2018 MacMini experiment on ProTools HDX

[Mike Landolt]

Originally Posted by steins

Great thread,

I'm in the process of replacing our 2011 Cheesegrater with the new Mac Mini in one of our editing suites. I will need a PCIe expansion chassis for the HDX-1 card, and I also want a separate video card to handle output to a separate TV monitor in order to free up as much resources from the mini as possible.

I'm thinking of buying a Sonnet Echo Express SE III for the HDX-1 and graphics card. Would that work, or do I need a separate chassis for the HDX-1 card in order to get the best performance? I'm unfamiliar with the differences between today's video cards. Do I need a eGPU-card, or will a "regular" video card be good enough to output 4k video to a TV?

Stein Tore

Yes, great thread...I've been thinking of upgrading to the 2018 MM as well.

I've been using the 2012 i7 2.3 quad-core w/16 gigs ram and the Sonnet Echo Express SE III R since 2014. The Sonnet Echo Express SE III is loaded with a Sonnet SATA Pro 6 and (1) HDX card. One issue seems to be with the 2012 MM is the integrated video card. At times with bigger session's the GUI gets very slow, and lags a lot. I use (1) 40" Samsung monitor and was wondering, like Stein if the 2018 MM integrated video is improved enough or will I need to add a video card the 3rd slot in the Sonnet? Will help the GUI issues? Or Do I need to go with eGPU...Has anyone used the 2018 MM using just the HDMI 2.0?

Mike Landolt

[Adupr]

I have a question too: since the 2018 mm will be loaded with Mojave’s could I boot from another drive running high Sierra and an older version of pro tools. I understand I can’t downgrade Mojave and don’t really want to. Just on my cheesegrater I’m able to slide in another drive with older OS to open older stuff.

[the.engineer]

I'm following this thread with increased interest as I'm experiencing GUI lag with Pro Tools Ultimate 2018.12 on my upgraded Mac Pro 5,1 that the Mac Mini option is looking viable. Here's what Avid Support said to me today regarding the issue and there's some Mojave chat in there as well.

"It may be that at some point support for Mac Pro 5.1 will be dropped. We are now working on a Pro Tools release which will support OS X Mojave which in combination with the specified list of graphics cards may improve the issue most probably on Mac Pro 5.1 as well but this needs to be tested and qualified which may happen but of course, may not regarding Mac Pro 5.1. I cannot provide the exacts dates, qualified computers, and devices which will be supported but most probably this may happen this year 2019. Regarding your friends new MacBook. The performance is way better because of the architecture of the CPU and the amount of data related to graphics not been calculated by the CPU but by the Graphics Card. This is the idea which we are working to apply on the future releases based on OS X Mojave. At the moment your CPU is not able to calculate all the data in a time when working on a higher screen resolution which is triggering the GUI lag."

I haven't seen a "specified list of graphics cards" yet but I hope that will come out at some point. Also "most probably" is not exactly a time frame.

Still, a word from the inside!

[TrackerLe]

Apple released a List with GPUs for the Mac Pro Tower, which are compatible with Mojave (and Metal)

MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5
SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition

and this Gpus may be compatible

AMD Radeon RX 560
AMD Radeon RX 570
AMD Radeon RX 580
AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100
AMD Radeon Frontier Edition

NVidia Cards newer, than the gtx 680 (9XX and 10XX and RTX 20XX series)
are not compatible with mojave "now", cause of the missing NVidia Web Drivers.

[zion]

Originally Posted by Scott Stillwell

Yeah, it sucks that it's soldered on and non-upgradeable, but at least it's NVMe flash, which screams. I recently bought one for a build automation server, and it's so much faster than the 2011 Mini it's replacing that it's not even funny. Runs significantly cooler than the old model, too, except when a build is actively running (which pegs ALL cores at 100% until done).


Gives me at least SOME hope that the new Mac Pro will be worth having whenever it actually shows up.

Thanks! This is good to know! I will be receiving mine in about two weeks. I ordered the i7 16GB Ram and the 512GB SSD.

[the.engineer]

Originally Posted by TrackerLe

Apple released a List with GPUs for the Mac Pro Tower, which are compatible with Mojave (and Metal)

MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5
SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition

and this Gpus may be compatible

AMD Radeon RX 560
AMD Radeon RX 570
AMD Radeon RX 580
AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100
AMD Radeon Frontier Edition

NVidia Cards newer, than the gtx 680 (9XX and 10XX and RTX 20XX series)
are not compatible with mojave "now", cause of the missing NVidia Web Drivers.

Yes of course! I've seen that list before. Thanks for the reminder.

[TrackerLe]

sry i thought you meant that list...


I dont think, that Avid with Protools see another specific GPU List, than the one, Apple suggest...

[bzldzl]

My 2012 mac pro crashed last night after restarting for an update. It won't even boot to the recovery drive and I suspect something is really wrong. I can take it in for repair but I'm not sure putting more money into a 6-1/2 year old computer is a good move. Normally I would fix it myself but if I can't even boot to recovery, it's beyond my skill set. Also seeing the conversation in this thread about 5,1 macs possibly being dropped from support isn't good news.

Do you all think the new mac pro will have PCiE slots? I'm guessing no way and I ask because if I'm going to have to buy a chassis anyway, it makes buying a mac mini a little less of an investment to change up my system since I would need the chassis no matter what.

Luckily I'm in the process of building a new studio and have a while since I've stopped taking on projects until it's done. Not enough time really though to wait for the new mac pro to be announced and start shipping.

It seems like the 2018 mac mini would be a good system for audio as it's geek bench score is way above my current system. The only concern is the video card, which I could use an eGPU if necessary. Do you think the on board video would be good enough without the eGPU?

Ugh. Any thoughts about what you would do in this situation?


Thank you!
-Jason

[Loudnoize Ent.]

I've had the MM for under a month now and couldn't be happier. Like everyone else here, it's super fast, really gets the job done. I've only one concern and hopefully some of you will chime in. When working in Pro Tools for hours, mostly with VI's and large libraries, the mini's temp fluctuates between 85 & 98 degrees Celsius. The fan does kick in (btw, I can't hear it so that's nice) and it's doing its job but I'm still somewhat concerned. What's your take? Thx!

[JFreak]

Nice little machine, but why the €%&"€%/#%&/ they had to solder the SSD to motherboard