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ZaYoOoD

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 27, 2010
75
3
The problem that annoys me most is the bad colours and the delay in responding after turning the monitor on, none of which the new 1.7 EFI update fixes!

I really hope Apple considers this!
 

COrocket

macrumors 6502
Dec 9, 2012
485
12
It works great for me...so far. I didn't have issues as severe as some are reporting, I only got a screen flicker maybe a couple times a day.
 

Macclone

macrumors 6502
Mar 13, 2012
257
0
The problem that annoys me most is the bad colours and the delay in responding after turning the monitor on, none of which the new 1.7 EFI update fixes!

I really hope Apple considers this!

Maybe if you add a few more exclamation points, Apple will hear you.
 

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,362
248
Howell, New Jersey
I feel that anyone expecting really good graphics from a mac mini is really a true masochist at heart. I also feel like a brooklyn dodger's fan from the 50's after losing to the yankees in the world series (again) wait till haswell. once again I am forced to have pc's and mac's oh well.
 

Macclone

macrumors 6502
Mar 13, 2012
257
0
I feel that anyone expecting really good graphics from a mac mini is really a true masochist at heart. I also feel like a brooklyn dodger's fan from the 50's after losing to the yankees in the world series (again) wait till haswell. once again I am forced to have pc's and mac's oh well.

Then why all the posts from photographers that use the mini? Maybe you be a troller?
 

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,362
248
Howell, New Jersey
Then why all the posts from photographers that use the mini? Maybe you be a troller?

Minis are low cost and easy to use. I own 3 of them.
a 2010 a 2011 and a 2012. I have owned and used more then 10 mac minis. the graphics have never been good. okay yes good no.

I owned a 2009 27 inch iMac with the BTO hi end graphics card 4870 IIIRC that machine had good graphics. I owned a 2010 mac pro with the hi end graphics card a 5870 IIRC that machine had good graphics. problem is the iMac was just under 2k the mac pro was just over 2.7k.
Mac mini for photographers (not videographers) is low cost and colors can be adjusted with good monitors and the knowledge need to to more advanced color adjustments. So a lot of people will buy 2 mac minis and 2 monitors home and work. this would cost 600 + 600 for 2 base mac minis and 600 + 600 for 2 hi end dell 27 inch screens total 2400 add a few more total 2600. you get two setups while the current mac pro is 2500 plus 600 for that screen or 3100 . ask a photographer if he could have the mac pro and the 27 inch screen for work or the mac mini and the 27 inch screen for work. Both in an office he rents that would fit either piece of gear. tell him the rent is the same for either office including full use of the machine. See how many pick the mac mini over the mac pro and or hi end iMac.
 

Shanpdx

macrumors 68030
Sep 24, 2008
2,534
346
Blazer town!
Minis are low cost and easy to use. I own 3 of them.
a 2010 a 2011 and a 2012. I have owned and used more then 10 mac minis. the graphics have never been good. okay yes good no.

I owned a 2009 27 inch iMac with the BTO hi end graphics card 4870 IIIRC that machine had good graphics. I owned a 2010 mac pro with the hi end graphics card a 5870 IIRC that machine had good graphics. problem is the iMac was just under 2k the mac pro was just over 2.7k.
Mac mini for photographers (not videographers) is low cost and colors can be adjusted with good monitors and the knowledge need to to more advanced color adjustments. So a lot of people will buy 2 mac minis and 2 monitors home and work. this would cost 600 + 600 for 2 base mac minis and 600 + 600 for 2 hi end dell 27 inch screens total 2400 add a few more total 2600. you get two setups while the current mac pro is 2500 plus 600 for that screen or 3100 . ask a photographer if he could have the mac pro and the 27 inch screen for work or the mac mini and the 27 inch screen for work. Both in an office he rents that would fit either piece of gear. tell him the rent is the same for either office including full use of the machine. See how many pick the mac mini over the mac pro and or hi end iMac.

you are confusing yourself with graphic output and graphic card performance.

are you saying we cannot watch movies on mac mini? that is essentially happening with mac mini - it simply has some color reproduction issue.

monitors are getting better each and every year, you can find very good monitor for less than $300. that too IPS monitor.

With SSDs and Better quality monitor - there is a moment shift from iMac to Mac mini (i am three year iMac user just got rid of it because of the hard drive which needs to be replaced by apple)

I agree that HD4000 is not comparable with mobile Graphic card in iMac, but just doing some basic photo shop work, movies, iPhotos and iTunes you DO not need dedicated graphic card.

Gaming is different. if you are gamer you know already mac mini would not cut it.
 

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,362
248
Howell, New Jersey
you are confusing yourself with graphic output and graphic card performance.

are you saying we cannot watch movies on mac mini? that is essentially happening with mac mini - it simply has some color reproduction issue.

monitors are getting better each and every year, you can find very good monitor for less than $300. that too IPS monitor.

With SSDs and Better quality monitor - there is a moment shift from iMac to Mac mini (i am three year iMac user just got rid of it because of the hard drive which needs to be replaced by apple)

I agree that HD4000 is not comparable with mobile Graphic card in iMac, but just doing some basic photo shop work, movies, iPhotos and iTunes you DO not need dedicated graphic card.

Gaming is different. if you are gamer you know already mac mini would not cut it.

Okay my 2010 mac mini works for movies as does my 2011 and my 2012. I use hdmi with 2 of them and with one I use hdmi adpater to dvi. all 3 minis will play a movie okay. two go to tv's and one goes to a monitor. None of these look as good as my pc's playing netflix. So if I watch netflix I prefer to watch with a pc. I prefer mac osx over windows osx and I do almost everything with the minis. But movies netflix I use the pc. The picture is better on my sony large screen led tv. Personally I find it annoying that to watch a better picture with a mac I would need to buy back my 2010 mac pro and use the high end graphics card.

Apple has annoyed me for a lot of mini's a

2006 1.66
2007 1.83
2008 2.00
2009 2.26
2009 2.53 -- this was the beginning of decent
2009 2.66
2010 2.40
2011 2.30 dual the first mini decided hdmi was washed out
2011 2.70 with discrete decent for movies and tv
2011 2.0 quad had a bug where video shifts really fff'ing annoying
2012 2.3 quad had a bad cpu return it
2012 2.5 dual picture is washed out just a bit with hdmi.


most of these minis had or have a work around but to say any were good for graphics is pushing the envelope of the word good. does not mean I won't buy them and use them as they don't break they resell well and as long as you know their limits you can work with them.
 

Mojo1

macrumors 65816
Jul 26, 2011
1,244
21
I feel that anyone expecting really good graphics from a mac mini is really a true masochist at heart.

The Mini's integrated GPU is fine for many people; it all comes down to what you intend to do with your Mac.

I'm a pro photographer using a Mini and an NEC display connected via an Apple DVI-to-Mini Display Port adapter. The colors are excellent. (In fact, the stock NEC profile that shipped with my NEC2490WUXi2 is darn near perfect. I seriously doubt that I could do any better if I created my own profile.)

I don't need a beefier GPU and the 2.3GHz i7 is more than I need CPU-wise. But my image files are relatively small and I don't do extensive edits in Photoshop. I'm not processing a large number of images on a regular basis. Photographers with different requirements may benefit from a discrete GPU and a faster CPU.
 
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philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,362
248
Howell, New Jersey
The Mini's integrated GPU is fine for many people; it all comes down to what you intend to do with your Mac.

I'm a pro photographer using a Mini and an NEC display connected via an Apple DVI-to-Mini Display Port adapter. The colors are excellent. (In fact, the stock NEC profile that shipped with my NEC2490WUXi2 is darn near perfect. I seriously doubt that I could do any better if I created my own profile.)

I don't need a beefier GPU and the 2.3GHz i7 is more than I need CPU-wise. But my image files are relatively small and I don't do extensive edits in Photoshop. I'm not processing a large number of images on a regular basis. Photographers with different requirements may benefit from a discrete GPU and a faster CPU.

my point is the mini will work for some but that does not qualify as really good graphics I will go back and write it is really good for some graphical work just not all the graphics I would like it to be good for.
 
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elliotn

macrumors regular
Sep 5, 2011
152
0
I'm also a pro photographer. My 2011 mini (2.7 i7, discreet graphics, 16GB ram) really struggles driving a 27" monitor (Eizo CG275W) running Photoshop CS6. Everything is slow and laggy.

I'm planning on trying a 2012 mini. But if Apple released a new Mac Pro I'd jump on it.
 

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,612
6,907
Well it's a bit pricey, but you could run certain desktop-class video cards externally with the Sonnet Echo Express Pro.

For that kind of money though, you're well into iMac territory.
 

Mr. Retrofire

macrumors 603
Mar 2, 2010
5,064
518
www.emiliana.cl/en
Then why all the posts from photographers that use the mini? Maybe you be a troller?
philipma1957 is a troll. Ha, ha, ha, ha! Nice try. ;-)

And you are!?

----------

I'm also a pro photographer. My 2011 mini (2.7 i7, discreet graphics, 16GB ram) really struggles driving a 27" monitor (Eizo CG275W) running Photoshop CS6. Everything is slow and laggy.
You use probably Lion or Mountain Lion, which have horrible GPU drivers.
 

MrXiro

macrumors 68040
Nov 2, 2007
3,850
599
Los Angeles
Maybe I am delusional. But my Mac Mini colors look as good as my 2011 iMac's screen. The colors are vibrant and fantastic. I have the Dell S2340M.

Previously I had a new viewsonic (forgetting the model number but it is an IPS) which came up as a HD709 on the screen settings, then a Dell S2440L that just came up as Display and looked washed out and th contrast was all messed up.

Switched it out for the S2340M and it looks perfect to me also it pops up as a S2340M on the Display settings.

Just my experience.
 

Rob.G

macrumors 6502a
Jan 17, 2010
528
85
Arizona
I just did the update and noticed my secondary (HDMI) monitor was a bit more washed out than it had been, so I tweaked it's controls a bit. Now it looks better than it ever has.

Time will tell if the other problems go away.

Rob
 

fa8362

macrumors 68000
Jul 7, 2008
1,571
496
The problem that annoys me most is the bad colours and the delay in responding after turning the monitor on, none of which the new 1.7 EFI update fixes!

I really hope Apple considers this!

I don't have any video issues using either video output, and no delays or bad color either with my 2012 2.3 i7.

Using the HDMI output, my Cintiq did go black for a split second twice in 3 weeks of usage. Hardly worth mentioning.
 

xheathen

macrumors 6502
Aug 5, 2010
300
17
I'm also a pro photographer. My 2011 mini (2.7 i7, discreet graphics, 16GB ram) really struggles driving a 27" monitor (Eizo CG275W) running Photoshop CS6. Everything is slow and laggy.

I'm planning on trying a 2012 mini. But if Apple released a new Mac Pro I'd jump on it.

What image sizes are you working with? I'm a designer and end up working on things that are like at most 11x17 and I don't seem to see it struggle until I start doing like massive format digital painting stuff. I did replace my hdd with ssd so maybe that's making a difference.
 

apple-win

macrumors regular
Dec 4, 2012
226
0
The problem that annoys me most is the bad colours and the delay in responding after turning the monitor on, none of which the new 1.7 EFI update fixes!

I really hope Apple considers this!

Have you tried boot camp Windows 7/8/XP? Is it just an OS X issue?
I want to buy a Mac Mini to replace my noisy HTPC. I want perfect colours, no hiccup video, no hiccup audio.
 

elliotn

macrumors regular
Sep 5, 2011
152
0
What image sizes are you working with? I'm a designer and end up working on things that are like at most 11x17 and I don't seem to see it struggle until I start doing like massive format digital painting stuff. I did replace my hdd with ssd so maybe that's making a difference.

Nothing huge. 12mp or 24 mp camera files. 16bit PSDs, with a couple of retouch layers and about 10 masked adjustment layers. (To be fair, I often have about 10 of these documents open at the same time.) Zooming in and out with Photoshop CS6 is very laggy. Often the brush cursor disappears and I have to restart Photoshop. I tried the 2011 mini Server before this one and had similar problems.
 

ZaYoOoD

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 27, 2010
75
3
Have you tried boot camp Windows 7/8/XP? Is it just an OS X issue?
I want to buy a Mac Mini to replace my noisy HTPC. I want perfect colours, no hiccup video, no hiccup audio.

No colour issues with Windows, only with Mac OS X..
 
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