Mac Mini with eGPU

[Morgan Reese]

After Oliver’s question is answered and not to hijack, I have the exact same question for the new macbook air…I think even without the bmd gpu it might be able to cut 1080 fine and maybe 4k. I still use only 1080 now.

I have a mid 2012 retina macbook pro2.6ghz/i7/16g ram that works fine for me now but it’s so heavy when traveling and what a joy it would be to have an air and a small thunderbolt drive to cut anywhere and then use an egpu and large monitor for regular high horsepower set up.

tia,

[David Mathis]

What is interesting is this subject came up in a Facebook group. One of the questions that was asked was whether or not it is possible to edit 4K on the new Mac Mini. I doubt it though it might work with proxies. This will be worth following.

[Oliver Peters]

[David Mathis] “I doubt it though it might work with proxies”

Why? 4K isn’t really dependent on GPU if you have fast storage. I can do 4K on a 2014 MBP.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[David Mathis]

I am interested in watching one of the new Minis at work. Might even buy one after seeing what the initial reports are.

So, what system congratulations are the best? Looking at mainly storage and eGPU solutions.

[Herb Sevush]

[Oliver Peters] “Does a new Mac Mini (optioned out with all the bells & whistles) – plus one of the BMD eGPU and TB storage – become a good FCPX option in the opinion of this group?”

Even if the answer is yes you would be paying a $1000 surcharge to have an Apple logo on the box and, once again, there would be no upgrade options.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf

[Neil Goodman]

at that point for a little more money you could have an imac, with a nice screen.

By the time you RAM those things up its like 2500+ depending on the storage. Then the price of the egpu.

[Michael Hancock]

If you completely max out the Mac Mini (6-core i7, 64GB RAM, 2TB hard drive) you’re at $4,199. Add in the Blackmagic Pro eGPU for $1,199 and you’re at $5,398. And you still need a screen.

I think it would be a better value to get the base level iMacPro (8-core), upgrade the RAM to 64GB, leave the hard drive at 1TB and you’ll have a machine that is likely faster (with much better cooling), comes with an incredible screen, and totals $5,799. By the time you get a decent screen for a maxed out Mac Mini, the iMacPro would be the cheaper option. And the only thing you sacrifice is the internal storage.

I am interested to see how the Mac Mini performs in the real world. The $300 hike in price on the base model is hard to take, and it gets expensive fast when you start upgrading it, but it could make a great little offline machine. Especially with the 10GB ethernet upgrade option for only $100. They should offer that in every computer.

—————-
Michael Hancock
Editor

[Bill Davis]

[Oliver Peters] “Does a new Mac Mini (optioned out with all the bells & whistles) – plus one of the BMD eGPU and TB storage – become a good FCPX option in the opinion of this group?”

I’m guessing in the next 5 years – what we conceive of as an editing system is pretty much ALL going to change.

I saw a twitter link yesterday about some new technology coming out of my local San Diego State Computer Science Program that has kinda blown my mind.

https://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=2654

Read this and tell me that the way we edit right might not be changing in the not too distant future.

If, as the article implies, anyone with a fast connection can upload entire edits into a cloud array, have that array virtually instantly express all sorts of AI manipulations against the footage – DIRT CHEAPLY. and then relay the new material down to the end user – might the type of “all in a box” computer systems we mostly rely upon today end up looking a bit like Model T Fords.

You just KNOW AI, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing is in the infant stages of targeting lots of aspects of the digital streams we all create.

Sure, a brain expressing artistic intent against the material will always be necessary, but what’s the purpose of a HONKING box sucking down power under your desk for 20 minutes to do the exact same job that a massively parallel cloud service can distribute out and do in SECONDS – and for Pennies?

The eGPU external box is a product solution right now, but it’s also, in my mind a SIGN. It’s a wake up that we may be moving away from a monolithic box, to more distributed processing.

Say these GPU boxes scale so that they’re the price of hard drives today – will we eventually have as many GPUs under our desks as we have hard drives? All connected to a fat internet pipe loop into the cloud for a circuit to do the REALLY tough stuff?

In that scenario – a MacMini peripherals hub or Laptop might become everything an editor would really need.

We’ll see.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Michael Gissing]

[Bill Davis]”Read this and tell me that the way we edit right might not be changing in the not too distant future.”

The article talks about shared server processing by slicing video files into small chunks and processing for “less than $1” in reference to 30 seconds worth of sheer grunt AI driven processing. Well editing doesn’t require anything like the need for such processing. VFX rendering maybe or complete animation but the article is mostly about image analysis and content ID, again not really about creative editing.

But even if it was, here’s what I see are fundamental problems. You still need a computer, albeit under powered with minimal GPU and storage. You need a high speed reliable internet connection. It’s a subscription model that, if it costs roughly $1 per minute to use, will cost as much per 40 hour week as buying a hefty GPU and 8TB of storage.

If you are talking about not editing at all but asking AI to do the job very quickly then yes this sort of cloud based system might totally replace an editor. So you won’t have a job or need a computer under your desk. What also is never talked about is getting you hi res files up in the cloud from camera. It will need to be as fast as local backup, as secure and as cheap. I see all that as possible. Not entirely desirable except for remote collaborative workflows.

[Oliver Peters]

[Michael Gissing] “VFX rendering maybe or complete animation”

The VFX guys have been doing variations of this for some time now.

https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/looper/

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com