Okay, so I bit the bullet and ordered an i5/8GB and I have also ordered 16GB Ram to upgrade later on. Saved myself about £130 as a result, so not bad.
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Can a 2020 i5 Mac Mini drive a 3440x1440 display?
- Thread starter shenfrey
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Thanks! I was torn between i5 and i7, but after looking up more comparison benchmarks and information on hyper threading, there really wasn’t that much difference between the two. For my use case of a casual machine for viewing and lightly editing photos plus media consumption, I think the i5 was the well rounded choice.
My 2018 i7 Mini with 256GB SSD and 32GB RAM drives my 32" BENQ EW3270ZL (2560x1440) and a 24" DELL 2407WFP (1920x1200) display with no issues. I don’t game, but I do use Sketchup for 3D imaging of a complex model of our house complete w/ detailed furniture, trees, cars, etc. with no display lag when rotating, zooming in/out, etc.
GetRealBro
I am not sure about all the hate on the Intel graphics, if you are just a regular user who doesn't do video editing.
Most non gaming windows PCs and Laptops come with the same graphics chipset as the new Mini has, and I don't see a ton of windows users complaining or hating like I see on here.
If you don't do video editing or gaming, I don't see what the issue is. Maybe MacOS isn't as efficient as Windows when it comes to graphics.
Oh and as far as the monitor, I just ordered the 25" Dell UltraSharp 25 USB-C Monitor: U2520D, it won't be here until the end of the month, but I am sure the 2560x1440 will look better than my 24" 1080p Samsung I have now. And it's also on sale right now for $379.
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+1 on the Dell monitor, great resolution and the reason why I'd only go 5k if getting a Retina monitor - I couldn't live without the real estate of a 1440p display. And the bonus is it's capable of charging anything up to a 15" MacBook Pro from the USB-C port which also acts as a USB hub.
Such a pity the Mini doesn't have a dGPU because adding eGPU and GPU to it just isn't cost effective in my opinion but I'm not going to decry the decision because it's a perfectly good machine spec-wise aside from that.
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As with most CPU upgrades on Macs, the cost/benefit isn't there for an i7 otherwise it might be a decent buy as the i7s are meant to be higher quality samples.
Cool. I was thinking about the BENQ 3200Q (also 32" 2560x1440), which I assume could be driven with a USB-C to MiniDisplayport (or DisplayPort?) cable? The monitor specs say it has DisplayPort 1.2, Mini DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4 inputs.
Then I would connect my Sony 1080p production monitor to the HDMI port for use with Final Cut Pro. Is the Mini HDMI 2.0 port backwards compatible with old HDMI cables, or is some kind of adapter needed for that?
Then I would connect my Sony 1080p production monitor to the HDMI port for use with Final Cut Pro. Is the Mini HDMI 2.0 port backwards compatible with old HDMI cables, or is some kind of adapter needed for that?
I have both of my monitors attached via USB-C. I had trouble using the HDMI port for either monitor, even after I replaced the HDMI-DVI cable. Here are a few posts of my saga finding cables that work for me…
New 2018 Mac mini display issue
This is almost certainly a cable/monitor problem. My 2018 Mini's internal graphics handles two monitors, both higher resolution than 1920x1080. The BenQ is attached via USBcDisplay Port and the DELL is attached via USBcDVI cable. You can adjust the resolution of a monitor using System...
forums.macrumors.com
Flying Blind
I’m the guy who was shocked that my new 2018 i7 Mini wouldn’t work with my DELL2407WFP when it was connected with an Amazon Basics HDMI-> DVI cable, that works fine with my 2014 Mini. Since that early post I discovered that BOTH of these cables will work with my 2018 Mini and DELL2407WFP or...
forums.macrumors.com
The USB-C ports work fine with both monitors including allowing dimming via the keyboard, etc. So in the end I just gave up and quit trying to use the HDMI port
GetRealBro
I find this strange, as I read that the 2018 Mac Mini can only allocate up to 1.5 GB VRAM to the iGPU. Surely 6.5 GB RAM for the remainder of the system should be sufficient in most cases, no? Is there something I am missing?
I’m uneducated in this area so I’m reluctant to comment, however I will state my observations.
My gaming PC has 16GB, and with windows running and many applications open, both first and third party, I was using a little over 4GB of memory.
A fresh install of MacOS, sitting at the desktop with only a few first party applications open, I was using about 6GB - 6.5GB ram.
Interesting. Maybe the system prioritises delegating RAM to apps over the iGPU, despite the former likely being inactive.
Oh and as far as the monitor, I just ordered the 25" Dell UltraSharp 25 USB-C Monitor: U2520D, it won't be here until the end of the month, but I am sure the 2560x1440 will look better than my 24" 1080p Samsung I have now. And it's also on sale right now for $379.
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Shop Dell’s high-quality computer accessories like keyboards, mice, webcams, batteries and more. Enjoy great deals and build your ideal PC setup for home or business.www.dell.com
You gonna love this monitor! I recently got a BENQ pd2500q. 25", 1440p as well. For me the perfect size and resolution as far as a desktop goes.
It is not so easy to compare RAM usage between different OSes based on readings in task monitors. The question is, are we sure the measures are comparable ? Or, do they correspond to the same thing ?
Some OSes map memory to Apps before it is actually used. An App may ask for 500 Mb and get 1 Gb of virtual space, only half of which is actually used and stored in physical memory. Then, when the resources get tighter the difference between what is shown and actual usage narrows. I am not sure what Windows reports. Based on my observation, I would tend to believe that MacOS reports higher numbers than actual usage. I am happy to be corrected, or pointed to more precise information (I did not have time to investigate so far.
Strange - 4K works fine for me on base model 2018 i3 with 8 GB. LG 4 K from about 3 years ago with DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0 in puts. Am using a USB -C to DisplayPort adapter.
Something I've found is that since it's capable of running one 5K monitor that means it's capable of pushing 5120 by 2880 pixels fine. Doing the resizing takes a little bit of GPU power as well. I've been using easyres (free in App Store) to set the scaling resolution of my 28" 4K display to looks like 2304 by 1296. This is roughly the same PPI as my 24" 1080p monitor off to the side (so dragging stuff over doesn't radically change it's size) plus it's less than 5K by a decent margin so animations are still smooth like 4K native or 1080p. Granted I have 32GB RAM I installed myself but even with that scaled 3008 by 1692 can have slow animations.
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The important bit is what resolution or scaling you're using. It's fine on native 4K or looks like 1080p, other options that may be better for some monitor sizes can have very slow animations.
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The important bit is what resolution or scaling you're using. It's fine on native 4K or looks like 1080p, other options that may be better for some monitor sizes can have very slow animations.
Even though the OP already made his decision, others may stumble across this thread.
For the records: A 2012 mini i7 /w 16GB Ram and macOS Mojave drives an UW display (3440x1440) just fine via TB2/DP, while in parallel driving a second monitor (FullHD) via HDMI. No noticeable stutter or lagging during normal office, web and light photo work.
Despite all the bad press that the iGPU in the 2018 mini received, I am pretty confident that it is significantly more powerful than the antique HD4000 in the 2012 mini.
For the records: A 2012 mini i7 /w 16GB Ram and macOS Mojave drives an UW display (3440x1440) just fine via TB2/DP, while in parallel driving a second monitor (FullHD) via HDMI. No noticeable stutter or lagging during normal office, web and light photo work.
Despite all the bad press that the iGPU in the 2018 mini received, I am pretty confident that it is significantly more powerful than the antique HD4000 in the 2012 mini.
Fer sure. I have 2 x 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz, and it's working as a charm.
Just driving two or three 4K displays is easy for the GPU.
However, it may not be a good idea to have the GPU do 2 x 3840 x 2160 x 60 = one billion floating ops per second just to scale your output, although some actually prefer to use 4K screens at 2560 x 1440.
Just driving two or three 4K displays is easy for the GPU.
However, it may not be a good idea to have the GPU do 2 x 3840 x 2160 x 60 = one billion floating ops per second just to scale your output, although some actually prefer to use 4K screens at 2560 x 1440.
I have to be honest. Though I didn't have any issues before, nothing crashed etc, I have noticed - for whatever reason - since upgrading to 16GB, the animations have been so much smoother. It's almost as if I have upgraded the GPU. Folders transition smoothly, time machine loads quicker (no stuttering when animating in its UI) and just things generually look more silky smooth.
I didn't think ram would do that, very strange.
I think its to each their own. I am using i5 Mac mini with 8gb ram. I have done plenty of video encoding on it and with video toolbox support of T2 chip. hevc encoding is super fast of 4k 60fps vids. playing HDR videos at 4k is superb. I have tried using both native resolution and scaled to full hd to get retina. both work just fine for me. here is my video with demo of both
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running a 3440x1440 on 120hz right now on a MacMini i7/32GB/512GB. Runs fine.
Yo have to fiddle with the fonts in terminal to get it right because small text looks weird...
If you check the internet you will find a lot of cases (not only for 3440x1440).
Monitor is a Iiyama GB3461WQSU-B1.
Yo have to fiddle with the fonts in terminal to get it right because small text looks weird...
If you check the internet you will find a lot of cases (not only for 3440x1440).
Monitor is a Iiyama GB3461WQSU-B1.
I should mention, I tried two Samsung monitors 4K monitors and there was at least some speculation that the issue was peculiar to the Samsung. It was "ok" (still not great) on default resolution but once I tried any scaled resolutions it was one big choppy, single-core popping mess.
Since I only had 14 days and, of course, a job and other things to do then continually buy monitors, return them, etc. I just got frustrated and gave up. Apparently others are having success, so that's good.