So exicted for new Mini I ordered!

[Sean Dempsey]

Hey, I was assuming that since Photoshop doesnt really require that much of intense GPU work, the Mac Mini did not use the AMD GPU for this? I think there are some apps that alow you to use the AMD GPU for 24/7.

This is not true.

Photoshop doesn't require the GPU that a 3d app or game would, but it definitley takes the GPU and the VRAM. If you have istat menus, you can see how much VRAM you are using. Photoshop maxes that out almost instantly.

Plus, when you have a semi-large file with LOTS of layers, the 2d redraw and zooming/moving gets REALLY slow. I do UI design, so I might have a hundred layers. It CRAWLS. The type tool grinds to a halt, and like I said any zooming or moving the canvas around is choppy and tears.

This is the same on the MBA and the Mini. Even on the maxed out Mini with an SSD, photoshop was just too annoying for UI work. Maybe for photos it's not as noticable. But for UI, I am constantly zooming in and out from, moving around the canvas, making layer after layer, dragging groups of dozens of layers and copying them around. It's just too much for the weak non-imac, non-macpro GPU's.

 

[radiogoober]

That sucks it wasn't the big improvement you were looking for.

I came from a Core2Duo MacBook to the i7 Mac mini with 8 gigs of ram and the 7200 rpm hd. This was a tremendous speed boost for me. I have three monitors now, and am really loving it. My MacBook was just crawling, pathetically slow. I kinda wish I had done the SSD upgrade, but I couldn't afford it at the time I built the computer, and I really don't understand how the HD arrangement works if I did it now.

---

Does anyone else feel a bit fragmented with their devices sometimes? Ie, I have a iPhone, iPad, Mac mini and a MacBook. For vacation the iPad really is fine, because I'm not doing anything super productive while away. The Mac mini does everything I need at home. So my MacBook has been sitting on the desk, closed, for months now. Part of me feels like selling it, I guess. But I can't get past this notion of thinking that I "need" my laptop.

Also, has anyone ever tabulated the amount of money they've spent on Apple products? Ouch

(It's pretty pathetic the "problems" we have in first world countries.)

 

[danny_w]

It was the Photoshop work. I design UI and such, and the zoom in/out was just choppy. Same as on the MBA.

But, I thought the discrete graphics on the Mini would be better than the shared graphics on the Air.

Problem is - I use the top-end imac with 16gb of ram and a 2nd thunderbolt display at work, and it's almost instantaneously responsive in Photoshop.

Guess I shouldn't compare a $3000 imac to a $1100 mini.

I may be completely wrong on this, but wouldn't a base 27" iMac be the same price as the mini plus ssd, and be much faster to boot? And that way you also would have 2 27" displays. You could always add an sad later if desired, but it may not be necessary.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

I wanted the computer decoupled from the screen, since I'd want to upgrade the computer and move the older mini to an HTPC or something of that sort.

With a TBD, and a MBA, I didn't want to have a iMac where I couldn't easily reuse the machine as a headless HTPC.