Mac Mini 2018 3.6 GHz Quad, 8 GB . . . . Logic Pro

[richmond62]

Can anyone tell me if a "low spec" 2018 Mac Mini will cope with Logic Pro?

i.e. NOT the official "faff" that Apple pump out to make you buy a high-end bankrupting monster.

 

[pldelisle]

If you are a power user, I'd rather go with 6 cores + 16 GB RAM.

The base Mac mini is for office purpose (in my opinion).

 

[richmond62]

Dunno:

I have this model and use it for programming and often have the programming IDE, LibreOffice, GIMP, VLC, calculator and a web-browser running without a hitch.

The question relates to my son who is a starving musician who has been offered a one-year contract with good pay BUT on the presupposition he has a Mac and Logic Pro.

 

[pldelisle]

calculator

This is really heavy for a computer.

LibreOffice

You really want to hurt yourself.

Just kidding.



If you already have the computer, then lets give it a try. He might not be able to run hundreds of tracks at the same time, but probably can handle something sufficient for him. It really depends of what is he doing within Logic Pro. For serious heavy work it might not handle it, but nothing can tell until he runs a real world project on it. And RAM is upgradable. So if he sees the RAM usage gets really high and starts paging, the RAM can be upgraded up to 64 GB which is pretty nice.

 

[Boyd01]

I'd say it depends completely on how you use Logic. I was running it with no problems on my 2011 MacBook Air with a slow i5 and only 4gb RAM. It was a bit faster on my 2013 MacBook Air with a dual core i7 and 8gb. My use back then was mostly live recording with 4 tracks and a few plug-ins.

It ran even better on my 2012 quad-core i7 Mini with 16gb RAM, typically with 8 tracks and some plug-ins. If you are doing something complex with lots of tracks and virtual instruments, I don't know how well that would work though. You might want to post a thread in the audio forum, there are usually some very knowledgeable people there.

Digital Audio

audio-oriented apps and techniques

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Wando64]

Absolutely what Boyd01 is saying ^^^^^^^

I use Logic with an i7 Dual core mbp with 16GB with no problems whatsoever.
However, with the type of music I do I tend to work mainly with real audio recordings, some plug-ins and only the occasional virtual instrument.
Virtual instruments and plug-ins are the killers, but even with a low spec Mac you can do a lot.

 

[Boyd01]

I should have added, the integrated graphics chip on the Mini uses 1.5gb of system memory, which only leaves 6.5gb for everything else. Many people have reported issues with the 8gb Mini, mostly when using a 4k screen, multiple screens and/or scaled resolutions. I'd say getting the 16gb Mini is a good idea, if you can afford it.

You can upgrade the RAM yourself for less, but Apple says that voids the warranty. Not clear whether they are actually strict about this though, and lots of people buy the 8gb Mini and upgrade themselves.

 

[pldelisle]

You can upgrade the RAM yourself for less, but Apple says that voids the warranty.

I don't know where you found this, but this is totally wrong. Upgrading RAM in a Mac mini 2018 doesn't void warranty unless you physically damage the internals while doing the upgrade.

 

[Boyd01]

Sorry, I worded that poorly, "might void your warranty" would have been better. This has been discussed extensively in other threads, you can draw your own conclusions. Here is the warranty

Legal - Mac Warranty Us - Apple

www.apple.com

Seems to me that even if you don't do any "damage" to the computer, they could claim that non-Apple RAM or the fact that you installed it yourself is the cause of various problems you might have. As I said, it isn't clear whether Apple is actually enforcing this and I am no expert on warranties or customer rights.

I got Apple RAM in my Mini, but that was a personal decision and like I said, many people upgrade RAM themselves.
_______________________________

This Warranty does not apply:

(c) to damage caused by use with a third party component or product that does not meet the Apple Product’s specifications

(f) to damage caused by service (including upgrades and expansions) performed by anyone who is not a representative of Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (“AASP”)

 

[calderone]

The solution to this is simple - if you are seeking warranty service remove the 3rd party memory before giving it to Apple. This should be the approach anyway as they may replace your machine with the spec you purchased, thus losing your RAM.

 

[pldelisle]

If you don't want to take any risk, buy some Crucial RAM and get back to the Apple Store to make it installed. It will still cost wayyy less than BTO RAM.

 

[iluvmacs99]

Can anyone tell me if a "low spec" 2018 Mac Mini will cope with Logic Pro?

i.e. NOT the official "faff" that Apple pump out to make you buy a high-end bankrupting monster.

What's important to know is how many instruments and samples are your son planning to load into and play? A decent band-size setup needs 16Gb to 32Gb of ram, being 64Gb of ram being the comfortable ceiling, which happens to be the preferred memory config for a professional recording artist which my former boss has with his 12 core AMD Ryzen rig. CPU cores isn't all too important as the Core i3 is a pretty capable system, since it outperforms the Mini 2012 Quad Core i7 which is still being used by a number of musicians and the Core i5 Quad Macbook Pro. The key is memory if you want to save money and choose a lower spec Mini and put an extra memory in. The memory bandwidth of the newer Mini Core i3 runs so much faster than the older 2012 and 2014 Gen Minis, so the more memory and more instruments and samples loaded with the least amount of memory paging -- swapping memory back and forth from RAM to SSD on the mini which can shorten its lifespan if it's done too often. And you can not replace the SSD in the 2018 Mini when it dies.

 

[Monotremata]

Yeah its all gonna be about how many VIs and plugins you want to run.. I came from a 3.33Ghz hex-core 2010 Mac Pro w/24GB and my month old i7 Mini with 16GB is pretty much neck and neck performance wise. I think the CPU meter is a little bit lower with the Mini than the Pro but maybe 1-2% across the board (it falls around 20% for a 24 track session with Brainworx SSL G channel strip on every track and a crapload of Soundtoys and Eventide stuff..). I pretty much went back to all hardware over the last few years so I very rarely get into virtual instruments now except for the occasional Absynth or Alchemy track, so all I use Logic for nowadays is basically a tape deck and a mixing board. Since getting my MPC Live last year, I stopped writing in Logic altogether and went back to the old way..

The weird thing is.. Most of my projects hover between 20-25% CPU usage.. On the Mac Pro, it would still overload every now and then and stop playback. Wasn't a disk error either, it was the CPU crapping out, yet the meter never went above 25% and this was just simple playback?? No automation, wasn't messing with anything live, etc. The Mini just keeps on keeping on like there's no tomorrow. For years I dreaded the day I would have to leave my beloved tower design, man I dont even miss that thing one bit. Id bet my CPU meter would actually drop down a bit and waste the Mac Pro if it weren't for the UHD graphics. Ill have to see what happens when I finally get a GPU next month for my RX570..