I can report that the UHD630 can drive 2560x1440 + 1920x1200 no problem (as expected).I hope you are right. UI sluggishness will send my OCD through the roof.
Buttery smooth (unlike the HD3000 in the 2011 mini).
I think you should be fine.
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Mac mini 2018 bad UI-performance with LG 5K-Display
- Thread starter johnscully
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Buttery smooth (unlike the HD3000 in the 2011 mini).
I think you should be fine.
I can report that what the OP is saying here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-mini-2018-vega-64-slow-performance.2160629/#post-26917360 is totally true, so the performance isn't that great at all.
Even when only using two 2560x1440 monitors. Things really lag with the Arabesque screensaver and the fans spin up full speed. Totally annoying. Wonder what the issue is? I am plugged into a Core X eGPU running a Vega 64 card.
Huh? The poster in that thread isn't talking about the LG 5K monitor, and you don't even have one yourself.
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as a followup to my previous post, i thought i'd try the blackmagic egpu. it does run the LG 5k very well, but now my mini setup has nearly doubled in price. imo though its the only way I know of to get a good experience with this monitor out of the mini.
still on the fence if im going to keep this setup.
to recap i've tried:
base model mini - pretty much unusable
2016 15" i7/455 MBP - works nicely
base model mini + BM EGPU - works nicely
still on the fence if im going to keep this setup.
to recap i've tried:
base model mini - pretty much unusable
2016 15" i7/455 MBP - works nicely
base model mini + BM EGPU - works nicely
Thinking about getting this setup too but I agree about the price. But how is the UI performance? Is it buttery smooth like on an iMac? How is Launchpad and Mission Control? Does it make a big difference compared to just the Mac mini connected to the LG 5K?
EDIT: before people start jumping on me (again) that it would be a waste of money, I'll also use it for AUTOCAD and some gaming on the side, but smoother UI performance is definitely a nice bonus for me!
I find this phrase odd. You haven’t defined what temperature butter. I bet even the lowliest of Macs can run a 5k and be fridge-temperature “buttery smooth”.
Yes, the mini alone is nearly un-usable, imo. and Yes the egpu makes everything smooth, multiple 4k youtube videos, expose, spaces, scrolling smoothly, it all works beautifully.
However keep in mind that 5k is a LOT of pixels and the 580 is an aging card, so dont expect miracles when it comes to full screen 3d performance. i dont think you'll get 60fps on this monitor in anything but the most basic 3d games.
As far as price, if this is your primary workstation, ~1400-1700 (depending on your mac mini specs) is not bad in mac-terms for a desktop quad/hexcore+rx580 setup. at least you can use external storage and do your own ram upgrades to keep costs down.
The annoying thing is that if we switched to a regular (non-thunderbolt) 4k monitor we could use much more powerful GPUs and much cheaper eGPU enclosures.
Last month odd, only been using it on 4k monitor. Recently noticed quite a lot of UI stuttering though, stuff I've never seen before like toast notifications pausing and the downloads stack (in dock) pausing as well. Only new thing is have more than one user logged in, but ram pressure looking fine.
Looking at GPU history for a while and doesn't look stressed. Maybe a reboot will clear it.
Looking at GPU history for a while and doesn't look stressed. Maybe a reboot will clear it.
I can only say from my experience of a 4k monitor and 1080p monitor, and 16GB is plenty. I don’t do any intensive work, but have a fair few programs open at any one time. I think without a specific case, 32GB is overkill for a computer.
I was under the impression that the UHD 630 Graphics were simply too weak to drive an LG Ultrafine 5k screen, but since I upgraded the memory to 32GB, The UI hickups and the audio glitches are completely gone. All animations are smooth now. So even if you're not doing any heavy lifting, do yourself a favor & upgrade the ram, it'll save you a lot of frustration. The standard 8GB config Apple sells is simply not enough.
Just want to share my problem.
Ever since I re-arranged the setup, my mouse and keyboard started to lag every 10~20 second randomly.
Mouse pointer randomly stopped moving, so I had to stop my mouse movement motion and re-start in order to make the pointer move again.
And as for the keyboard, every time it lagged, either keyboard input stop working or registered extra hits.
For the brief second, I thought this might be UI performance issue, but then, I rememebered the first time I got Mini which had no issue like this.
Then I changed the usb-hub connection (USB-A connection from left to right port, the one in the outer side), then all the problem went away.
For the reference, I had wifi & bluetooth off, USB-C connected to the right most port, HDMI connected.
So my guess is somehow my other USB-A port is giving me some problem (interference or noise maybe?)
Kinda bit disappointed, but now it's ok I guess.
Ever since I re-arranged the setup, my mouse and keyboard started to lag every 10~20 second randomly.
Mouse pointer randomly stopped moving, so I had to stop my mouse movement motion and re-start in order to make the pointer move again.
And as for the keyboard, every time it lagged, either keyboard input stop working or registered extra hits.
For the brief second, I thought this might be UI performance issue, but then, I rememebered the first time I got Mini which had no issue like this.
Then I changed the usb-hub connection (USB-A connection from left to right port, the one in the outer side), then all the problem went away.
For the reference, I had wifi & bluetooth off, USB-C connected to the right most port, HDMI connected.
So my guess is somehow my other USB-A port is giving me some problem (interference or noise maybe?)
Kinda bit disappointed, but now it's ok I guess.
For rendering smoothly on your LG 5K monitor, you need at least core i5 or above . With your core i3 Mac mini (same as I have), you should export screen to max 4K resolution monitor or under.
I have the i7/32GB mini 18. Right now I’m using an old 32 “ UltraWide monitor and was planning in the future to upgrade to either 4K or 5k. I’ve had the mini for over a week and it’s running awesome. Reading some of the posts it seems Apples quality control isn’t what it used to be. Is there diagnostics I can run to make sure that my computer graphics card and system is functioning properly before it’s to late and I can’t exchange it.
There is no reason to suspect there is anything wrong with your mini.
If you are talking about driving a 5K display, then that is different; it is quite GPU intensive, so macOS animations are sometimes jerky, and this will depend on how much else is stressing the CPU, whether you are using scaled resolutions, second display, available RAM, and how sensitive you are to the smoothness.
This is BS and you know it. There is literally no reason why an i3 would be less capable then the i5 as they all have the Intel UHD 630. It's all about the memory.
Yeah. Mac Mini is a half, but a combination of mac mini and eGPU will be the whole.
Hey everyone, I'm thinking of building a Mac mini 2018 to lowest specs with the i7 6 core and upgrading RAM to 32gb. I currently own a LG 27" 4k UK650 monitor and I'm wondering if by adding something like the gigabyte gaming box with RX 580 via thunderbolt 3 eGPU would help scale the LG UI to 1440 hiDPI without any lagging. I really don't want to see stutter in youtube 4k streaming or UI elements on my LG monitor. I don't do any gaming so I don't care about that. I just want sharp text, a little more real-estate than 1080 doubled UI, and no stutter when streaming 4k.
Personally, I think you will be fine even without an eGPU. Having more than 8GB is important though.
Thanks for the response. I would definitely be putting 32gb of RAM in there as a first test to see if that helped before adding the eGPU. I thought I saw someone in some thread say that helped their lag when scaling 4k monitor to 1440 hiDPI. We'll have to wait and see. Got my 2x 16gb cards coming and have to save up for the Mini itself now. Piecing her together little by little here. I'm just bummed to hear that there could be some issues with my new LG uk650 since its really a very nice monitor.
I have a Mac Mini core i7 + LG Ultrafine 5K and the UI scaling + animations are fine! It all depends on the amount of ram you put in (strangely)