Late 2014 Mac Mini Benchmarks Indicate Decreased Multi-Core Performance

[mkldev]

Do you understand how cores work? Honestly, I feel like people here have no idea how processors function. More than likely, you will never be using four cores at once.

Spoken like someone who has never used a cluster of Mac Mini machines for a render farm.

If you are really in a situation that calls for tons of cores, buy a computer designed for high-level usage like an iMac or Mac Pro.

Spoken like someone who has never tried to rack mount a stack of iMacs or Mac Pros.

Not everybody uses Mac Mini machines as desktop computers. They're quite popular in compute clusters and server farms because of their form factor. And in those environments, the extra cores matter. A lot.

Of course, if your compute farm also depends on GPU power, you might still be better off with the newest Mini, but if you're CPU-bound, the previous model is a much better deal. Unfortunately, I'm CPU-bound AND GPU-bound (first one, then the other), so I'm pretty much equally screwed either way.

 

[flyinmac]

Spoken like someone who has never used a cluster of Mac Mini machines for a render farm.




Spoken like someone who has never tried to rack mount a stack of iMacs or Mac Pros.

Not everybody uses Mac Mini machines as desktop computers. They're quite popular in compute clusters and server farms because of their form factor. And in those environments, the extra cores matter. A lot.

Of course, if your compute farm also depends on GPU power, you might still be better off with the newest Mini, but if you're CPU-bound, the previous model is a much better deal. Unfortunately, I'm CPU-bound AND GPU-bound (first one, then the other), so I'm pretty much equally screwed either way.

LOL... or split the load... a few of each generation...

 

[patent10021]

……….

 

[flyinmac]

……….

You know, that's a great idea... skip the mini... just give me Woz... Much more useful I'm sure. There's a man that knows how to get things done. I'll take his brain over an Intel CPU any day.

 

[MarkusL]

The problem with the Mac Mini is it's size. They switched to BGA to conserve power and make the thing smaller. You can't continually make stuff smaller while increasing performance, you run out of TDP headroom.

But they didn't make it smaller this time.

 

[flyinmac]

But they didn't make it smaller this time.

They still had to conserve space... Gerbils are small, but they still need room...

 

[simonmet]

So was Tim Cook and Apple's hype about Apple's product lineup this year justified? I think not.

We got larger phones with some potential durability issues and no significant advances in battery life (that just happen to have lost a lot of personality too in my opinion), a retina iMac but unimproved rest of the lineup, faster and thinner iPad but relatively unimproved iPad Mini(s), an unexciting Mac Mini update without case refresh considering the long wait for a new model, an announcement for a watch that isn't even released until next year, relatively minor MacBook (Pro) speed bumps and additions and an iPod lineup, AppleTV and Cinema Display that look all but abandon-ware.

Is Apple doing as well as it could or should or is it (in cahoots with Intel) deliberately slowing down its pace of development, releasing more minor updates less often than in the past and continuing to cripple its low-end products or offer ancient models (hello iPad) just to claim low entry price points. I argue the latter.

Apple no longer represents technophiles and readers of this site, nor are they interested in getting the best possible deal for consumers that can't afford the best models. They represent the technically illiterate and luddites that don't know an Intel Graphics from a GeForce GTX 980.

 

[akbarali.ch]

I used to recommend MacMini to friends if I came to know they are upgrading or planning to get a new comp. I would tell them to also consider MacMini as viable option, as it runs windows quite well (which is something a lot of windows users don't know yet)

I started using Mac with MacMini and now I own iMac.

I don't think I'll recommend it to anyone anymore.

I think it's wrong strategy, MacMini in fact should be highly upgradable as it is first comp any windows user will think of before switching.

 

[Jimrod]

Do you buy an iPad and get angry that it doesn't run OS X? Do you buy a Mac Pro and get angry that it has no display? On a different note, do you buy a fork and get angry that you can't eat soup with it? No, because we buy things for what they are meant to do. Your point makes even less sense since you talk about consumers en masse. The average consumer doesn't need a quad-core. The average consumer will buy whatever is cheapest, and even the MBA i5 setup in the $499 Mini will do everything they need it to.

No, the average consumer will just buy a Windows PC.

 

[flyinmac]

No, the average consumer will just buy a Windows PC.

Exactly

 

[schopaia]

"That kind of Mac Mini, or any product really, has ever existed in Apple's lineup."

What are you talking about 'westrock2000'? It exists - I own the product. It is called the 2012 quad core i7 Mac Mini!!!! I run advanced architectural 3D software on it, run the entire Adobe suite at the same time and use 4 cores every day for architectural renderings. It cost me $1300. Now it now longer exists with this update. Now I have to buy an iMac or spend $3000 for a Mac Pro.

See my above post as to why both those options are not viable.

You seem very passionate about the topic but if you're serious about renderings (and particularly if you base your business on that) you'd be much better served by a computer with a modern nvidia gpu. Not a mac mini with intel "graphics".

 

[rrl]

Please stop listening to these Apple apologists. Since OS X 10.6, everyone benefits with more cores, even if you're just web surfing or checking email.

Do you understand how cores work? Honestly, I feel like people here have no idea how processors function. More than likely, you will never be using four cores at once. The multi-core scores of a system with four cores are going to be higher than one with two, but if you never use more than those two cores, it's not going to matter. You'll see an improvement, for Christ's sake. If you are really in a situation that calls for tons of cores, buy a computer designed for high-level usage like an iMac or Mac Pro.

Do you understand how OS X works? Honestly, I feel like people here have no idea how modern OSes function. Here's something simple everyone can try at home. Close all applications other than Safari and then open Activity Monitor. Under the "Window" menu, select "CPU History." Now cruise around your favorite web sites for a while and see what you get. If you have a 2012 quad core Mac Mini, it'll probably look something like this:

This is me just scrolling through my Mail inbox:

Here is what Minecraft looks like:

The 2014 Mac Mini isn't anything to write home about.

 

[_Refurbished_]

Believe me you can get a huge variety of quad core PC's for under $3000. In fact my friend just custom built a 6 core PC for $2500.

OSX is not worth being jerked around like this anymore.

$2500? A 6-core AMD CPU costs about $100. You can build a capable 6-core PC for about $400.

Moving on from your comment, it's time to address the people complaining in this forum....

The number of cores is second to the architecture of the chip. Cores mean little when determining overall CPU performance.

Funny how no one complains that Apple uses MOBILE components in their desktop computers. Yes, the Mac Mini's CPU is a mobile CPU. It's not a desktop class Intel processor. Stick a real i5 in there and watch it fly.

More food for thought: The iPhone 6 and 6+ are dual-core phones. They compete, and in many cases outperform, flagship Android quad-core chips.

Should I continue? Yes.

Look at the PC market and you'll see a similar story. AMD CPUs are 6-core and get SMOKED by Intel's 4-core CPUs

Lastly, the argument that Apple got rid of quad-core CPUs to create a lower price point is false. If that were the case, the $599 + Mac Mini's would be quad-core. Those, however, are also dual-core.

 

[RockSpider]

I used to recommend MacMini to friends if I came to know they are upgrading or planning to get a new comp. I would tell them to also consider MacMini as viable option, as it runs windows quite well (which is something a lot of windows users don't know yet)

I started using Mac with MacMini and now I own iMac.

I don't think I'll recommend it to anyone anymore.

I think it's wrong strategy, MacMini in fact should be highly upgradable as it is first comp any windows user will think of before switching.

I know it runs Windows quite well, not overly well, but quite well, I've got the Core i7 2.5GHZ, I bought it as an entertainment machine mainly.
I would have upgraded in a couple of years, but it doesn't look like it now, I'll be going back to an ITX Windows PC.

 

[schopaia]

Us iPhone and iPad users don't talk about specs like Droid fanboys, because iPhones and iPads have the best specs among their piers. iDevices have the best CPU performance (especially at Single Core Performance), best displays (color accuracy, brightness, etc), best camera, and (now with 6+) industry leading battery life.

Yes, iDevices come at a premium, but we also get the highest possible performance and user experience.

But with the mac mini, it's just ridiculous that with this huge premium comes such an inferior product. One can easily build a desktop machine that is at least $300 cheaper and equally capable, if not more so.

What happened to "we don't ship junk"? What happened to "we ship things we are proud to recommend to our family and friends"?

If I recommend the Mac mini to anyone, they will think of me as an idiot.

Check the prices on the intel parts they're using then, please, show us what you've cooked up for $500 - $300 = $200.

 

[flat five]

Now cruise around your favorite web sites ... look something like this:
This is me just scrolling through my Mail inbox:
Here is what Minecraft looks like:

???
bad examples maybe?
none of those are showing maxed out processors.

don't you have any other applications besides mail and safari to make some sort of point about multiple cores?

 

[wolfie]

Crap like this just pushes more people down the Hackintosh road.

There is absolutely no justification for this behaviour from any company thats does not want to piss of its customers.

Last year I ventured into the road of hackintosh and it was a very steep learning curve. With time, I learnt the ways and created a stable system. I love it.

My parents have been wanting a new MacMini for a year now as their 5 year machine is getting on (they already have the 24 inch cinema display and mouse/keyboard). Each time they ask I urge them to wait it out for only, if nothing else, the older models will drop in value. Much to my surprise Apple pulled this crap. Ive now resigned myself to building a hack for them too. Its not ideal, as they are technological incompetent and I will have to ensure boot loaders stay stable during upgrades but I can't bring myself to telling them to go buy whats out there. I would feel very dirty doing that to my own folks.

SHAME ON YOU APPLE. I get they wanted to achieve the low price point but does it HURT FOR OPTIONS.

 

[Slippery Gimp]

You seem very passionate about the topic but if you're serious about renderings (and particularly if you base your business on that) you'd be much better served by a computer with a modern nvidia gpu. Not a mac mini with intel "graphics".

It might be different between software packages, but I use 3DS Max and it uses the CPU to render. The geometry in the scene is handled by the GPU, so more cores would be better for rendering.

 

[RockSpider]

If there's one thing I've noticed in the last couple of weeks, it's that Apple users are finally starting to wake up to the fact that Apple is just after their money, Its not this luvvy duvvy fruit company trying to make you happy, it's all about the bucks.
I'm not saying don't buy Apple, just buy the things that are good value for money, don't just rush out blindly, there are other options that are nowhere near as bad as people make out.

 

[flat five]

If there's one thing I've noticed in the last couple of weeks, it's that Apple users are finally starting to wake up to the fact that Apple is just after their money, Its not this luvvy duvvy fruit company trying to make you happy, it's all about the bucks.
I'm not saying don't buy Apple, just buy the things that are good value for money, don't just rush out blindly, there are other options that are nowhere near as bad as people make out.

dude, have you just crawled out from under a rock or something? people have always said this kind of stuff about apple.. always

'the last couple of weeks'

 

[smulji]

Spoken like someone who has never used a cluster of Mac Mini machines for a render farm.




Spoken like someone who has never tried to rack mount a stack of iMacs or Mac Pros.

Not everybody uses Mac Mini machines as desktop computers. They're quite popular in compute clusters and server farms because of their form factor. And in those environments, the extra cores matter. A lot.

Of course, if your compute farm also depends on GPU power, you might still be better off with the newest Mini, but if you're CPU-bound, the previous model is a much better deal. Unfortunately, I'm CPU-bound AND GPU-bound (first one, then the other), so I'm pretty much equally screwed either way.

These guys are very good at what they do. They have plans to use the nMP to in compute clusters and server farms.

http://blog.macminicolo.net/post/53283350778/our-plans-for-xcode-server-and-the-mac-pro

 

[wolfie]

Someone should email Tim Cook with a clear 'Please explain'.

 

[Vodka]

If there's one thing I've noticed in the last couple of weeks, it's that Apple users are finally starting to wake up to the fact that Apple is just after their money, Its not this luvvy duvvy fruit company trying to make you happy, it's all about the bucks.
I'm not saying don't buy Apple, just buy the things that are good value for money, don't just rush out blindly, there are other options that are nowhere near as bad as people make out.

Seriously, i was in love with apple products for a few years, but this Mac Mini and iPad mini release feels like a slap in the face..
Hopefully they'll get back on the track with next release

 

[rrl]

???
bad examples maybe?
none of those are showing maxed out processors.

don't you have any other applications besides mail and safari to make some sort of point about multiple cores?

The point wasn't to show maxed out processors, the point was to show that all cores get simultaneously utilized when doing common tasks. And if you watch the CPU History long enough, you'll notice this all-core simultaneous utilization is the rule not the exception.

 

[bluski9]

Tim Cook did say he was excited about Apple's product lineup going into the future..

Haven't seen anything that they've released so far to become really really excited...

A big screen phone, late to the game should of released this 2 years back..only minor updates to all their products and everything being thinner...

Woud prefer to have phone battery life that can last for at least 2 days, able to open multiple pages/apps on the ipad at the same time, etc etc..