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  #11  
Old 11-09-2020, 11:42 AM
GoButtonGuy GoButtonGuy is offline
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Default Re: 2020 Mac Mini or wait for ARM?

I wouldn't expect Pro Tools to work reliably on Apple Silicon for months if not a year. This is based on Pro Tools transitions over the last 15-20 years. Case in point the inability to work directly with QT video formats. That's why many production rigs are still on Mojave. It's more an appliance than a multi use computer.

Apple Silicon will require Big Sur. Catalina and Mojave do not have the Apple Silicon/ARM native codebase to run on Apple Silicon.

Pro Tools may work well using Rosetta 2 on Apple Silicon. I wouldn't want to base any for profit work or risk being offline if you're doing your own music.

I've got one of those Mini's with the refresh earlier this year. I haven't tracked anything on it but I can easily edit 40 plus tracks with a variety of plugs both native and on Soundgrid Server. These days I'm doing editing, arranging and VOs for streaming presentations. I'd like to see how it responds when I load 106 track sessions from the show. I don't know that it could handle all the plugs if I didn't have the Soundgrid Server but for an entry level machine it does well. The key here is entry level.
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  #12  
Old 11-09-2020, 05:14 PM
musicman691 musicman691 is offline
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Default Re: 2020 Mac Mini or wait for ARM?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Robruce View Post
Thanks for sharing your opinion, work experience and confidence in both. I've been a full-time music bizzer for half a century working in digital audio for about 35+ years, so I tend to go with what works. Two music friends run the Mini cover off and ventilated with no China Syndrome yet.

When reading "pro" in an audio forum post you can probably assume a reference to "pro audio", not POP calculations. At least I usually do. Computing cash transactions is nowhere near as demanding as digital audio editing - is it?
Perhaps your experience suggests otherwise, mine doesn't.

While some probably exist, most professional, full-time, commercial-for-public hire recording studios are not relying on a Mac-Mini. I wouldn't, and computing/throughput demands here are nothing like a real recording house. It should be ok

Thanks again for your opinion and advice, it's appreciated!
What I wrote is just as pro as audio and that was my point - that these little machines are found in applications you wouldn't even think about. Take it from someone who knows what they're talking with regards to airflow - that cover is there and engineered for a reason. Why take the chance on frying a computer you paid big bucks for? I sure as hell wouldn't.


I don't trust 'should be'. I don't take chances with my equipment.


I'm done with you.
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  #13  
Old 11-10-2020, 02:14 AM
Sardi Sardi is offline
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Default Re: 2020 Mac Mini or wait for ARM?

You wrote NOTHING offensive.


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  #14  
Old 11-10-2020, 11:09 AM
TrentWilliams TrentWilliams is offline
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Default Re: 2020 Mac Mini or wait for ARM?

Apple just announced the 2021 Mac mini with the M1 chip which raises more questions, is the 16GB unified memory better/faster than the 64GB from 2020?

Top tier specs are:
8Core CPU/GPU
16GB Unified Memory
2TB SSD
Gigabit Ethernet

I would love to see a comparison between the 2020 intel Mac mini and the 2021.
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  #15  
Old 11-10-2020, 11:24 AM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is offline
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Default Re: 2020 Mac Mini or wait for ARM?

Quote:
Originally Posted by TrentWilliams View Post
Apple just announced the 2021 Mac mini with the M1 chip which raises more questions, is the 16GB unified memory better/faster than the 64GB from 2020?
[edit: all confused take by me, see below]

Last edited by Darryl Ramm; 11-10-2020 at 11:55 AM.
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  #16  
Old 11-10-2020, 11:35 AM
TrentWilliams TrentWilliams is offline
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Default Re: 2020 Mac Mini or wait for ARM?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm View Post
This question really does not make sense. The new ARM based Mac Mini starts at 8GB and goes to 64GB.
I'm only seeing 16GB max on their website.

https://www.apple.com/nz-hed/shop/bu...ore-gpu-512gb#
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  #17  
Old 11-10-2020, 11:55 AM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is offline
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Default Re: 2020 Mac Mini or wait for ARM?

Trent sorry, so right you are I stupidly looked at both the new Arm and old Intel iMac still online in the Apple store.

Ugh the 16GB if unified (UMA) memory may make this model a non-starter forever.

We'll need details on the M1 and if these are expandable in memory in future.

Memory is memory... 16GB minus overhead of the graphics would be a minimum for most Pro Tools systems even if Pro Tools ran on the Arm box.

The Unified memory is likely just DDR4, likely too early for DDR5 but we'll need to see. That Apple don't describe that makes me even more so suspect it's only DDR4. But could Apple pull out all the stops here and do DDR5? And if it's not DDR5 then why cap at 16GB? Or they may just have packaging pincount issues... but that seems a bit weird to constrain memory so much for. On an Air I could understand it's packaging and thermals (DRAM itself becomes a significant heat source so you don't build support for large memory), but a Mini or 13" MBP... maybe they really targeted only the Air early on and the others are a stretch.

Remember the Intel onboard graphics was UMA as well, so some main memory lost to the GPU as well. With more advanced GPUs and larger displays you potentially lose more of that memory to the GPU.. .so the 16GB here looks even worse.
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  #18  
Old 11-10-2020, 12:00 PM
TrentWilliams TrentWilliams is offline
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Default Re: 2020 Mac Mini or wait for ARM?

No worries .. ! Yeah, I'm interested to see how it compares. It's $500 less than the fully specd 2020 version in New Zealand. I have an eGPU with a 5700XT, so I wouldn't be using the integrated GPU anyway.
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Last edited by TrentWilliams; 11-10-2020 at 12:11 PM.
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  #19  
Old 11-10-2020, 12:12 PM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is offline
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Default Re: 2020 Mac Mini or wait for ARM?

A tear down of the new Macs is going to be interesting. The memory stuff in particular. 16GB is by far the worst thing about all these devices, amongst so much other interesting stuff. There are many questions raised by this 16GB limitation. I'm expecting this memory to be soldered onto the motherboards and possibly on a carrier chip. And while DDR4 or DDR5 internally it sounds Apple custom. But just what is it....

Also curious where claims of 2X SSD performance increases comes from. The might imply PCIe 4 support but I doubt it in a first gen device focused in low power consumption.

But 16GB limitations is maybe good for Avid.. gives them a reason that the boxes are just not good targets at all.. and time to work on porting their stuff.
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  #20  
Old 11-10-2020, 01:43 PM
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Ben Jenssen Ben Jenssen is offline
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Default Re: 2020 Mac Mini or wait for ARM?

I notice the new mini has only two TB3 and two USB3 ports. They might have picked up on the problems many of us have with utilizing the four TB ports on the 2018 causing wireless interference.
But only two TB ports? hmm.
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