Can anyone post an update on how the 2014 Mini ($699 model or up) is handling imports, edits, and exports with Lightroom (or iMovie)?
Thanks.
Thanks.
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2014 Mini with Lightroom experience anyone?
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Exporting using Imovie
I have a 2014 mac mini ($699) with 2.6 dc i5 1Tb 5400rpm, saw your post and tried it out using imovie, I do have lightroom 3, but didn't try that.
I loaded two projects, one was 2Gb shot with a GoPro in 720p, the other was 20Gb shot using a Sony HD Cam in 1080i. Using share feature, I exported both as a "file" onto the desktop as 1080p set at proRes quality.
Under no load (no other programs open, just Active monitor and Imovie)
2GB file took 1min 15sec
20GB file took 17min 10sec
Under load (had Safari with 4 tabs, Iphoto, Mail, Itunes playing music)
2GB file took 1min 30 sec
20GB file took 18min 25 sec
The weird thing was that using a memory free program, it showed all 8GB of memory were being used under full load, yet using Activity Monitor it never showed memory pressure (stayed in green whole time). Although, looking at CPU usage, it fluctuated between 70-100%, with most of the time sitting in the 90's. Doing other processes, like surfing Safari, did seem a little slower, but considering all the stuff I had open, it was actually not that bad.
The difference in time is really small, I think with an SSD HD instead, this would have been sped up a ton. Not sure how much faster it would have been on the 2012 2.3 qci7, but I really feel the bottleneck was the 5400rpm stock drive. just my $.02
I have a 2014 mac mini ($699) with 2.6 dc i5 1Tb 5400rpm, saw your post and tried it out using imovie, I do have lightroom 3, but didn't try that.
I loaded two projects, one was 2Gb shot with a GoPro in 720p, the other was 20Gb shot using a Sony HD Cam in 1080i. Using share feature, I exported both as a "file" onto the desktop as 1080p set at proRes quality.
Under no load (no other programs open, just Active monitor and Imovie)
2GB file took 1min 15sec
20GB file took 17min 10sec
Under load (had Safari with 4 tabs, Iphoto, Mail, Itunes playing music)
2GB file took 1min 30 sec
20GB file took 18min 25 sec
The weird thing was that using a memory free program, it showed all 8GB of memory were being used under full load, yet using Activity Monitor it never showed memory pressure (stayed in green whole time). Although, looking at CPU usage, it fluctuated between 70-100%, with most of the time sitting in the 90's. Doing other processes, like surfing Safari, did seem a little slower, but considering all the stuff I had open, it was actually not that bad.
The difference in time is really small, I think with an SSD HD instead, this would have been sped up a ton. Not sure how much faster it would have been on the 2012 2.3 qci7, but I really feel the bottleneck was the 5400rpm stock drive. just my $.02
I just did some comparative testing between my 13" rMBP and quad core mini (2011).
My rMBP has effectively the same internals as the 2014 mini, with a haswell 2.8GHz i7 dual core; really close enough to the 2.8GHz i5 mini.
Lightroom on my rMBP performs almost identically to my 2011 mini, which is the 2.0GHz quad. Both systems use SSD.
Exporting 20 full-size JPG from olympus RAW files (16.1MP) took 1:09 on my mini, and 1:12 on my rMBP. I thought the quad core would be much faster but apparently exporting isn't that multithreaded.
VSCO presets took the same amount of time to apply to each image (plenty quick enough).
So, from this I would say that the top-spec 2014 mini performs comparably to the 2011 quad-core model in Lightroom. This means the 2012 models would be a bit faster, but the 2014 wouldn't be too slow by any means. LR doesn't use any GPU acceleration either, so the Iris Graphics doesn't even provide an advantage over the HD3000.
Video would be a whole different story.
My rMBP has effectively the same internals as the 2014 mini, with a haswell 2.8GHz i7 dual core; really close enough to the 2.8GHz i5 mini.
Lightroom on my rMBP performs almost identically to my 2011 mini, which is the 2.0GHz quad. Both systems use SSD.
Exporting 20 full-size JPG from olympus RAW files (16.1MP) took 1:09 on my mini, and 1:12 on my rMBP. I thought the quad core would be much faster but apparently exporting isn't that multithreaded.
VSCO presets took the same amount of time to apply to each image (plenty quick enough).
So, from this I would say that the top-spec 2014 mini performs comparably to the 2011 quad-core model in Lightroom. This means the 2012 models would be a bit faster, but the 2014 wouldn't be too slow by any means. LR doesn't use any GPU acceleration either, so the Iris Graphics doesn't even provide an advantage over the HD3000.
Video would be a whole different story.
Thanks to both of you! I'm using a 2011 Mini 2.3 dual core. At the time I bought it, I wasn't into photo/video as much. I put 8 GB RAM in and eventually got an SSD. It's pretty fast for everyday use. However, while editing RAW photos in LR5 the system slows a bit, like during cropping and going between modules. It's tolerable...but noticeable. I frequently see the CPU % go over 100, and even up to 200-300 during import/export. I wonder if this is normal. Fan pops on full speed and all 4 bars in activity monitor are maxed. I guess this is expected during export of pics and videos from iMovie. And sometimes the fan comes on during HD video online. I don't see this same behavior on my 2012 13" rMBP 2.5 i5 dual with SSD and 8GB RAM. (I don't do a ton of photo editing on this one...too small of a screen).
Don't absolutely need a new mini yet but mine is about 3.5 years old now so....may need explore some options soon. I know everyone is touting quad core but at this point, those machines are 2+ years old and I'm betting a 2.6 or 2.8 newer processor with SSD would be fine for LR, iMovie, and light Photoshop.
Don't absolutely need a new mini yet but mine is about 3.5 years old now so....may need explore some options soon. I know everyone is touting quad core but at this point, those machines are 2+ years old and I'm betting a 2.6 or 2.8 newer processor with SSD would be fine for LR, iMovie, and light Photoshop.
Don't absolutely need a new mini yet but mine is about 3.5 years old now so....may need explore some options soon. I know everyone is touting quad core but at this point, those machines are 2+ years old and I'm betting a 2.6 or 2.8 newer processor with SSD would be fine for LR, iMovie, and light Photoshop.
New and old is relative, as the 2014 Mac Mini got last year's up/downgrades.
I'm betting a 2.6 or 2.8 newer processor with SSD would be fine for LR, iMovie, and light Photoshop.
This would be my bet. I'm planning on keeping the 2014 2.6 and waiting till the PCIe retro comes out. From all the tear downs, it would be super easy to install an PCIe cable and a Blade SSD into this (as compared with completely disassembling a 2012). With a DIY Fusion drive, I think the export would be 5X faster.
If I could change one thing, I would have ordered it with the 16Gb ram though. The system pretty much uses up 4 of the 8GB I have at all times, although like I mentioned, even under full load there was not memory stress.
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