# Any tips to improve Mac Mini Performance?



## Callum Hoskin (Jan 27, 2020)

I have a 2018 Mac Mini, 6 core i7. I bought this after my 2013 iMac died. Despite this being a band new, more powerful machine it does not perform anywhere near as well as my iMac used to. I have to crank my buffer size right up to 1024 to the point where I can’t actually play anything in time and I have to make my resolution so low. I have done all the things that people suggest like turning off date and time sync, reducing transparency etc but I am still struggling with this machine. I have constant errors with sync where it says logic has detected conflicting sample rates and I am confused why I am getting all these problems from a brand new machine.


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## mauriziodececco (Jan 30, 2020)

A more conventional check for the machine health, just to be sure there are no problem with software or hardware other than DAW ? Like a check of all the parameters of the Activity Monitor to see if anything is strange, run the hardware diagnostic, and so on. You never know, it may helps ...


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## gamma-ut (Jan 30, 2020)

For me, the shared-memory design of the built-in graphics controller seemed to have a surprisingly large effect on DAW performance - but I've also got two 4K screens, which probably ramps up the pressure on how much main memory gets hammered even by things that don't use that much in the way of graphics processing.

I've got an eGPU on mine (Blackmagic Radeon) and that has helped with buffer settings etc. I'm hesitant to recommend that off the bat but there may be ways to test whether it's a GPU-memory conflict that's giving you problems.


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## John Longley (Jan 30, 2020)

How are thermals? You might experience a lot of throttling if it's cooking. Using external ssds is the only thing I can think of without destroying it lol.


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## gdoubleyou (Feb 12, 2020)

My six-core Mini is silent, except when running geekbench and the Logic benchmark tests (at Gearslutz)

My average sessions are 30-50 tracks.

An eGPU can help performance when you have multiple displays.


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## GingerMaestro (Feb 12, 2020)

I installed 64GB of OWC Computing Ram in my new Mac Mini. I don't think it's running entirely smoothly i.e. when I quit logic I get the beach ball for a couple of seconds. I'm also not sure that the fan is triggering when it should, so I've installled Macs Fan Control, so at least it's not overheating. Has anyone had similar issues and any suggestions for fixes. I ran the mac system checker and it doesn't say there is anything wrong, but I'm not so sure ? Thanks very much


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## Flo Leissle (Feb 14, 2020)

Callum Hoskin said:


> I have a 2018 Mac Mini, 6 core i7. I bought this after my 2013 iMac died. Despite this being a band new, more powerful machine it does not perform anywhere near as well as my iMac used to. I have to crank my buffer size right up to 1024 to the point where I can’t actually play anything in time and I have to make my resolution so low. I have done all the things that people suggest like turning off date and time sync, reducing transparency etc but I am still struggling with this machine. I have constant errors with sync where it says logic has detected conflicting sample rates and I am confused why I am getting all these problems from a brand new machine.



I had exactly the same issues with my Mac Mini 2018 (same specs) for almost a year. Then I found the solution: Because this machine has no dedicated graphics card, the cpu performance changes massively depending on the resolution settings in the display preferences. If you choose "Default for display", you get full cpu performance. But when you choose a scaled resolution, then you run into all that problems as described above.


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## Nicholas (Feb 14, 2020)

Same here. Problem is the integrated graphics. For me though, using an external GPU didn’t improve anything, so I returned it.

And, as mentioned above, HiDPI scaling massively adds to the problem.


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## tav.one (Feb 15, 2020)

Switching from HiDPi to LoDPi resolution solved all problems for me. But its sad that we have to do that.


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## Callum Hoskin (Feb 17, 2020)

I find it unbearable to work at the default resolution, can’t see everything I need to see and it’s all way too big. But will have to do this when recording or printing.


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## Callum Hoskin (Feb 17, 2020)

John Longley said:


> How are thermals? You might experience a lot of throttling if it's cooking. Using external ssds is the only thing I can think of without destroying it lol.


I’m using Macs Fan Control to increase the fans as it’s stupid that it defaults to barely using the fan at all


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## tav.one (Feb 17, 2020)

Callum Hoskin said:


> I find it unbearable to work at the default resolution, can’t see everything I need to see and it’s all way too big. But will have to do this when recording or printing.


Default resolution depends on your monitor. I found the default kinda big on my 27 monitor so I now use 3008 x 1692 (Non Retina). I use full 4K on my 55 inch TV Monitor.


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## Callum Hoskin (Mar 2, 2020)

IVE SOLVED IT!!!!

if you go into system preferences, displays, option click scaled then check show low resolution modes, and then pick a low resolution mode and all ur cpu issues go away. Pictures a little bit blurry but only a little. Hope this helps!


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## Nicholas (Mar 2, 2020)

Callum Hoskin said:


> IVE SOLVED IT!!!!
> 
> if you go into system preferences, displays, option click scaled then check show low resolution modes, and then pick a low resolution mode and all ur cpu issues go away. Pictures a little bit blurry but only a little. Hope this helps!



yes, this disables HiDPI Scaling. Kinda sad we have to work that way in 2020 though haha


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