2018 MacMini experiment on ProTools HDX

[SevenRising]

Originally Posted by zion

Hello all! Well, I received my Mac Mini 2018 and I must say I am very impressed! It is much faster and more powerful than my current Mac Pro late 2013. I started with a clean install and everything went smoothly. I have done all my Pro Tools and Apple optimizations and also a few experiments of my own. Seeing I have done this all a hundred times or more it all went flawlessly. Also as a force of habit I have also done my three system backups with CCC. I must say I am not experiencing any issues with bluetooth, USB, or WiF but the the unit does run a little warm as others have reported. I have found that elevating the unit with a horizontal stand does make a difference. I have also found that turning off Turbo Boost using (Turbo boost Pro) has a better perfomance benefits than turning off hyper threading at least that has been my experience. I find it to be more stable at heavy loads and at lower latency. I also find it runs a lot cooler with out the CPU throttling up and down all the time at different loads. Another thing I have done was to use (TG Pro) to manage the thermal conditions and it also helps with the over all performnace and stability at heavy loads. I have optimized the settings and have found it to provide a good balance and it also keeps the unit well below its specs with out dropping its performance. Another thing I like about (Turbo Boost Pro) is once I make my settings it remembers it all after rebooting so it is a set and forget. I will leave a picture of my thermal setting below. I find theses setting to provide a smooth thermal and quiet fan transition. At the 1% any sensor, the fan speed is about 1700 rpms at boot up and Idle. At 12% the fan speed is at about 2200 rpms and is activated at high cpu temps above 55C. Most of the time the temps never reach over 77C. The next two setting are 50% at 85C and 100% at 95C and I have yet to see it reach 85C at heavy loads. I had a lot of Apple gear around so I used the Apple Trade In deal and didn't pay anything out of pocket. I also was able to get an employee discount which was very helpful The configuration I picked was the 6 core i7, 16GB ram and the 512GB SSD. The good news is since I didn't have to pay anything out of pocket I will be adding a eGPU. The prices have really come down so now is the time. I hope this info is helps to some!

Please do share more. So this stopped the dreaded -9173 CPU error that occur?

[zion]

Originally Posted by SevenRising

Please do share more. So this stopped the dreaded -9173 CPU error that occur?

So far no errors after optimizations. The only error that I was getting prior to optimization was the 6xxxx error. After a few seconds of starting playback in Pro Tools I would get this error and then I would never see it again until the next startup. I have never seen the -9713 CPU error and so far it really looks promising. I haven’t try any buffer settings lower 128 but I will report back after I try it at 64.

[SevenRising]

Originally Posted by zion

So far no errors after optimizations. The only error that I was getting prior to optimization was the 6xxxx error. After a few seconds of starting playback in Pro Tools I would get this error and then I would never see it again until the next startup. I have never seen the -9713 CPU error and so far it really looks promising. I haven’t try any buffer settings lower 128 but I will report back after I try it at 64.

I just tried the exact things you recommended and after about 5 minutes of playback: -6101 ugh! This was at 256 buffer

[zion]

Originally Posted by SevenRising

I just tried the exact things you recommended and after about 5 minutes of playback: -6101 ugh! This was at 256 buffer

Yeah this is the error that I was getting. I read on the Avid support web sight that this error is do to the internal graphics but after the optimizations I haven’t seen it. Fingers crossed. Do you get this all the time or just at a few minutes after playback like I did. Did you do a clean install or upgrade? Are you using the say apps I listed here?

[SevenRising]

Originally Posted by zion

Yeah this is the the error that I was getting. I read on the Avid support web sight that this error is do to the internal graphics but after the optimizations I haven’t seen it so far fingers crossed.

I am not using internal graphics. I am using an eGPU with a Vega 56 card.

[zion]

Originally Posted by SevenRising

I am not using internal graphics. I am using an eGPU with a Vega 56 card.

Strange! If I thinks of something else I’ll chime in and let you know but so far it’s all good. Did yo do a clean install or upgrade?

[SevenRising]

Originally Posted by zion

Strange! If I thinks of something else I’ll chime in and let you know but so far it’s all good. Did yo do a clean install or upgrade?

Clean install. You. know what's even more bizarre. I just unhooked my eGPU and now the error has seemed to stop. I may have spoken too soon. We shall see here in a few minutes of looping playback.

[Darryl Ramm]

Is your eGPU on the same Thunderbolt bus as the HDX card? What Thunderbolt ports are you using?

[SevenRising]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Is your eGPU on the same Thunderbolt bus as the HDX card? What Thunderbolt ports are you using?

They shouldn't be on the same bus. I have them hooked up 1st port and 3rd port. I think it may just be the Core X eGPU. I am going to try Sonnet I guess?

[zion]

Originally Posted by SevenRising

Clean install. You. know what's even more bizarre. I just unhooked my eGPU and now the error has seemed to stop. I may have spoken too soon. We shall see here in a few minutes of looping playback.

I forgot to mention I’m on Mojave 10.14.3. I did a clean install from that version and found it to be better than 10.14.2 and of course I have a clean backup with CCC. I would recommend you do the same if you haven’t already.