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Skrzak

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 15, 2017
5
1
Hi. I own an MBP late 2011 2 x i5 2.4GHz, 16GB ram, Have been using it for music production and live performance (Ableton Live). Due to recent update to Ableton Live 11 I get CPU peaks a lot. So decided to get a Mac mini late 2012, 4 x i7 2.3 GHz, 16 GB ram.
Here’s a comparison of Geekbench 5 cpu tests of these two and the latest Mac mini M1 (which I won’t buy, just comparing):

MBP 13” late 2011, 2 x i5 2.4GHz, 16GB ram - average (everymac.com):
single core - 511
multi core - 1111

Mac mini late 2012, 4 x i7 2.3 GHz, 16 GB ram - average (everyman.com):
single core - 667
multi core - 2624

Mac mini M1 8 2020 (everymac.com):
single core - 1689
multi core - 7401


Now I did my own tests on MBP 2011 on three editions of Mac Os:
High Sierra:
1st run - SC 519/MC 1156
2nd run- SC 511/MC 1141
3rd run - SC 509/MC 1160

Mojave:
1st run - SC 498/MC 1187
2nd run - SC 491/MC 982
3rd run - SC 508/MC 1185

Catalina:
1st run - SC 537/MC 1201
2nd run - SC 533/MC 1194
3rd run - SC 533/MC 1186
4th run - SC 535/MC 1182

Bare in mind, MBP late 2011 doesn’t officially support Mojave and Catalina, I’ve installed these Os’s with dosdude patch. And I will continue to use MBP for live performance and my new 2012 Mac mini for music production in my home studio. Have to decide which Mac Os edition to stick with for MBP.

Questions:
1. Is that a significant difference in performance on Catalina compared to High Sierra and Mojave on MBP?
2. Will I get a significant performance gain with Mac mini late 2012? It’s i7 quad core vs MBP i5 dual core.
 
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