How have you found eGPU? I was tempted a few years back but it sounded pretty clunky. I run two 4K monitors on my 2018 mini and in certain animations it definitely stutters a bit.
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Mac Mini m2 Pro - 16GB vs 32GB
- Thread starter icemantx
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I was struggling with viewing multiple Cad files. I bought the Sonnet Puck RX5500 and it was night and day. I score 40K Metal on Compute GeekBench5, 36K open CL.
MM is do it your self and every monitor egpu setup is different. I am not running dual monitors. I run my eGPU USB C to MM thunderbolt. Then I run the BenQ Monitor HDMI to MM HDMI.
It’s because M1 was such a generational leap, and perfectly timed by Apple (right before the 12th-gen Intel chips started shipping in volume).
You think most people are better off buying a whole new system when maybe all they need is more RAM/storage? That IS probably what most people do out of laziness or ignorance, but people who know a little bit about computers would upgrade components if they could.
With Apple, they can’t, so let’s put that to bed.
My thought process is to buy what you need now, not what you might need to keep a hypothetical machine for 10 years. Some people are literally saying 10 years, and I think that’s crazy. In just 3 years Apple will probably have drastically better models that work drastically differently. It’s wise to save money now, and spend later, when there’s a product that better meets your needs, rather than spending lots of money now for (in a few years) will end up being an only mildly differentiated product.
And storage is easy to add. RAM is the main point here. And I’m hoping that in 3 years Apple’s not still giving 8GB on the low end, and $180 per 8GB upgrade.
As a follow up to the original post, I received my M2 Pro Mac mini 10,16/2TB/16GB and over the course of 3 days since I received it I have not seen any swap in use. So for me at this point the 16GB was the right choice.
What are you doing with your mini?
Also, what's the internal temperature (in Celsius), during typical workflows?
Mainly day to day general stuff (mail, productivity, safari, messages, etc...) plus some video editing/encoding and photo editing. My RAM usage generally is in the 8-11GB range.
Can you tell the temperature in your mini, during your typical work?
And what about the memory pressure? Are you always in the green zone?
I have not seen my memory out of the green zone in the time I have had this Mac mini and is around 20-30% during normal usage according to iStat menu. Temps are hovering pretty consistently around 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
I’m curious what software do you use for photo editing and how do you find the experience compared to your previous system?😆
Admittedly I am not a heavy user of pro apps such as Lightroom, Photoshop, Final Cut or Adobe Premier. I use the stock Photos app and iMovie for most of what I do for home use. As for the experience compared to my old iMac, to be quite honest the old iMac compares favorably in a number of ways I did not expect.
For reference, I moved from a late 2014 5k iMac i5/32GB RAM/2TB Crucial MX500 SSD (split the fusion)
- Apps launch faster on the M2 Pro Mini, but not significantly faster (few seconds or so difference)
- Web pages load faster on the M2 Pro mini, but not significantly faster (talking seconds or even fractions)
- Video encoding is significantly faster on the M2 Pro mini. The old 5k iMac really struggled at encoding 4k videos.
- The M2 Pro Mini is virtually silent compared to the 5k iMac (which could sound like a jet engine at times)
- The screen on the ASD is very similar to the 5k iMac with the stock color profile on the ASD being a little warmer.
- No ghosting on the ASD like I had on the 5k iMac (it better not have any since its brand new)
- I am now happily on a supported current OS which was starting to get problematic with Apple deprecating features on old OS versions such as collaboration using Numbers
What are the things that the old iMac compares favorably (ie does better) ? #curious
By “compares favorably” I was referring to some of the day to day tasks not seeming noticing faster (launching apps, web surfing, browsing and working with my photos library, general navigation around the OS). If I had my Fusion Drive still in there the the difference would be more stark.
The one thing the old iMac did faster was that when you restart it got to the chime faster than the M2 Pro. The complete boot process was around 20 seconds on the M2 Pro vs about 30-35 seconds on the iMac.
The main reason for my upgrade was the ghosting on the screen, lack of OS updates (opencore was glitchy when I tried it with Ventura), features getting deprecated by Apple and performance of 4k video editing/encoding.
#pretendshocked
But the new 1-2TB drives in the Pro are 6000MB/s! #pretendshocked
Yes, random IO hasn’t improved that much. It’s a little faster at random IO tasks.
I’m a little surprised you don’t notice web surfing to be far faster; it’s something immediately obvious to me. Even against i5-12400F (Hackintosh), it’s a touch better. Far, far better, than, against old i7-6700 Hacks. And if you’ve a 2014 iMac…
Hmm…not sure I’d be focused on this.
But then, I tend to sleep machines, not turn them off. It sounds like just about everything is the same or faster on the new Mac mini, and some things like video processing and Pro app usage should be far, far faster. #goodreasons
FWIW I've ordered a M2 Pro mini 16GB RAM + 1TB SSD. Due in a couple weeks.
I'd probably have gone for a +$200 to bump to 24GB RAM, but that wasn't on offer.
+$400 to bump to 32GB RAM was out of the question.
I chose the M2 Pro over the M2 because I wanted the extra GPU cores. I'm replacing a 2018 hexcore Intel Mac I futureproofed -- the only real problem is the same as always for Intel minis, the underwhelming internal GPU. So the main benefit I'm hoping for with the new mach is better graphics.
I couldn't quite talk myself into pulling the metaphorical trigger for the Mac Studio Max until there was an Mx Pro mini to compare it to. Once there was, the Studio looked like overkill (and overspend) to me.
I'd probably have gone for a +$200 to bump to 24GB RAM, but that wasn't on offer.
+$400 to bump to 32GB RAM was out of the question.
I chose the M2 Pro over the M2 because I wanted the extra GPU cores. I'm replacing a 2018 hexcore Intel Mac I futureproofed -- the only real problem is the same as always for Intel minis, the underwhelming internal GPU. So the main benefit I'm hoping for with the new mach is better graphics.
I couldn't quite talk myself into pulling the metaphorical trigger for the Mac Studio Max until there was an Mx Pro mini to compare it to. Once there was, the Studio looked like overkill (and overspend) to me.
What are you doing with your mini M2 Pro? What is your memory pressure? Is it always in green, or sometimes in yellow?
Also, can you tell the temperature you get in a typical workload? And how noisy is it?
Don't have it yet -- it's a built-to-order due the first week of March. I'm a software engineer and I use it for hobby development. I may also try editing some videos.
I had the two machines side by side for a few days and when I was surfing, web pages definitely loaded faster on the M2 Pro, but the iMac never really felt slow when browsing since I upgraded the Fusion to SSD. I certainly welcome any and all speed improvements, but certain areas are simply not as significant of improvements as others is my main point (not disappointed!).#pretendshocked
But the new 1-2TB drives in the Pro are 6000MB/s! #pretendshocked
Yes, random IO hasn’t improved that much. It’s a little faster at random IO tasks.
I’m a little surprised you don’t notice web surfing to be far faster; it’s something immediately obvious to me. Even against i5-12400F (Hackintosh), it’s a touch better. Far, far better, than, against old i7-6700 Hacks. And if you’ve a 2014 iMac…
Hmm…not sure I’d be focused on this.
#goodreasons
It is kind of like 0-60 on cars. 5 seconds is fast and 3 seconds is 40% faster, but it is only 2 second difference. Granted you feel more Gs when hitting 60 in 3 seconds (which is fun).
As for the startup chime and not focusing on it. Yes, I totally agree. I was just thinking about anything that was quicker on the old iMac compared to the new M2 Pro and that is what I was able to come up with 😜
Thanks for the details. I agree that probably the day to day tasks won't see significant improvements as there's only so much faster they can go😅 I used to use a 2014 5k iMac and it really sounded like a jet engine whenever I export photos in Lightroom (both fans ran at full speed almost immediately)🤦🏻♂️ The screen had some issues only a year later so I decided to switch to something different.
I’m now using a mini m2 Pro 16/512 after my 2018 i7 mini with 32Gb RAM cooked itself to death with two days left on my AppleCare+.
I was using an eGPU* with an RX580 for graphics, so the internal temps of the Intel should have been less stressed but, the i7 always ran hot. TG Pro would show the cores going up and down all the time with the fan constantly changing speed.
The mini m2 Pro runs ridiculously cool. I had to pump the fan up to manual with TG Pro to check it even worked!
In Australia the jump from 16Gb to 32Gb is AUD$600, which is bloody crazy!
16Gb RAM seems fine and I’m not seeing any memory stress, so it appears memory management is better on Apple Silicon.
The jump from Intel to Apple Silicon is huge and (for me) 16Gb RAM is sufficient, but I don’t do video editing which seems to be the only benchmark for all the YouTube jockeys out there.
*I may repurpose the eGPU as a NVMe box for extra storage but that is a later project…
I was using an eGPU* with an RX580 for graphics, so the internal temps of the Intel should have been less stressed but, the i7 always ran hot. TG Pro would show the cores going up and down all the time with the fan constantly changing speed.
The mini m2 Pro runs ridiculously cool. I had to pump the fan up to manual with TG Pro to check it even worked!
In Australia the jump from 16Gb to 32Gb is AUD$600, which is bloody crazy!
16Gb RAM seems fine and I’m not seeing any memory stress, so it appears memory management is better on Apple Silicon.
The jump from Intel to Apple Silicon is huge and (for me) 16Gb RAM is sufficient, but I don’t do video editing which seems to be the only benchmark for all the YouTube jockeys out there.
*I may repurpose the eGPU as a NVMe box for extra storage but that is a later project…
What are you doing on your new mini Pro? Also, can you give some temperature readings while doing something relatively intense on it?
Good to hear that. My 2018 MM is ridiculously hot all the time, and it's burning to the touch when I run some intensive workflow. I always dread unplugging thumbdrives with metallic finishes because they always burn my fingers after copying files🤣
Nothing different to previous with workflow – Extensive database work, software testing, some graphics work, Handbrake, etc.
The highest core thus far reached 68°C. On my Intel mini, all cores had hit 100°C.
What do YOU want to do with a Mac mini?