M1 or Intel mini for gr.design?

[zoran]

I was thinking of the new M1 mini to replace my old 27” corei7 mid2010 iMac. I wanted it for Graphic Design work but I have no clue if the grafx card it uses will satisfy my needs.
Should I prefer the M1 or the intelMini?
Might there be more chips for the Mini in the near future?

 

[Neodym]

I was thinking of the new M1 mini to replace my old 27” corei7 mid2010 iMac. I wanted it for Graphic Design work but I have no clue if the grafx card it uses will satisfy my needs.
Should I prefer the M1 or the intelMini?
Might there be more chips for the Mini in the near future?

If you can, wait for the spring event (March/April), where Apple will probably introduce new machines. With the Intel mini, you may want to add an eGPU, as the internal UHD630 GPU is pretty pathetic, especially when working multi-monitor and/or high-resolution. And while an M1 mini is already a nice upgrade over an Intel mini, an M1Pro or M1Max Mac would have significantly more grunt (not only) in the GPU department.

 

[frou]

The Intel Mini has an absolutely woeful GPU for a $1100+ Mac in 2022, and for the price of an eGPU addon you could buy an M1 Mini outright!

 

[now i see it]

Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver — none of them require a good GPU. They’ll all work just fine with the integrated on-chip GPU built into the mini.
Even the 2007 mini with it’s horrible GMA950 integrated GPU worked fine for those apps.

 

[Neodym]

Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver — none of them require a good GPU. They’ll all work just fine with the integrated on-chip GPU built into the mini.
Even the 2007 mini with it’s horrible GMA950 integrated GPU worked fine for those apps.

I would expect graphic design (whatever the OP covers by this term) in 2022 to take place on multiple monitors and/or at high resolutions, which is where the UHD630 is severely underpowered. Also "working fine" leaves a lot of wiggle room for interpretation ... ;-)

 

[arvinsim]

Wait for the new Mac Mini in Spring or get an M1 now.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I was thinking of the new M1 mini to replace my old 27” corei7 mid2010 iMac. I wanted it for Graphic Design work but I have no clue if the grafx card it uses will satisfy my needs."

Agree with others that you should wait a little while longer until the spring product announcements, which should include an updated m1pro Mini.

Be aware that if you're not satisfied with the graphics of the m1 Mini, that you CANNOT add an external GPU to these.

You CAN add external graphics to the 2018 Intel-based Mini.

 

[JayKay514]

It really depends on what your needs are, but for 2D graphic design, the M1 is more than capable. I run the Affinity suite on it (Designer, Publisher, and Photo) which are roughly equivalent to Adobe CC apps and I've never noticed any slowdowns or issues. Even using browser-based design apps like Figma and tools like Miro run pretty snappily (even with very large, very complex boards).

If you're doing print publication design (InDesign style stuff) or photo editing and 2D illustration (Illustrator, or various paint programs etc) I would say spring for the 16GB model just to be on the safe side when working on very large files. And get decent fast external storage for files and backups.

Regarding monitors etc, the Mini can support 4K and 5K monitors easily. No problems with a dual monitor setup.

If you wanted to go into 3D design work or 3D animation, it can handle a good deal of stuff in the wireframe mode etc, but would be slower than a dedicated 3D graphics workstation. An M1 Max laptop might be better for that right this second, but as others have said, maybe wait to see if there are any product refreshes in the Spring.

 

[InuNacho]

Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver — none of them require a good GPU. They’ll all work just fine with the integrated on-chip GPU built into the mini.
Even the 2007 mini with it’s horrible GMA950 integrated GPU worked fine for those apps.

Those were the days! I remember using my 2008 Macbook with the X3100 and being wowed at the performance compared to my then old PowerMac G4. Then I tried running Unreal Tournament 2004 and was sorely disappointed.

Back to the OP. I have a 2018 i7 Mini with an eGPU. I'm not sure what Adobe does nowadays in terms of using the Mac's performance since I haven't bought an adobe product since LR 6. Affinity software on the other hand will chew through every bit of CPU and GPU power it can which is pretty nice!

 

[zoran]

My iMacs graphics card is having issues and I’m afraid it will not last until that possible Spring event. I’m afraid I will be left without a machine.

 

[carl varley]

I have a m1 8gb 256 mini and use it with the affinity suite and adobe’s suite of apps. It runs them really well and my affinity publisher files are really image heavy with dozens of layers on each page. I will be upgrading come spring as I would like 16 or 32gb of ram.

If your iMac is poorly then back everything up and I would consider purchasing a base model Mac mini just to put you on. It should work really well for you and if new models come out at spring you can upgrade with minimal loss. You can also check that your apps are compatible using the very cheapest model before a large investment.