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Mac mini with Photoshop/Cintiq Pro 24

GordonShumway2017

GordonShumway2017

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 8, 2017
10
22
I do a lot of freelance illustration work and just upgraded from my 2009 iMac (which has been great since I had an SSD installed) to an i7/512GB/8GBRAM Mac mini. I wanted to share my digital painting/illustration experience in case some people are in the same boat as me and aren’t sure if the GPU is good enough for big and complex brush strokes in Photoshop. Before I installed 32GB of RAM, I was getting severe brush lag especially at increased sizes. I thought it could be the graphics card (as it’s needed in Photoshop for some elements) and was a bit worried. But the 32GB was all I needed. I can’t believe how smooth this thing draws on my cintiq now. It runs at 4K and I can increase brush sizes to insane amounts with no lag (even mixers). The GPU is more than enough for digital illustrators/painters, just make sure you have plenty of RAM. This mini is great!
 
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ya it was 2666. at least that's what I remember seeing when I looked at the specs after installing...can check later today.
 
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GordonShumway2017 said:
ya it was 2666. at least that's what I remember seeing when I looked at the specs after installing...can check later today.
Click to expand...
Hey Gordon, thanks for this. I’m also quite interested in the mini, however the one that I use more is photoshop. Have you had any issues working on big files? (Close to 1gb.)

My current machine is a mid 2012 i7 16gb MacBook Pro. It is getting quite slow when opening bigger files. : (
 
Andrew7724 said:
Hey Gordon, thanks for this. I’m also quite interested in the mini, however the one that I use more is photoshop. Have you had any issues working on big files? (Close to 1gb.)

My current machine is a mid 2012 i7 16gb MacBook Pro. It is getting quite slow when opening bigger files. : (
Click to expand...

I'm going to try doing a huge file tonight and do some big complex brushes and will let you know how it goes.
 
You could also give Affinity Photo a spin. In my experience that works faster than Photoshop for most things - including painting on really large canvases. Although admittedly I have no experience with the latest CC versions.
 
GordonShumway2017 said:
ya it was 2666. at least that's what I remember seeing when I looked at the specs after installing...can check later today.
Click to expand...
NSpIZ7z.png

Just to confirm, I've replaced the 8GB that came with my Mac mini and replaced it with the aforementioned Crucial CT2K16G4SFD8266 kit and it's showing as full speed.
0YOWTjd.png


From a fellow Cintiq user! :)
 
pollaxe said:
NSpIZ7z.png

Just to confirm, I've replaced the 8GB that came with my Mac mini and replaced it with the aforementioned Crucial CT2K16G4SFD8266 kit and it's showing as full speed.
0YOWTjd.png


From a fellow Cintiq user! :)
Click to expand...

Yup, that's exactly what mine looks like as well! nice.
 
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