“This first look at the 2018 Mac mini features CPU, GPU, and Storage benchmarks,” Rob Morgan writes for Bare Feats. “We included three desktop Macs and one laptop.”
The contenders:
• iMac Pro = 3.2GHz 8-core Xeon, 32G RAM, Pro Vega 64 GPU, 1TB flash storage
• iMac 5K = 4.2GHz 4-core i7, 64G RAM, 64G RAM, Pro 580 GPU, 1TB flash storage
• Mac Pro = 3.0GHz 8-core Xeon, 64G RAM, FirePro D700 GPUs, 1TB flash
• MacBook Pro i9 = 2.9GHz 6-Core i9, 32G RAM, Pro 560X GPU, 512G flash storage
• Mac mini = 3.0GHz 6-core i5, 8G RAM, UHD 630 GPU, 256G flash storage
• Mac mini + eGPU = above Mac mini connected to an eGPU box with AMD Radeon Vega Frontier GPU
“In the CPU test, the mid level 2018 Mac mini held its own,” Morgan writes. “(In a few days we will add the test results for the custom order Mac mini with 3.2GHz i7 processor.)”
“As expected, the performance of the Intel UHD Graphics 630 GPU was disappointing. The Mac mini ‘screams’ for an eGPU,” Morgan writes. “The large sustained READ speed of the Mac mini’s flash storage was impressive but the WRITE speed was shockingly slow compared to Macs with similar flash storage.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We never thought we’d see the day when a Mac mini’s Multi-Core CPU benchmarked so closely with a Mac Pro, but here it is. (Or course, the Mac mini is just 9 days old and the Mac Pro is 1,794 days old and counting).
The embarrassment on Apple over the Mac Pro is simply immense!
If Pipeline were an ethical and honest person, he’d be truly ashamed at what he has allowed to happen to the Mac Pro.
But he’s not.
Far from it.
Pipeline would rather extract more cash from Apple customers rather than satisfy their needs.
How hard is it to design an upgraded Mac Pro?
Apparently real hard for Pipeline.
Of course, he’s too busy finding new ways to over charge Apple customers.
That’s the Pipeline way.
He craps all over Apple customers and shows nothing but utter and total contempt for them.
Again, how many years does it take to produce a new Mac Pro?
We can’t answer that today because Pipeline has not shown the ability to upgrade the Mac Pro. The answer is, “undefined”.
There goes Baroness von Tink again.
You’d tink she was tired of attacking Tim Cook by now.
Poor dear….must be off her meds…
He’s not attacking, he’s pointing out the obvious. You must be on meds if you think any responsible CEO would let it’s top of the line computer become the laughing stock of the industry while still selling it at top dollar. Then letting the pros jump ship and go to windows. Jeez, you’re dumb
At the rear……
From the article: “the large sustained READ speed of the Mac mini’s flash storage was impressive but the WRITE speed was shockingly slow compared to Macs with similar flash storage. The graph in AJA revealed major thermal throttling kicking in instantly, resulting in about half the average transfer speed expected.”
Did Apple mess up thermal design for SSD in new Mac mini?
Interesting. Like to see them repeat the test with “Macs Fan Control” installed and fans spun 1,000 or more RPMs faster.
Did they run the WRITE tests with disk encryption on?
It is likely the T2 must do a lot more work to encrypt on writes than to decrypt on reads.
Considering what Apple charges for their SSDs, this is doubly embarrasing.
This comparison used the 256GB SSD. From what I’ve read the Read speed is rated at 2GB/s across all 2018 Mac Mini SSD sizes. BUT, the Write speed increases with the larger SSD sizes.
Write Speed of 2018 Mac Mini SSD sizes:
128GB -> ~600MB/s
256GB -> ~1.3GB/s
512GB -> ~1.9GB/s
1TB -> ~2.6GB/s
https://twitter.com/tapbot_paul/status/1060611584639361024
Folks. The mini is the new Mac Pro. If your waiting for the Mac Pro, just buy the mini. That’s all.
At the very least it will be the only pro-like Mac the pro-moaners can afford.
It’ll no doubt be similar to the Mac Mini with hopefully much more access, but no, the Mac Mini is not the Mac Pro. But what’s revealing is the amount of money needed to make the Mac Mini usable (about 5 grand) you can most likely at least double or even triple for the 2019 Mac Pro. Lots to think about next year and whether you want a bunch of modular components littering up your desk or one PC box. I hope Apple is not just listening to the only the kind of pros they want to listen to (the FCPX crowd).
The $799 base model is “usable” you don’t have to spend $5k. The self-absorption and arrogance of pro-bullshitters is astounding sometimes. Apple would be wise to ignore these secret “pros” completely, pricing them out of the market is a good first step. MDN would be wise to do the same, charge even $1/month to comment and most of the gasbags would disappear overnight.
Plainly you fail to understand the needs of pro users out there likely only using your Macs for low octane tasks. Thanks for the (lack of) understanding! Not everyone uses their Macs just searching for Internet porn. Astounding doofusity and ignorance indeed. I take it you no doubt would most be likely be the first nonsensical gasbag to disappear. If there was justice in the world that would be true.
As a Mac Pro user (upgraded Cheese Grater) I was looking at the Mac Pro ‘Tube’ (Cylinder) results and there are abysmal.
The ‘Mini’ supposedly lowest end Mac either holds against or actually crushes it.
With an eGPU it embarrass the ‘Tube’ in a GPU tests (Open CL 13000 vs 9000 )
This shows how important the GPU is and making the Cylinder’s GPU non upgradable and having TB2, near useless for eGPU, shows how nuts the Cylinder design was.
Apologists might argue with me: “what do you expect that’s a 2013 machine” and I’ll answer : Exactly ! they are still selling a 2013 machine as a ‘flagship’ today, to Apple it’s not an obsolete model but a proud current one !
To me an aapl investor (thus a small owner) that’s embarrassing.
(Imagine consumers new to Apple looking at that ‘Pro’ Mac thinking ‘this must be a really powerful machine’ as it comes from Apple — you know the people who make the Greatest Phone in the world. Where’s the product pride? Apple should be the best, ‘insanely great’ , in ALL categories).
Seriously the Cylinder should have been nixed at prototype, they should have just built an updated Cheese Grater, fully upgradable with new internals and perhaps lighter materials in 2013. When they found the Cylinder not working should have at least changed it in 2015 or so.
(I’m writing this to encourage Apple to launch their new MP in early 2019 and not postpone it even further to the end or 2020 etc … )
notice the Mini with 8 G of RAM beating the Mac Pro ‘Tube’ with 64 G of RAM in some tests (see post above).
(thinking about it they should have had all the machines with same amount of RAM for more even tests)
The Mini “Pro” is good but not great, not as good as it can be. It should be bigger or taller to accommodate a better cooler and allow an 8-core like a 9700k, or a top 6-core working very hard for long periods. And even taller or bigger to accommodate at least a mobile Vega 20 GPU. That would be really impressive. I say this because from now on 8-cores are going to rule the mainstream market. So next year, and in 2 years the Mini is not going to be as competitive
Re Mac Mini’s enclosure, again, Tim Cook’s mentality kicked in. Use the leftover molds to save cost for cheaper production, then overprice it. Much like iPhone SE. In the case of the SE, it was a success, cost-saving nonetheless. They may also be serving the data server factory that flashed during the keynote. I purchased a 3.2Ghz 8 core, 8Gb/526Gb 10gb ethernet version for a home server and document creation etc, and jacked up the RAM to 32Gb. It’s an OK machine to bridge between ordinary home use and pro for now. But Apple are certainly very consistent. Min. cost and max. profit to their extreme.
I might add that Apple hyped (again) the old enclosure as using recycled aluminum (recycled design?). I believe they tried to conceal their embarrassment by saying something nice but what a big deal. Space gray? It is just a cheap black anodizing, no big deal too. Sometimes, I have to giggle.