Desktop version poll - Intel or Silicon?

General Discussion
21

The mini will playback 4K fine if it is on Youtube or Netflix, but editing is a whole different matter. It might manage basic 1080 editing OK but I suspect anything more complicated would quickly prove problematic.

It was the one noted glaring weakness on the Intel mini and some spent big money on external graphics cards inside enclosures. Any Silicon Mac would run rings around it and so would my old Mac Pro I suspect, which at least has a dedicated 4GB graphics card.

22

The specs on the Silicon mini say it runs FCP. I assume editing video on the ā€œMā€ version minis would probably be do-able.

Rich the Weather Guy

23

It would probably be workable on an M1 mini with 16GB of ram for my needs, but M2 or M3 pro or max would be better still. I tried the trial version of FCP and concluded it was pointless buying before I have a Silicon mini or studio.

24

I run FCP on my Intel iMacā€¦thinking an M2 or M3, like you said, would probably handle it OK on the Mini. Apple does advertise that you can run FCP on the current crop of minis.
Of course, RAM is a considerationā€¦
Good article hereā€¦

Rich the Weather Guy

25

The 8GB Silicon mini is apparently pretty efficient with ram management, nevertheless 8GB is not a lot for video work. I have the i7 mini with 32GB of ram, but ram for the included UHD Graphics 630 maxes out at a paltry 1.5GB.

In practice that means video playback in FCP jumps all over the place and exports are glacial. Taking a one minute 4K video from the iPhone with no major edits and exporting as 1080 takes several minutes. At times I might also need to render files in Maya, so that would also benefit hugely from better graphics.

26

I had a 24" M1 iMac to tie me over until something more serious but personally donā€™t get 8GB, sure its fine for emails and browsing, anything else, you might start to slow down.

27

Mac mini M2.

Didnā€™t notice much difference. Eventhough the benchmarks are much better. Maybe a kind of smoothness in the angles.

Before I was 5 years on an iMac 27 Intel.
My opinion, working on Mac since 1987 (:blush:) is that the quantum leap was when I started to work with a Mac 100% SSD. Even Fusion Drive was not so swift. Since then, I never felt any slowdown whatsoever. Oh and also lots of RAM. I had 40 Go on the iMac and now I just have 24 Go.

Crashes with Blocs is another story :joy:.