Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How to make the Mac Mini to use an external SSD as swap memory?
- Thread starter hajime
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The only way I know of would be to actually boot off that external SSD. I don't know of a way to use the external drive solely for swap.
The SSD on the M2 is incredibly fast. An external SSD wouldn't be able to match it, and could be 10x slower or worse, bringing your system to a crawl when it starts needing to use that swap. But if you really wanted to try it, the instructions at this link are very thorough and have been kept up to date.
apple.stackexchange.com
How can I move virtual memory swap files to a different drive or partition?
note: This is a question that I asked on SuperUser a while ago. I'm re-posting it here because I think it belongs here. By default, Mac OS X stores its swap files in /private/var/vm/. I would like...
Where to have the conclusion external ssd much slower than internal ssd?hmmm…The SSD on the M2 is incredibly fast. An external SSD wouldn't be able to match it, and could be 10x slower or worse, bringing your system to a crawl when it starts needing to use that swap. But if you really wanted to try it, the instructions at this link are very thorough and have been kept up to date.
How can I move virtual memory swap files to a different drive or partition?
note: This is a question that I asked on SuperUser a while ago. I'm re-posting it here because I think it belongs here. By default, Mac OS X stores its swap files in /private/var/vm/. I would like...
I thought that was common knowledge ... 🤔
Yeah, the internal SSD is significantly faster than most external SSD solutions. I've got a Sabrent Rocket 2TB NVMe drive connected through a Qwiizlab UH25 Pro dock/enclosure (USB 3.2 Gen 2), and it only hits about 900Mbps read/write. If I had a significantly more expensive enclosure (Thunderbolt 4, for example) I could get closer to the drive's max speed of 3000Mbps or so. Meanwhile, the M2 Mac mini's internal SSD writes at 3200Mbps and reads at about 3000Mbps - three times faster than my USB 3.2 Gen 2 dock.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
my acasis tbu405+980pro hit around 3000mbps but my 16gb m2 mini only hit 1500mbps, am i getting a fake apple?🤔
It's that slow because you've got the 256GB model. 512GB and higher is literally twice as fast - just Apple being Apple.
My mini M2 base model has an average of 1500.8 MB/S write and 1506.6 MB/s read.
Is it true that for the M2 Mini, the 1TB version and 512GB version have the same SSD speed?
Is it true that for the M2 Mini, the 1TB version and 512GB version have the same SSD speed?
Last edited:
buy a high quality SSD like the WD black 850x 4TB and put it in a 40gbps USB4 enclosure and it should be faster than the internal Mac mini memory and then ya can install your whole system on the external
If its model dependant means its not common knowledges, especially for newbie like us. Nevertheless, in my case or even 512gb model also not significant faster than external ssd. Its still depending what are the hardwares setup.
Boot from an external SSD. Pretty much your only option at this point.
The SSD on the M2 is incredibly fast. An external SSD wouldn't be able to match it, and could be 10x slower or worse, bringing your system to a crawl when it starts needing to use that swap. But if you really wanted to try it, the instructions at this link are very thorough and have been kept up to date.
How can I move virtual memory swap files to a different drive or partition?
note: This is a question that I asked on SuperUser a while ago. I'm re-posting it here because I think it belongs here. By default, Mac OS X stores its swap files in /private/var/vm/. I would like...
While that article doesn't predate System Integrity Protection (SIP), it does predate macOS being on a signed/sealed system volume that is completely immutable by anything that isn't an Apple software update.
Yeah don’t say this stuff too loud. People are on a rampage about how massively slow these SSDs are on macs.
I saved a couple of hundred dollars on getting the 256 internal on my M2 mini. I used my money on a 2TB external NVMe in thunderbolt enclosure. Blackmagic scores: internal 1500MB/s - external 1300. Good bang for the buck if you know how to offload the internal to the external and use aliases/symlinks. I manage to keep 50% free space the internal, by having only system, apps, and essential files on it. 1300-1500MB speeds are plenty fast.
Wow, how big is your SSD? I have the M2 Pro Mini with 16/512GB and I'm seeing over 4000Mb/s Write and near 3000Mb/s Read on my internal.
Besides the technical exercise of making it work, why would you ever want to do this? My "base" 8GB / 256GB M1 Mac Mini has been running for several days and it's used/using exactly 0 bytes of Swap memory. I worry about many things in life, but my swap memory usage is not among them.