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M4 Mac mini's efficiency

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#121

Post by talldayo »

edude03 wrote: post #81
talldayo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any experiences using Nix and nix-darwin as a daily driver? Not positive ones, even on x86 Darwin. Homebrew feels a lot more stable, which is a decidedly concerning thing for the average Nix enjoyer.

What kind of issues are you having?

Well, missing packages for one. Nix prides itself on having one of the most compete package catalogs of any Linux package manager, and on Mac it leaves quite a bit to be desired. A lot of functionality has to be hooked in via home-manager scripts that are a lot less stable than NixOS modules, and since your system isn't built/upgraded by Nix you can't write overlays for a lot of Mac software. If you only need the versioned Flake management then it might be an okay option, but I found myself pretty frustrated by it in places that aren't an issue on Linux. I can't comfortably use it as a Homebrew replacement.

Also, my Mac is 256gb which feels far too cramped for Nix. I'd really only recommend it if you're working with 512gb or more.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#122

Post by ricardobeat »

whartung wrote: post #64
kranke155 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a burden. I consider it a typical Tim Cook decision, in that the man led the company that made one of the fastest CPUs in the world, makes it draw as much as a Raspberry Pi. Absolutely crazy feats of engineering, design, manufacturing… and - There is that ONE detail that would’ve made it perfected but it’s botched! I don’t mind it too much, since it’s still 99% close to perfect. But, but…

Shame they got rid of the ability to power the computer on and off from the keyboard. I know its been that way for some time, I'm sure there's good reason for it (maybe it doesn't work well over BT or something, or simply few generic keyboards offered the power button).

It does work like that in practice though. There’s is absolutely no reason to fully shut down instead of standby.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#123

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

rgovostes wrote: post #37
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just got one (M4Pro model). It's pretty zippy. I have pressed the power button exactly once, since Friday (the day I got it). All other restarts were "soft" (including a couple of crashes). The keyboard and trackpad do fine, starting a shut-down computer. It's replacing a docked MBP. That power button was a lot more difficult to reach, and I needed to hit it more often than this.

I spent a few minutes looking up whether a Mac could be booted from a Bluetooth keyboard but couldn't find any documentation of that. Back in the day some(?) Mac models could be booted by a USB keyboard, see https://www.projectgus.com/2023/04/griffin-imate/ for technical details.

I just bang on the spacebar, and it starts up. It's a Bluetooth keyboard, so I guess the system is listening to BT. I did that with the laptop, forever.

The Mini starts up a lot faster than the laptop.

That said, I should actually do a test, to make sure that the system is in real shutdown...

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#124

Post by Symbiote »

vetinari wrote: post #55
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NUC 14th gen with i3 is around 400 EUR with VAT 4 cores instead of 10 cores, 69W TDP instead of 22W, UHD Graphics 730 versus Apple's 10 core GPU (0.5 TFLOPs vs about 4.3), 23% worse single core performance, 45% worse multicore, and much louder cooling. It's not a fair comparison.

So get a stronger one. There will be always something that is better on one or another side. I have 13th gen i7, with 64 GB RAM and 2 TB ssd (and 2.5 GbE). It was 800 EUR + VAT, last year. How much would similar Mac Mini cost? Not a fair comparison either. Edit: 69W for the NUC is not TDP. It is 69W power brick that ships with the machine.

How noisy is it?

I made a fanless NUC 7 (!) years ago with a special case, and it's perhaps due for replacement.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#125

Post by rconti »

rgovostes wrote: post #22

> If only they didn't put the power button on the bottom. I can't tell if anyone is being serious about the "Powergate" issue. The thing is 5" wide and weighs 1.5 lbs, it's not exactly a burden to lift it a little. And there are highly practical workarounds: https://www.reddit.com/r/macmini/comments/1gncek7/nailed_the...

Because the comment is very specifically talking about rack-mount installations. Granted, no matter you put the power switch, it's going to be difficult to reach if you install 21 of them on a single shelf.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#126

Post by leptons »

userbinator wrote: post #59
rgovostes wrote: post #22

> If only they didn't put the power button on the bottom. I can't tell if anyone is being serious about the "Powergate" issue. The thing is 5" wide and weighs 1.5 lbs, it's not exactly a burden to lift it a little. And there are highly practical workarounds: https://www.reddit.com/r/macmini/comments/1gncek7/nailed_the...

Or rotate it 180 degrees. There's nothing on the top (now bottom) anyway that can't stand being covered up.

Sounds vaguely like "you're holding it wrong". Maybe it was always supposed to be placed on its side? Apple should clarify why the button is on the bottom.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#127

Post by [deleted] »

rhplus wrote: post #107
nextos wrote: post #9

I use Linux, but I think the cheapest M4 Mini offers an incredible value and efficiency per €. With education discount, it's around €650, including VAT. It's pretty hard to find such a silent and powerful machine for that little. Any comparable options? A good fanless build with a i3-14100T is more expensive and 40-50% slower on Geekbench. An i5 is a bit closer. Some 2024 Ryzen CPUs can match or exceed its multicore…

The configuration being tested by OP is a $1499 model.

[deleted]

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#129

Post by josephg »

artdigital wrote: post #112
ewhanley wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also wonder how often people are actually turning them off. It's generally a rare event to push the power button on a mac in my experience

I turn my Mac off every day

Why?

I only reboot my Mac laptop when I’m forced to due to os updates. With a Mac mini? That thing would never get shut down.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#130

Post by nielsbot »

baq wrote: post #100
dansky wrote: post #95

The Mac mini M4 performance is around 4-5x in DaVinci Resolve for me - compared to my HP laptop (i5-1135G7). Rendering HDR video was around 12fps there on the i5 - the same project in the Mac mini gets 60fps. The M4 10 core GPU seems on par or better with a mobile RTX3060(65W) for video tests (NR / Deflicker) so I'm also impressed about the M4's efficiency. A lot of power per Watt. It's becoming a dedicated video ren…

> The power button placement is an annoyance for me, though. Keep the thing upside down. Not joking.

Feel like that risks overheating...
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