Would this make a good gaming computer?
Not really.
Most games are still released for Windows + x86 (AMD/Intel).
Proton on Linux works wonders on AMD/Intel CPUs, but your best bet is still Windows.
New Mac Mini with M4
571–580 of 789 posts
Re: New Mac Mini with M4
#572Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something's seriously wrong with your system. I just launched nvim on mine and couldn't measurably detect the interval between hitting enter to exec the command and seeing the welcome screen. Even opening and immediately quitting my substantially customized Emacs took 1.7s. Your setup should not be taking many seconds to do those routine things. Last time I experienced something like that, I had a dying harddrive tha…
That it shouldn't be like that we all agree with. My Neovim is heavily customized (AstroNvim) but again, it starts instantly on a supposedly weaker CPU. Any pointers on how do I find those read timeout events or any signs of dying hardware?
I don’t have that one anymore to test it. I’d suggest using Disk Utility to check the entire drive for errors and ruling that out first.
I don’t want to sound like “it works on my machine”, but what you’re describing is so far out of expectations that I’ve gotta wonder if it’s an error condition.
Re: New Mac Mini with M4
#573Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's still good deals in mini PC land. Yes, the M4 is faster but there's loads of mini PCs with decent CPUs, 32GB RAM and a 1TB of SSD storage for under $600. I think for a lot of people for basic usage they'll get more value out of the larger and upgradable SSDs than the faster CPU. https://www.amazon.com/BOSGAME-5700U-Displays-Computers-Emul... https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-SER5-Desktop-Computer-Graphic...
From my experience, TCO on most apple products ends up being roughly the same when you factor in resale value. You'll be able to sell your M4 mac mini in 5 years for $150 for an instant-cash offer from backmarket or any other reseller, while you'd be lucky to get $30 for the equivalent Beelink or BOSGAME after 6 months on ebay.
So wait 6 months and buy the equivalent beelink for $30 instead of wasting $600 on the mac?
Re: New Mac Mini with M4
#574Re: New Mac Mini with M4
#575Earlier quoted context omitted.
That it shouldn't be like that we all agree with. My Neovim is heavily customized (AstroNvim) but again, it starts instantly on a supposedly weaker CPU. Any pointers on how do I find those read timeout events or any signs of dying hardware?
I don’t have that one anymore to test it. I’d suggest using Disk Utility to check the entire drive for errors and ruling that out first. I don’t want to sound like “it works on my machine”, but what you’re describing is so far out of expectations that I’ve gotta wonder if it’s an error condition.
I think it's likely the impact of the mitigations against Spectre and Meltdown (iMac Pro uses older-generation Xeon W CPUs).
And yeah I'll do the usual checks, disk health included. Been putting it off for a while anyway.
Re: New Mac Mini with M4
#576Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think repairable or not, the pricing to upgrade to the max config just isn't something a price-sensitive consumer should take seriously. Beyond one or two upgrades, you might as well pretend it says "call for quote" and just not consider 4+ TB as a realistic option to get from the OEM, because those prices are trying to cause sticker shock. And that goes for any PC OEM—the price-gouged upgrades are so far beyond re…
It matters that there are no after market options for Apple because it means the inflated OEM upgrade price is the ONLY price available for every given upgrade. It matters less with Dell/Asus/Lenovo etc. because that's not the only price available. The top of the line is also not where Apple is gouging the worst. It's in the middle tiers that are actually relevant to many more people. Most don't have a need for 4+ TB…
By all means, complain about the cost to get a 1TB config, and put that price in proper context. But it still doesn't make much sense to focus on the $1200 upgrades, or any of the other upgrades whose price rounds up to "lol, no".
Re: New Mac Mini with M4
#577Would this make a good gaming computer?
No. Game compatibility is still a big issue for many AAA titles, and the GPU is still not nearly as powerful as a dedicated graphics card from NVIDIA or AMD.
However, this is a fantastic general purpose machine for things like light web browsing, text editing, coding, etc.
Re: New Mac Mini with M4
#578Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t have that one anymore to test it. I’d suggest using Disk Utility to check the entire drive for errors and ruling that out first. I don’t want to sound like “it works on my machine”, but what you’re describing is so far out of expectations that I’ve gotta wonder if it’s an error condition.
I think it's likely the impact of the mitigations against Spectre and Meltdown (iMac Pro uses older-generation Xeon W CPUs). And yeah I'll do the usual checks, disk health included. Been putting it off for a while anyway.
I really don't think it'd be those mitigations. Estimates I've seen floating around estimate it to be a total 15-25% performance hit when heavily loaded.
For additional context, last weekend I went around to every old Intel Mac in a medical office to upgrade their OSes and some of the apps on them. None of them were speed demons, but they were all just proportionally slower than my much newer Mx Macs. Regular "small" apps still loaded quickly and were perfectly usable. This is in a busy office where any slowdowns that kept people from working at full speed would be fixed.
And just because it works for me doesn't automatically mean it's got to work for you, of course. I'm not going to doubt your experience. It's more that what you're describing is so very different than what I'm seeing that it feels like there's got to be something more at play here.
Re: New Mac Mini with M4
#579With educational pricing this thing starts as $500, and at 16GB of RAM (finally) I think this easily beats any sort of desktop PC you can buy at that price (let's exclude custom builds, they're not the same market). I think this just became the go-to recommendation I'll give to anybody wanting an entry-level desktop computer of any kind. In fact I might buy one for my parents right now to replace the old mac mini the…
One issue to watch out for: Sub-4K res monitors look surprisingly bad on newer versions of macOS with Apple Silicon Macs. And no, it's not simply a matter of non-Retina obviously not looking as nice as Retina monitors - something like a 1440p monitor will look much worse on macOS than it would on Windows or Linux. This is partly caused by a lack of subpixel rendering for text on macOS, but it doesn't affect just text…
No, it looks great on my 1440p OLED. Windows on the other hand in old Control Panel for example it looks like ass.
Re: New Mac Mini with M4
#580Putting the audio jack on the front is a strange design choice to me if you plan on hooking it up to wired speakers all the time. Did they run out of space to keep it in the back?
Presumably servicing wired headphones, but agree it's an odd choice to not also include one in the back— particularly when unlike a laptop there's no built in speakers, and Apple has been pushing hard on bluetooth audio since the iPhone 8 in 2017.
There is a built in speaker. No clue how good it sounds, since previous Mac Mini speakers sound like they're underwater, but they are there.