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M4 Mac mini's efficiency

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#341

Post by devnullbrain »

kranke155 wrote: post #27
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...

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…

>makes it draw as much as a Raspberry Pi

That's a funny comparison. They don't have power buttons at all. Without mounting, you need to pick it up to be able to remove the power supply.

And the power supply I bought with my Pi 4, at the Cambridge store, doesn't even work.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#342

Post by ideashower »

I’m contemplating whether this can handle editing 8K video. Does anyone have any idea?

My goal is to venture into 180-degree VR production. With the Canon R5C and the RF 5.2mm f/2.8 Dual Fisheye Lens, I want to produce stereoscopic video at 8K. However, rendering such high-resolution footage demands substantial processing power, and my current setup definitely isn't enough.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#343

Post by denkmoon »

seabrookmx wrote: post #333
denkmoon wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just put Asahi on there, or any linux you like. I'm sure the support will be there soon if it's not already.

> or any Linux you like That's not a thing. Apple silicon doesn't use EFI so you need a completely custom ROM to satisfy the boot process, hence Asahi. And Asahi doesn't support M4 and likely won't for a while. ARM64 support for GUI apps (via flatpak in the Fedora Asahi Remix) is also pretty poor, though your standard fair of CLI apps are present.

It is a thing. Sure, it's not easy. You can't just download the Debian build for M1, but it can be built.

M4 support will come.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#344

Post by jtwaleson »

HeatrayEnjoyer wrote: post #227
GustaBOT wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the first ARM systems (may be before) you can’t upgrade things on your own, i had an Air which can be SSD upgraded but not memory upgraded. Memory can only be upgraded from factory.

You could just solder on a new ram set

The amount of people for whom this is a "just" kind of task is very very low. I don't think "just" should be in that sentence ;)

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#345

Post by [deleted] »

_2d30 wrote: post #320
Retr0id wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Unlike previous mac mini models, the grille on the underside is both the air intake and exhaust. If anything it ought to be better upside-down, since convection now helps the heated air rise out. Edit: any downvoters care to elaborate?

The case is also going to radiate heat and turning it upside down will make that less efficient. The base won't radiate heat in the same due to being plastic and due to it already being used to pass air through.

[deleted]

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#346

Post by ideashower »

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…

Have you tried 8K video? How does each machine handle that?

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#347

Post by redler »

vunderba wrote: post #298
1-6 wrote: post #45

“If only they didn't put the power button on the bottom.” While I think Apple was off the rocker on this particular decision, I do respect their org structure that allows this type of decision to occur. Believe me, there are companies where a dozen people or more would weigh in and prevent an unpopular choice. Consensus sometimes hinders a desired result (both good and bad).

I mind this design decision a hell of a lot less than the baffling deliberate decision to map EVERY KEYBOARD BUTTON to be equivalent to the power button (which the damn thing already has) on their laptop line-up. I love it when my macbook is turned off and I accidentally nudge a single letter on the keyboard and it powers back on - not to mention when you're drying to clean it with a micro fiber cloth.

Just lock the screen and you’re good to go for keyboard cleaning.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#348

Post by freehorse »

wtallis wrote: post #340
ghshephard wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would explain improving performance, but I don't actually understand how that would improve efficiency. Particularly at the high end where they quote 6.74 Gflops/W .

If a higher proportion of the total performance is coming from efficiency cores, it is reasonable to expect overall efficiency to be improved.

Exactly this ^

In particular, under some ideal, unrealistic assumptions to simplify things, and denoting n the number of E-cores, E the efficiency and W_e the power consumption of each e-core, while respectively denoting m the number of each P-cores, P the efficiency and W_p the power consumption of each p-core, where E>P, we can calculate the express EFF of the cpu as

  EFF = (n*E*W_e + m*P*W_p)/(n*W_e + m*W_p)
      = (n*E*W_e - n*P*W_e + n*P*W_e + m*P*W_p)/(n*W_e + m*W_p)
      = (E-P)*n*W_e/(n*W_e + m*W_p) + P
      = (E-P)/(1 + (m/n)*(W_p/W_e)) + P
which shows that the energy efficiency of the CPU increases monotonically as a function of the ratio of e to p cores n/m.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#349

Post by ideashower »

prewett wrote: post #33
LordKeren wrote: post #6

I can’t help but wish that Apple would provide the handful of features needed to make a Mac mini into a competent home server.

Maybe they already have, depending on what you need. Settings >> General >> Sharing provides lots of options. "Remote Login" is SSH and SFTP, and last time I used it, "File Sharing" was SMB. "Screen Sharing" and "Remote Management" seem useful, too. I assume that "Media Sharing" is supposed to allow iTunes on your network to see media files, although I've never used it and the information on the dialog is limited.

Can you run it headless? Like, if I have it power on after a reboot, is it possible to log in remotely?

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#350

Post by Retr0id »

_2d30 wrote: post #320
Retr0id wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Unlike previous mac mini models, the grille on the underside is both the air intake and exhaust. If anything it ought to be better upside-down, since convection now helps the heated air rise out. Edit: any downvoters care to elaborate?

The case is also going to radiate heat and turning it upside down will make that less efficient. The base won't radiate heat in the same due to being plastic and due to it already being used to pass air through.

The case isn't thermally connected to the SoC in any direct way, so while I'm sure it does radiate some heat, I think it's pretty negligible. The PSU sits at the "top" (in regular orientation), and I don't think it runs much of a risk of overheating.
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