other stuff is ok. When I change the setting to 3008x or something, lagging is obviously visible.
All above was done when I have the chrome with around 8 tabs and 1080p youtube playing, and the safari with 4 tabs opened.
My current setup is 2560x1440 4k monitor as the main, and Dell P2215 in vertical orientation as second. For my usage, it's perfectly useable. But then, I'm not really doing heavy stuff. CPU is usually at 10~20%.
Based on my experience, with the setting best for the screen, everything runs smoothly. In launchpad, the things hiccup somewhat, but almost flawless. Then, when I change the resolution to what looks like 2560x1440 (I don't really remember the exact number, but it's between best for the screen and 3008 x something), I can see the launchpad stuttering, but most other stuff is ok. When I change the setting to 3008x or something, lagging is obviously visible.
All above was done when I have the chrome with around 8 tabs and 1080p youtube playing, and the safari with 4 tabs opened.
My current setup is 2560x1440 4k monitor as the main, and Dell P2215 in vertical orientation as second. For my usage, it's perfectly useable. But then, I'm not really doing heavy stuff. CPU is usually at 10~20%.
Not quite:
1. 4K screens work fine at native or 2x scaled
2. 4K work fine when scaled for most people (but you may benefit from more RAM).
Sounds exactly to be expected for the iGPU and my testing. According to the reports of others, more RAM can help smooth animations out.
I wouldn't particularly be concerned about the launchpad animation, for some reason it seems to be incredibly sensitive to high screen resolution and scaling. I've never used it, I prefer to launch apps directly from the dock, or to be honest I tend to just use Spotlight for nearly everything. Command+space.
Huh?? That is for switching to pinyin, hiragana, devanagari and other input methods.
I'm looking at using a Mac Mini with 16 GB but, initially, a 1080p monitor - will this cause the scaling and lag problem?
Will 16 GB be enough to prevent this issue happening with the Mac Minis?
Will 16 GB be enough to prevent this issue happening with the Mac Minis?
I have the same monitor and had the same animation hiccups, upgrading to more RAM smoothed things out a lot.
No. No it will not. A 1080p monitor won’t require scaling generally either.
Yes, scaling factors other than 2x are very likely the cause for slightly laggy UI. With proper 2x scaling, which is the ideal setting for the Ultrafine, you should be good to go.
Wonderful! I plan to upgrade the ram later on, sometimes early next year. So when I do that, hopefully it helps. But for what I do, it's perfectly useable. I do most of my heavy stuff on my windows PC anyway. But thank you for sharing your experience.
Hi Guys,
I'm looking at purchasing the new Mac Mini in a few weeks. I'm just trying to do myresearch first. I'll be getting the i7, with a 1TB SSD and upgrading to 32GB of Ram. I'll be using it for music production primarily, using Logic Pro X. I'm currently using a refurbed Retina Late 2015 iMac i7 with a 1TB Fusion Drive and 48GB of Ram.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm looking for advice on using it with 34inch Monitor (maybe a curved one) and trying to find out what would work best or if even suitable. I currently use my iMac at a scaled (2048 x 1152) resolution, as some apps and labels within Logic Pro are just too small at native 2560 x 1440 resolution). Any advice if a 34inch would be suitable?
I'm looking at purchasing the new Mac Mini in a few weeks. I'm just trying to do myresearch first. I'll be getting the i7, with a 1TB SSD and upgrading to 32GB of Ram. I'll be using it for music production primarily, using Logic Pro X. I'm currently using a refurbed Retina Late 2015 iMac i7 with a 1TB Fusion Drive and 48GB of Ram.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm looking for advice on using it with 34inch Monitor (maybe a curved one) and trying to find out what would work best or if even suitable. I currently use my iMac at a scaled (2048 x 1152) resolution, as some apps and labels within Logic Pro are just too small at native 2560 x 1440 resolution). Any advice if a 34inch would be suitable?
Since you're currently running a 1440p display at a scaled, non-native resolution crispness probably isn't a priority for you. Nevertheless I'd recommend a 4k / 27" inch display - they are affordable, much sharper than your current configuration which is helpful when eyesight is a concern and most importantly at the recommend 2x scaling everything will look as large as 1920x1080, which will be slightly larger than your current setup, but still comparable and, again, much, much sharper.
My only concern with that would be screen real estate - both in your current and my proposed setup it's rather limited, particularly for dense DAW interfaces. I'd consider a dual monitor setup, which you could add later.
You didn't give a resolution for your 34" screen, but I guess it's 4k, which would feature a pixel density / sizing similar to 1440p at 27". That means sizing and sight will again be a problem. I can only recommend that you avoid scaling (except 2x) - it will look blurry and strains your system resources. 4K at 27" seems much more suitable for you.
The image posted above comes from this article, which greatly helped me 1 year ago to buy a new display : https://bjango.com/articles/macexternaldisplays/