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njean777

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 17, 2009
313
0
I just wanted to know who would like a mac mini with a dedicated graphics card? Im sick and tired of seeing the mac mini being limited just to upsell the imac. I want a mac mini so i dont have to have an all in one, and i want a decent graphics card with my mac mini . Some people dont want an imac nor have the need for one. So who agrees?
 
They would just put one in and then everyone would bitch about how underpowered it is or how its 2 year old PC tech...
 
Steve doesn't agree. Anyway he gave you a 9400m, which isn't a bad graphics card, so what more do you want?
 
the mini and even the iMac are considered as consumer products ,and the average consumer does a bit of surfing the www a couple times the week
is watching occasional a dvd and maybe he does some office work too
and a small minority of consumers is doing some own video work (video`s made from aunt hilda`s birthday or so) and thats what these consumer Mac`s are made for
if you want choise of changing the innards of your mac to your needs
you need a macpro eight core where its possible to upgrade to 64GB ram and up to 4 graphic cards are possible and loads of terabyte in harddrives , ok it costs abit more then a mini but you asked for choice , if you want to have the choice you have to pay for it

i for example would even put in a less powerful graphics and less processor speed and 2 gb ram are more then enough for every day computing and it would come down to a more affordable price
 
You should probably have a look at the dimensions of the Mac Mini and then a reality check afterwards.

What you are asking for is the xMac, which have been discussed to death for many years now...

macmini-090406-3.jpg
 
You'd never get a full dedicated card in there, but I see no reason why you can't get something more powerful than the 9400M for the higher-end version.

Although getting a bit old and dated - the 9600M from the MB Pro seems the perfect candidate, no?
 
I just wanted to know who would like a mac mini with a dedicated graphics card?

I did. Thats why I bought a G4 Mini when they were available.

You should probably have a look at the dimensions of the Mac Mini and then a reality check afterwards.
You aren't understanding the question. Dedicated video means one that has its own memory system. The 9400m is integrated because it must share video memory with system memory.
 
so taking the size of this mini (its called mini for a reason )
the only option would be to fit in a board with a pci slot , should be possible but a card inside NO WAY so then cut a hole in the top and stick in a graphics card
but in my opinion that would not realy look good

and i am not sure if apple can afford to do what dell (for example)offers different case design`s and sizes for every need and for every occasion ,have not seen a dell shop everything online ,
apple might sell a couple oversized minis but i dont think enough to make it profitable
as most people like the mini like it is
apart from me i would like to see it downgraded and cheaper in price , you want to get a upgraded one , so there are two people who want something etirely different , its not worth to take care of our needs and build a upgraded one for you and downgraded one for me
in theory and i guess in reality there are even more options in therms of people want upgrades and downgrades to their needs , apple has to find the middle way to satisfy the majority as they just dont sell the numbers dell does , and every shop/repair centre from apple cost too and there are lots of apple shops/repaircentres worldwide, good thing for customer care ,but a graveyard for profits
 
You should probably have a look at the dimensions of the Mac Mini and then a reality check afterwards.
You should check some other Apple products like for example the MacBook Pro and than redo your reality check. So yes, it is indeed possible to fit a dedicated graphics card into that tiny space of a Mac mini or a MacBook Pro. It most definitely is not a question of dimensions but about how it can cool the hardware effectively. I think that de mini could do with a 9600m as a dedicated graphics card when I'm checking the temperatures of my Mac mini (early 2009). The problem is that this would make the mini a bit more expensive as well as that such a videocard is beyond the scope of an entry level device (the mini still is the entry level Mac!). The Mac mini Server is an entry level device (it's the entry level version of the Xserve/Mac Pro servers) as well, it's targeted at small businesses and such.
 
The 9400M is as powerful as a low end, bottom of the bucket discrete mobile GPU.

It's a nice idea but at the end of the day this xMac notion is never going to happen. The niche geeky Mac market (aka Macrumors) assume that because they want an xMac, the other 95% of Mac users do, whereas in reality the other 95% of Mac users are quite happy. If that many people wanted an xMac, it would be here. Apple already caved in on matte screens and Firewire ports, if this were important they would cave on this as well.

I did. Thats why I bought a G4 Mini when they were available.
Even though the Mac Mini Core + GMA 950 blew it out the water, CPU and GPU wise?
 
I wouldn't mind a discrete graphics card. The 9400m has stood up to everything I've thrown at it though. The few games I play and all of the 1080p content I watch I've never had any hiccups related to graphics.

Sure there are plenty more powerful cards out there, but if you don't require more power, then why do you want it?
 
I honestly don't know how they would fit it in a Mac Mini. It would also drive up cost.
 

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well the fact that I dont want an imac should alarm apple, some people are like me, but dont want to spend the 2500 for a mac pro just to get a decent videocard. They can fit a dedicated gpu in the mini they just are not doing it to upsell the imac to people. Sure it might cost 100$ more but for the dedicated gpu, I would pay it. There is nothing wrong with choice and as far as im concerned if im in the market for a desktop replacement then i should have more then 3 choices for a dedicated video card. Of course i could get a pc but I dont want windows or linux.
 
The 9400M is as powerful as a low end, bottom of the bucket discrete mobile GPU.

It's a nice idea but at the end of the day this xMac notion is never going to happen. The niche geeky Mac market (aka Macrumors) assume that because they want an xMac, the other 95% of Mac users do, whereas in reality the other 95% of Mac users are quite happy. If that many people wanted an xMac, it would be here. Apple already caved in on matte screens and Firewire ports, if this were important they would cave on this as well.


Even though the Mac Mini Core + GMA 950 blew it out the water, CPU and GPU wise?

hmm the gma 950 is now standard in most netbooks ,
and shared memory was never the best
i`d prefer too dedicated graphics even if its only 16mb ,my imac g3 has not more , but its sufficient for what i use it for
my eMac has 64mb which is more then enough for the rest of apps , but to be fair i dont sit in front with a stopwatch and get a nervous brakedown if a app needs a bit more time , i just go make a cuppa in that time or something to eat , and workwise it gives me a excuse to relax and have a break
so i dont want faster faster faster faster;)
 
I think then this thread should also be open to all those people who buy $500 Dell machines and complain they can't play Modern Warfare 2. This is the same discussion. If you want a machine to do things like that, then you need to purchase a system that can do it.

Apple has made it VERY simple for people who want to purchase a system with a dedicated graphics card and then made it simple for those who don't.
 
I think then this thread should also be open to all those people who buy $500 Dell machines and complain they can't play Modern Warfare 2. This is the same discussion. If you want a machine to do things like that, then you need to purchase a system that can do it.

Apple has made it VERY simple for people who want to purchase a system with a dedicated graphics card and then made it simple for those who don't.

I can make a machine for 500 that plays mw2 perfectly on full graphics. Also i can buy one that plays it just fine for 200$.

some people do not know about computers yes we know this, but for people like me who know what can happen with the mini and know exactly what apple is trying to do with it, it makes us mad. Of course apple has made it simple, you pay a billion dollars you get a decent computer it makes no since they want market share they could easily do it with the mini, but refuse too. I know apple has decent profits thanks to the iphone and ipod NOT MACS, If they truly cared about osx and getting it to be more popular they would either A) make a decent 600 dollar machine not some underpowered POS that should be 400$, or B) release osx.

I am not an apple hater, heck im on this site lol, but its stupid to underpower the mini on purpose. The Imac is for people who want everything in one, the mini isnt dont penalize the people who have extra equipment, at least make the damn things on par with the imacs.
 
hey thats something i want since i own a mac the release of osx so everybody can enjoy it on the machine of choice , i dont mean on a dell or hp or whatever there is , i mean building a computer choose the styling of the case for example
that does not mean i dont like the style of the mini or any other mac , its just i could buy a small case fully alloy and fit a motherboard a processor and a graphic card in it for half the price of the mac mini, maybe not equally fast but fully to my needs , but thats a option taken away from me by apple hanging on to only supplying osx for mac`s , i know there are hacks outside for netbooks , but i dont want a netbook i want a decent machine and not a 10 inch screen thingy
 
I can make a machine for 500 that plays mw2 perfectly on full graphics. Also i can buy one that plays it just fine for 200$.

some people do not know about computers yes we know this, but for people like me who know what can happen with the mini and know exactly what apple is trying to do with it, it makes us mad. Of course apple has made it simple, you pay a billion dollars you get a decent computer it makes no since they want market share they could easily do it with the mini, but refuse too. I know apple has decent profits thanks to the iphone and ipod NOT MACS, If they truly cared about osx and getting it to be more popular they would either A) make a decent 600 dollar machine not some underpowered POS that should be 400$, or B) release osx.

I am not an apple hater, heck im on this site lol, but its stupid to underpower the mini on purpose. The Imac is for people who want everything in one, the mini isnt dont penalize the people who have extra equipment, at least make the damn things on par with the imacs.

Don't hold your breath. Apple is making more money than ever without your business.
 
Don't hold your breath. Apple is making more money than ever without your business.

Thats fine but im typing on a macbook pro :rolleyes:

I dont see how making a machine better is a problem like you do for some reason are you some kind of imac defender till the end????
 
the problem is you cant really upgrade to parts of your choice in iMac or mini
you have to take what apple supplies bang finish

i for example would have no problem with a cheap and cheerful celeron d and 128 shared graphics and simple ddr2 memory
in a imac 21.5 , but it would be nice if i had the choice to upgrade later on
 
Thats fine but im typing on a macbook pro :rolleyes:

I dont see how making a machine better is a problem like you do for some reason are you some kind of imac defender till the end????

You're missing the point. They're doing just fine as is, meaning they're satisfying the needs of their intended target well enough for those people to buy. If that isn't well enough for you, that your problem, not Apple's.
 
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