Capture One Pro & Mac Mini
Hello All
Has anybody out there had any experience running C1P on a Mac Mini 2018/2020 (6 Core i7, 16GB RAM) with our without an eGPU? I am really interested to get an idea how the performance is with the Intel UHD 630 graphics chip i.e. does this contribute significantly to C1P performance or is CPU power dominant?
I am processing 24MP RAF files with "standard" corrections, no heavy layers etc, in a 100% sRGB workflow.
Any views would be welcome.
Tom
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Hi Thomas,
A performant CPU is recommended (you have it already), and GPU is not as important as the CPU. But if you want to get an idea, the best way would be to try Capture One on your system.
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Hi Robert,
Thank you for your reply. I am a long term C1P user and familiar with software performance. However, my ageing MacBook Pro system is in desperate need of an upgrade. I am attempting to put together a desktop alternative which avoids iMac, and the Mac Pro is beyond what I need in terms of processing and cost. So, the Mac Mini appears to be a good fit as the brains of a modular setup, albeit, with some doubt regarding the capability of its GPU.
Tom
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Hi Thomas,
I better understand your point now. My personal choice has been to buy a MacBook Pro connected to a calibrated "graphic" monitor. Many Capture One users disable hardware graphic acceleration for various reasons, and the CPU does the job quite well. Actually, graphic acceleration is used when processing at the local level (layers and masks, or with a 100% definition) and when exporting an image. But graphic chipsets might work as well for these tasks, albeit a little bit slower.
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Hi Robert
Thank you for your comments. The 2019 MacBook Pro 16" and 2020 Mac Mini (potentially with an eGPU) are my two options. I was trying to get away from a laptop as I will be using an 11" iPad Pro for all of my non-photo processing work; the MBP is pushing a decent sales pitch, however.
Tom
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Hi Thomas,
for context, I use a Mac Mini with the following specification:
3.2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7
32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB
LG Ultrafine 27-inch (5120 x 2880)
2TB Internal SSD
My camera is a Fujifilm X100V and I shoot in RAW only.
I find the performance to be good. For example mask drawing is pretty much instantaneous and moving between images takes a couple of seconds or so to render the adjustments, although this can be buffered if I'm scrolling through a number of shots so it appears quicker than that. Generally the speed of the Mac doesn't get in the way of my editing or exporting.
I did get an external Blackmagic eGPU at the same time as I upgraded to the 5K LG monitor as I thought it would speed things up, but I found it made almost no difference to editing or rendering speeds although it did cut exporting time in half, which wasn't much of an issue to me. It was also really noisy compared to the almost silent Mac Mini, so I returned it. I did indeed notice a reduction in speed with the 5K monitor but it doesn't bother me and I like the display so that's good!
Hope this helps,
John
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Hi John,
Many thanks for taking the time to respond to my query.
Very useful information as your Mac Mini specification is very close to what I had come up with, and your RAF files are pretty similar to the ones I use from the X-Pro 2 & X-H1. I too am not concerned regarding exporting time; more interested in working rendering speeds for previews, zooms, and adjustments. The Mac Mini sounds like it can handle this OK with the Intel graphics chip. I was considering running a couple of 4K displays, with or without an eGPU, so your comment on the speed reduction with the 5K display is interesting.
Thank you again fro your time.
Tom
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My mac-mini setup below… Seems to work ok, I don't do much editing (layers etc.) mostly crop, lighting adjustments etc.
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Hi LVS,
Thank you for your comments. What resolution display(s) are you using with your Mac Mini, if you don't mind me asking?
Tom
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Well, i would avoid 4k or 5k screens on mac mini w/o egpu. I have 5k imac and performance is poor on 5k even with r9 395 gpu. The intel 630 gpu should be even worse, therefore i am wondering how John can have good performance on 5k LG with it :)
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Peter,
I suspect it's just a question of what someone finds acceptable.
I wouldn't claim that the performance of the Mac Mini driving a 5k screen was "good" but, for me at least, it is quite acceptable. I'm not on a deadline and don't want to work particularly quickly so the performance is, as i say, fine.
For example, when I draw a mask using the brush tool, with the mask set to show on the image, there is no material lag between the cursor moving and the mask appearing, so masking performance is acceptable to me. If I then adjust the exposure say on that mask, the effect is more or less instantly visible on the screen with the "spinner" at the top taking about 1-2 seconds to catch up and render the image fully.
As Thomas was also concerned about performance when zooming on an image, I conducted a few tests. On images with around 5-6 masked layers, zooming in from "fit to screen" to 100% takes around 1 second to render fully. Moving on to the next image still at 100% view can take between 2-4 seconds to render fully, but Capture 1 caches ahead and if I then move on to the next image it's rendered immediately. If I then spend a few seconds looking at it before moving on there is once again no delay. So, for the way I work, this isn't a problem.
I fully accept that others may have different ways of working and different expectations of performance ;-)
Hope that helps.
John
PS I have "hardware acceleration" switched off for both display and processing.
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Hi Peter,
That is my general consensus also, especially after I did a bit of research on the Intel UHD 630 which supports and max. resolution of 4K at 60Hz according to Intel, so likely to be pulling power from the system memory via the CPU = potentially degraded C1P rendering and exporting performance?
Following Apples latest announcement, that they will be starting to transition to Apple Silicone at the end of this year, I have come to the conclusion that I can either upgrade to the latest MacBook Pro 16" with no external display, or wait for the Apple Silicone Mac Mini and the Big Sur MacOS to be released and setup a new desktop system then.
Interesting times ahead.
Tom
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Yes the acceptance of performance is individual. For me its really important to have no lag during basic adjustments. I cant achieve it on my imac 5k, phase one blames my gpu what i understand, on the other hand LR runs fine :)
i have solved this with switching C1 to low resolution mode.
Btw, C1 using outdated OpenCl and didnt switched to Metal on mac even if its already available for some time, so the transfer to ARM is questionable too :)
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My display is 2560x1440
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Thats ok for imac mini
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Hi All
I would just like to thank everyone for their comments and suggestion, very much appreciated.
Tom
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