Nvidia 9400M GPU In 2009 Mini Compared To Radeon 6630M In New Mini ?

[philipma1957]

I'm sure a raided ssd thunderbolt setup will be good for some tasks. Not so much for the OP's.

yes that is why just putting in a nice big 750gb 7200rpm hdd is best. he can set and forget it.

In a year or 2 he can sell the machine or then add the raid0 t-bolt as a booster or even a 1 bay ssd in a t-bolt case yet to be invented but by 2012 or 2013 it will be.

 

[ryguy92250]

Graphics

I was wondering if anyone had opinions on the performance difference between the Nvidia 9400M in my old Mini and the ATM Radeon 6630M in the new one. They both have 256MB of VRAM.

I just wanted to add my thoughts for this. I just read in either one of the links posted in this thread or another thread that the radeon hd 6630m is supposedly? equivalent to the desktop radeon 5570. The 6630m is based on 5xxx series architecture and has 480 steam processors. The 256gb ram it has on it is gddr5 ram, not gddr3, so that would make a difference since its pretty much 2x as quick.

However, 256mb isn't a whole lot of ram and even though its faster, I think more would be needed to play higher resolutions and game.

So, if I was guessing, well I know that the 9400m is alot worse, and you would probably be able to play portal 2 and diablo 3 at low-medium settings, depending on how big your resolution is. That would gobble up the v-ram.

 

[Mr.C]

I just wanted to add my thoughts for this. I just read in either one of the links posted in this thread or another thread that the radeon hd 6630m is supposedly? equivalent to the desktop radeon 5570. The 6630m is based on 5xxx series architecture and has 480 steam processors. The 256gb ram it has on it is gddr5 ram, not gddr3, so that would make a difference since its pretty much 2x as quick.

However, 256mb isn't a whole lot of ram and even though its faster, I think more would be needed to play higher resolutions and game.

So, if I was guessing, well I know that the 9400m is alot worse, and you would probably be able to play portal 2 and diablo 3 at low-medium settings, depending on how big your resolution is. That would gobble up the v-ram.

I think you make some good points there. I myself have done some research on that GPU and found the same information and come to pretty much the same conclusion. Two things that come to mind though. Firstly the Mini is not going to be my main gaming platform as I have a PS3 and an Xbox 360 for that. Second my 2009 Mini is pretty under powered in my mind. When I bought it just over a year ago it was just before it got discontinued and was replaced with the 2010 model which was not really any better.

At the time and even now an iMac is out of question for reasons I have gone over before. The main reason being I don't have space for or need the display and I refuse to pay for something I'm not going to use. Therefore a Mini is my only choice as far as a desktop Mac goes. It's actually very annoying that Apple does not offer iMac level models without a display.

If I have to play some games on low to mid level settings then so be it. There are only a handful of games I would be interested in playing on the Mac. At the end of the day the AMD Radeon 6630M is going to be a lot better them the Nvidia 9400M. Not to mention the more powerful CPU, faster HD, and extra RAM ( after upgrading to 8MB ) will also make a difference. Also whilst 5.1 surround sound is not as important having an HDMI out that should give me that is also a plus. All in all the new model is a vast improvement to what I already have.

All that really remains is for me to click the buy button online. My only reluctance being I've spent so much money this year already and best I will probably only get around £300 for my existing Mini when I sell it. This means spending another £600 on something that is not a necessity but more of a luxury.

 

[richpjr]

It's very tempting to pick one of these up and use it as a media and file server (already have an iMac for my main computer use).

 

[HawtTuna]

It depends what you plan on using it for. Any graphic intensive uses like games, graphic design or multi media production it probably won't do a good job.

Graphic design isn't taxing on most modern systems, at least 2d design isn't. I think 6630m will be fine for games such Portal 2 which are optimized very well. I think you're underestimating the power of Mac Mini.

 

[Mr.C]

Graphic design isn't taxing on most modern systems, at least 2d design isn't. I think 6630m will be fine for games such Portal 2 which are optimized very well. I think you're underestimating the power of Mac Mini.

Maybe so. I've been out of the loop when it comes to GPU's as most of my gaming over the last five or six years has been on games consoles. I use to won Windows PC's but got tired of upgrading all the time, not to mention all the other headaches that go with them like viruses, spyware, blue screen of death, hard drive getting clogged up with no longer needed files that couldn't be easily deleted.

Anyway I digress. I tried playing Portal 2 today on my current Mini and put the settings all the way up. Needless to say the game chugged along at a very slow pace. Even changing the settings became really slow. I tried reducing the various options one notch at a time and it was only until I got to the default settings which were almost the bare minimum that game actually ran with a decent frame rate and even then it had a few hiccups. I've got the game on the PS3 as well but I rather play it on the Mac. If I get a new Mini it will be the one with the Radeon GPU and an i7 with probably the 750GB HDD.

 

[HawtTuna]

At that point, wouldn't it just be easier to buy an iMac? Considering the price, you'll get a better GPU, a desktop processor instead of a laptop processor, and an optical drive. Unless you really need the HMDI port, I really can't see how getting that config would give you the most bang for your buck.

 

[Mr.C]

At that point, wouldn't it just be easier to buy an iMac? Considering the price, you'll get a better GPU, a desktop processor instead of a laptop processor, and an optical drive. Unless you really need the HMDI port, I really can't see how getting that config would give you the most bang for your buck.

I would if they sold it without the display. I don't have space for the display and really don't need it as I use my HDTV. Unfortunately the way they are designed you can't sell the display. I have to emphasise that gaming is not a top priority for me just that I want to be able to run the few games that I will play on it at a decent level. My main uses are email, internet, word processing, storing iTunes library, viewing photos and maybe watching a movie now and then. For all those uses it's more then adequate.

 

[CubeHacker]

According to the preliminary benchmarks over at barefeats, the dedicated ATI graphics chip in the new Mini appears to be about 2x faster than the 320M, which is itself 2x faster than the 9400M. Thus, you would be looking at about 4x performance improvement for GPU's. This is NOT taking the new CPU's into account, which should also help performance.

 

[Mr.C]

Well I bit the bullet and just ordered the 2.7Ghz dual core i7 with a 750GB 7200RPM HDD. I know it's going to be a significant improvement over my current Mini and should be more then adequate for now.

The better GPU, more powerful CPU, potentially double the RAM, bigger and faster HDD, HDMI port, SD card slot and Thunderbolt port all should make it a big improvement. I'm also looking forward to using Lion.

Now I just got to look at how to use Migration Assistant to migrate the settings and data from my current Mini. I guess I will have to go get a FireWire cable as I don't have one right now.