Late 2014 Mac Mini Benchmarks Indicate Decreased Multi-Core Performance

[MentalFloss]

so if im understanding your post, the wiring in your house must be at least 25 years old if it never went out to be upgraded, changed or anything of that sort.

First: I have not lived in my current house for 25 years.
Second: I live in a country where the wiring in houses usually does not have to be upgraded, changed or anything of that sort for decades. I don't know what is happening with the wiring where you live, but we have had 230V/50Hz for as long as most people remember, so there has been very little need to "upgrade" anything.
Third: If such an upgrade had to be done, it would be announced beforehand, so I don't need a UPS to protect myself against sudden unannounced wiring upgrades.

I used to live in the US for a few years, and I had power outages every couple of months there, so people had a UPS. Here, I don't have that problem, so I will not buy a Macbook Pro just to enjoy the advantage of having power when someone decides to secretly upgrade the wiring in my house for no reason whatsoever.

 

[ufon68]

Apple is making it very hard for me to do the right thing.

I'm a computer enthusiast, who wants a somewhat speedy computer with somewhat capable graphics, but don't need to have(and pay for) a monitor attached to it.

I was waiting for the mini refresh, so that i can finally update my already aged(but upgraded) 2009 mini, and maybe do away with my quad core pc, which i need for the heavier stuff.

They have nothing in their lineup, which offers the price/performance ratio i'm after.
They have the weak mini, which is cheap, but quite incapable of anything more demanding than normal office stuff.
Then there is a better 21in imac, but you need to pay for the screen, you still get weak graphics, and zero upgradability.
And the 27in imac is finally capable of some 3d, with upgradable ram, but is way too expensive on account of the screen.
And then there is the mac pro, which costs over 4000USD(base model) where i live(central europe).

Basically, the only capable machines are the 27in imac and the mac pro. I was going to bite the bullet(of the weak GPU - yes, IRIS is still weak for what i want to do) and get the mini, as i expected to at least be able to upgrade the RAM and SDD and make it into a semi decent machine for a reasonable price. Now with that out of the window, i really don't know if i want to stick around in the apple ecosystem, as they don't seem to care about the segment i'm in.

Apple builds some great devices(retina imac, new mac pro), but maybe their designers, making as much as they do, got themselves out of touch with the "regular folks", like me, who don't have thousands of dollars sitting on their account, so they can get the latest and greatest, so they can get the same performance PC users can get for mere hundereds of dollars.

 

[WaxedJacket]

lol, well it is cheaper.

 

[age234]

This update and the iPad mini were ridiculous! What's with Apple ignoring all the minis?

I think Apple is turning the mini lines into a "baby's first Apple", especially for average non-power users who don't need powerful devices. The goal is to get the prices down and suck people into the Apple ecosystem.

 

[hachiman]

I think Apple is turning the mini lines into a "baby's first Apple", especially for average non-power users who don't need powerful devices. The goal is to get the prices down and suck people into the Apple ecosystem.

They certainly got the price down, but they are losing a lot of their current ecosystem's population, including me.

 

[Tech198]

Yes, it has poor value for people who don't need to take their work with them and work from anywhere in the world.

If someone buys a Macbook Pro and leaves it on the same desk for three years without moving it a single time, then that person has wasted money by buying a notebook without needing a notebook. Apple should not force people to waste money.

Aren't Apple doing enough ? Now, we want then to think for us too ?

You won't believe the same old things u get from listen to tech shows "WHat machine should i buy "

Its like a god saying "Buy mac " My response would be, "I dunno, haven't u got a brain?"

 

[flat five]

You have 3 computers, with 2, 4, and 6 cores and you don't notice the difference? What are you doing with them?

nice try.. you can try to change what i said all you wish but fortunately it's not a he-said-she-said situation.. it's real easy to go back and see what i wrote.

 

[Ifti]

Now Im even more happier with my i7 2.6Ghz! lol

 

[MentalFloss]

Aren't Apple doing enough ? Now, we want then to think for us too ?

I don't expect Apple to think for me. I just expect Apple to think.

There's a market segment which is called "Displayless mid-tier desktop computer". Apple has withdrawn from that market segment as of last week. Now my options are to buy a PC from another manufacturer at my next upgrade cycle or to buy a Mac that does not actually fit into the above market segment. Both are unpleasant options. I expect Apple to think about whether it is desirable for them that their customers are considering a Mac purchase a situation with "unpleasant options".

 

[furi0usbee]

Well, then we both should be disappointed.

By the way, wrote Steve Jobs once and he called me a liar (he was lying).

Sounds like Steve... I occasionally email Tim every now and then to let him know how I "feel" about something. But I must say, I've had 2-3 Apple issues where I needed to escalate something, and I'll be damned if I didn't get a call from Apple (Texas location) the next day asking questions and providing help.

So yeah, if not the man himself, someone is monitoring that address and you can use it to get some help. I try not to abuse it, but every now and then Apple does something so bad (or good) that I must let him know.

 

[macduke]

Wow, over 700 comments now. Is Apple trying to kill off the Mac Mini? I mean, if you're going to dumb it down anyway you might as well shove it into a tiny Apple TV sized enclosure right? The other thing is I think Apple wants more of an artificial gap between the Mac Mini and the iMac. The Geekbench scores were getting too close for quad-core. But considering how much money Apple makes on iOS devices, you'd think they wouldn't care as much if their margins are lower for Macs. Especially with all the new continuity features, you'd think they'd want everyone to get a Mac so that they're even further hooked into the ecosystem. I guess to a certain extent they accomplished that with the now lower-priced model, but will many people go for that? Even someone who is only somewhat educated on tech would realize that's an underpowered machine with a limited lifespan. That 1.4GHz i5 is about as fast as an early 2011 MacBook Pro 13".

"Today we introduced a stunning new desktop computer with the performance of a laptop from four years ago. Many of our customers are idiots, so we designed it to be slow enough that anyone can keep up with it."

On the plus side, I might be able to score an older quad-core model for cheap and gift it to my grandpa. Just need to pop in an SSD, load up Yosemite and it's good to go for editing his family movies.

 

[flat five]

Not for audio apps like Pro Tools. A Mini with 4-cores @2Ghz would be more useful for mixing than a dual-core @3Ghz imao. It utilizes all of the cores

yeah, but arguing about multicore performance in a 2-vs-4 core mac mini thread is laughable..
if your work revolves around parallel processing, it seems you should at least be in the macpro forum arguing about single vs. dual socket.. and there's plenty of that going on there.

 

[beaker7]

Base model:

1.4 ghz dual core
500 GB 5400 RPM Drive
4GB Memory
Integrated Graphics
$500


What year is this? I wouldn't wish this machine on anyone.

 

[fertilized-egg]

Apple builds some great devices(retina imac, new mac pro), but maybe their designers, making as much as they do, got themselves out of touch with the "regular folks", like me, who don't have thousands of dollars sitting on their account, so they can get the latest and greatest, so they can get the same performance PC users can get for mere hundereds of dollars.

The problem for the Mini is that "regular folks" nowadays buy laptops. If anything Apple's getting in more touch with regular folks since the average price of Mac has been going down, not up. But that's with a lot of people buying MacBooks rather than the desktops.

Apple haven't really tried to sell many cheap desktops ever since Jobs came back, and I always thought Jobs didn't show much affection for the Mini. It's unfortunate and the frustration is understandable but at this point Apple clearly isn't that interested in the Mini. Perhaps Intel NUCs and the similar PCs will serve the traditional Mini tinkerers better.

Base model:

1.4 ghz dual core
500 GB 5400 RPM Drive
4GB Memory
Integrated Graphics
$500

What year is this? I wouldn't wish this machine on anyone.

That machine wouldn't be so bad if it had an SSD option. At this point Apple really should be SSDs, or at least offer a cheap fusion option everywhere for the best customer experience. However they just do not want to give up the margin. On the other hand the margin on that thing probably isn't high to begin with. Macs carry relatively low margin already, and if there's one thing Apple loves, it's high margin.

 

[usarioclave]

Apple builds some great devices(retina imac, new mac pro), but maybe their designers, making as much as they do, got themselves out of touch with the "regular folks", like me, who don't have thousands of dollars sitting on their account, so they can get the latest and greatest, so they can get the same performance PC users can get for mere hundereds of dollars.

Again, do what I did: get a used Mac Pro and build out from there. It's cheaper than the equivalent PC, and can still run everything.

 

[zagahlo]

Apple is making it very hard for me to do the right thing.

I'm a computer enthusiast, who wants a somewhat speedy computer with somewhat capable graphics, but don't need to have(and pay for) a monitor attached to it.

I was waiting for the mini refresh, so that i can finally update my already aged(but upgraded) 2009 mini, and maybe do away with my quad core pc, which i need for the heavier stuff.

They have nothing in their lineup, which offers the price/performance ratio i'm after.
They have the weak mini, which is cheap, but quite incapable of anything more demanding than normal office stuff.
Then there is a better 21in imac, but you need to pay for the screen, you still get weak graphics, and zero upgradability.
And the 27in imac is finally capable of some 3d, with upgradable ram, but is way too expensive on account of the screen.
And then there is the mac pro, which costs over 4000USD(base model) where i live(central europe).

Basically, the only capable machines are the 27in imac and the mac pro. I was going to bite the bullet(of the weak GPU - yes, IRIS is still weak for what i want to do) and get the mini, as i expected to at least be able to upgrade the RAM and SDD and make it into a semi decent machine for a reasonable price. Now with that out of the window, i really don't know if i want to stick around in the apple ecosystem, as they don't seem to care about the segment i'm in.

Apple builds some great devices(retina imac, new mac pro), but maybe their designers, making as much as they do, got themselves out of touch with the "regular folks", like me, who don't have thousands of dollars sitting on their account, so they can get the latest and greatest, so they can get the same performance PC users can get for mere hundereds of dollars.

I couldn't agree with you more. I identify myself with your situation.

I was really excited about the 2014 Mac Mini. Intel Haswell Quad-core i7 for the highest configuration. And then... they do this. That's such a dissapointment, what a shame.

Now, I don't even know what to do next, if configure a mid-powerful pc, or "bite the apple" and pay for a 27" iMac.........

 

[Slippery Gimp]

Just went to my local Apple Store, one Mac Mini on display and it was the late 2012 i7 quad core. New one not good enough to display, Apple?!

 

[hachiman]

Base model:

1.4 ghz dual core
500 GB 5400 RPM Drive
4GB Memory
Integrated Graphics
$500


What year is this? I wouldn't wish this machine on anyone.

A few years ago, you can get the same thing for cheap, even on a low-end laptop. They're just repackaging the same thing, the only main difference is processor generations.

 

[MMANN113]

Can we file this one under "Be careful what you wish for?"

Mac Mini quote of the year right here^^!!

 

[fertilized-egg]

I couldn't agree with you more. I identify myself with your situation.

I was really excited about the 2014 Mac Mini. Intel Haswell Quad-core i7 for the highest configuration. And then... they do this. That's such a dissapointment, what a shame.

Now, I don't even know what to do next, if configure a mid-powerful pc, or "bite the apple" and pay for a 27" iMac.........

I'd bet that's what they are baiting you to do

This is not a new thing with Apple. Jobs clearly thought the mid-range desktop wasn't an area of high interest for Apple and ever since he came back Mac users have been asking for midrange desktop with upgradability. However as desktops get less and less prominent, it's less likely there'll be one.

This is always a good article to read to see the situation and hopes of a Mac user back in 2005. http://arstechnica.com/staff/2005/10/1676/ Nearly 10 years since the article and not much has changed, except now Intel doesn't care about the desktop as much as they used to either.

 

[oopsroger]

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

they'd rather choose an expensive ultra low TDP chip for less performance in a DESKTOP machine. Isn't that ridiculous enough? So to answer your question, for $200 I CAN cook a more powerful desktop than the mini.

desktop i3 - 4150T: benchmark 4537, $117
mobile i5 - 4250U:benchmark 3462, $342

 

[DotCom2]

"The Thread That Wouldn't Die"
Over 700 posts are ppl are still whining. The Mac Mini is junk now so, "Let It Go, Let IT Go".

 

[hachiman]

Just went to my local Apple Store, one Mac Mini on display and it was the late 2012 i7 quad core. New one not good enough to display, Apple?!

You better buy it up quick!

----------

"The Thread That Wouldn't Die"
Over 700 posts are ppl are still whining. The Mac Mini is junk now so, "Let It Go, Let IT Go".

Never! We're going to hammer it until Apple quitely releases a quad-core 4th generation i7! And if they do, they will probably charge you the same price as the low-end iMac. Now that would be the final straw.

I think I'll stick with Windows and build a new machine. Use my current gaming system for what I would have wanted to use for the mac mini. Intel 8-core and a nVidia 980 GTX, here I come!

 

[doelcm82]

Apple is making it very hard for me to do the right thing.

I'm a computer enthusiast, who wants a somewhat speedy computer with somewhat capable graphics, but don't need to have(and pay for) a monitor attached to it.

I was waiting for the mini refresh, so that i can finally update my already aged(but upgraded) 2009 mini, and maybe do away with my quad core pc, which i need for the heavier stuff.

They have nothing in their lineup, which offers the price/performance ratio i'm after.
They have the weak mini, which is cheap, but quite incapable of anything more demanding than normal office stuff.
Then there is a better 21in imac, but you need to pay for the screen, you still get weak graphics, and zero upgradability.
And the 27in imac is finally capable of some 3d, with upgradable ram, but is way too expensive on account of the screen.
And then there is the mac pro, which costs over 4000USD(base model) where i live(central europe).

Basically, the only capable machines are the 27in imac and the mac pro. I was going to bite the bullet(of the weak GPU - yes, IRIS is still weak for what i want to do) and get the mini, as i expected to at least be able to upgrade the RAM and SDD and make it into a semi decent machine for a reasonable price. Now with that out of the window, i really don't know if i want to stick around in the apple ecosystem, as they don't seem to care about the segment i'm in.

Apple builds some great devices(retina imac, new mac pro), but maybe their designers, making as much as they do, got themselves out of touch with the "regular folks", like me, who don't have thousands of dollars sitting on their account, so they can get the latest and greatest, so they can get the same performance PC users can get for mere hundereds of dollars.

I have the same problem with Tesla. My Prius gets me from place to place, but sometimes I just want to go from zero to sixty miles per hour in 3.2 seconds. Also, changing lanes manually can be a real pain, so I want the Autopilot feature. Unfortunately, Tesla prices their P85D over $100,000, and I don't have that kind of money to spend on a car.

Please, Tesla, work with me on this. I'm not saying you should throw in the rear-facing jump seats for free, but that would be nice (you know, for the kids).

 

[snorkelman]

That machine wouldn't be so bad if it had an SSD option. At this point Apple really should be SSDs, or at least offer a cheap fusion option everywhere for the best customer experience.

to be honest standardising the entire lineup on nothing but their proprietary SSDs would probably have gone down better than the soldered RAM, even though the SSD would have just as effectively locked folks into 'only at time of purchase from Apple' upgrades.