Simplify life with a Mac Mini M1?

Hello everyone,

I wanted to see how people who have the new Mac Mini M1 edition are feeling after editing a project.

I'm a low budget video producer, but I'm surrounded by Apple products in my house. If I could get a decent editing experience from a Mac within my current budget, I would love to do that.

My current editing computer strategy is:
Initial investment 3 years ago: $1.5k self-built PC
Yearly investment: ~$500 for upgrades

As my computer struggles too much with my workflow, I upgrade parts.

My next upgrade is a video card, but looking at what I want to pay for a decent graphics card, I could buy the new Mac Mini for a bit more.

If I could pay $1k every two years for a new Mac Mini (base model with a couple of upgrades), I would be close to my yearly upgrade costs with my PC. I would also not have to worry about fine-tuning my PC and listening to the constant hum of fans.

Anyone having regrets on their M1 purchase after editing as you normally would on a PC? I have a feeling I will not see much of an improvement from my current setup and then not be ready for any upgrade for two years.

IMHO, with the current models, Apple is just testing the waters. They are fine if you desperately need a laptop for basic Resolve work or if you want a decent price/performance ratio on the low end with the mini.

But from your description, I understand you got a desktop PC currently. I don't know which GPU it has right now, but some upgrades in that respect may help Resolve a lot. The Mac mini M1 is not upgradeable at all, we don't ven know if you can ever add an eGPU.

Don't get me wrong: I like the macOS and the stability of Resolve I get with it. But in your situation, I'd wait for an iMac. If current prices are any indicator, they should finally be competitive again. Don't forget, you'd get an excellent screen with it. OTOH, if you already have a good screen, go for the mini. You'll never spend on any hardware upgrades as there aren't' any (apart from external storage).

Hi Christian,

See this December 10 post from Kays Alatrakchi, who is a professional filmmaker and expects to have an M1 computer next week: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=128806&p=700164&hilit=Kays+Alatrakchi#p700033

Also, this video by Mark Spencer of Ripple Training is worth watching:

Apple has been using this technology since the first iPad in 2011. I believe that this is a rollout, not just testing the waters, especially since Apple has made it crystal clear that it intends to convert its entire line of computers within 24 months. The laptops that Apple started with are not a test product. They are the company's biggest selling computers.

That said, I agree with the substance of what Uli is saying. I want to see the next Mx computers, which may well show up for Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference six months from now.

As my computer struggles too much with my workflow, I upgrade parts.

My next upgrade is a video card, but looking at what I want to pay for a decent graphics card, I could buy the new Mac Mini for a bit more.

If I could pay $1k every two years for a new Mac Mini (base model with a couple of upgrades), I would be close to my yearly upgrade costs with my PC. I would also not have to worry about fine-tuning my PC and listening to the constant hum of fans.

I'm in the same boat as you are. This year I have been looking to upgrade my graphics card with either a 3080 or a 3090, which will be about the cost for a max-out Mac mini M1. I do think there is big disparity in performance between a PC with a 3080 or 3090 and the mini M1 today but I still remain hopeful that someone in the community will have a Mini M1 and will be using it to make some decent size and somewhat complex project and share their results.

Excuse me if I doubt that the GPU of current M1 models can compete with a 3080 or 3090 for demanding tasks.
But you'll save a lot on your energy bill!

Excuse me if I doubt that the GPU of current M1 models can compete with a 3080 or 3090 for demanding tasks.
But you'll save a lot on your energy bill!

I didn't say that the M1 can compete with a 3080 or 3090, at least not yet until an MX or better comes by for us to see. I'm just saying that I was looking at upgrading to the 3080 or 3090 this year and the M1 came out for consideration. Yes, you'll save a lot on energy bill... and the 30xx series are no where to be found - they seem to be all sold out.

Hey,

I've come to the conclusion that upgrading old hardware starts to be really irrelevant these days...
I personally cruised the web and saw that tons of video show you that only the render is to be slow on M1 series, but for the rest, almost everybody - even professional pessimistic ones - is amazed about what a simple M1 MB or Mini is able to handle (including more than 4K and candle tests etc...).

Of course, where the GPU is intensely demanded, it cannot compete yet but hey, did you watch the high level of beefy intel config a simple mini was able to really blow out on Resolve tasks ? I wouldn't ever think it was even possible...

So while I'm personally waiting for a ARM Mx mac pro (hahaha, yes I can wait a lot but who knows), I think the title of this thread says it all : yes, a mini simplifies the transition and allows old-hardwared guys not to invest in what's going to be obsolete in 1 year only this time.

From now to this summer, I'll watch for potential rev2 M1, but will probably buy a 800 bucks M1 mini to keep updated for BMD M1 releases, and use it for tests of transition... It absolutely cannot be bad imho...

It all depends what projects do you do and which ones are you planing to do.
If question was- is it good idea to but M1 based machine as internet/home tool then answer would be way easier.
For Resolve M1 is just not there if you want few years proof machine and planing to do 4K projects with fairly complex timelines ( eg noise reduction etc.). You should wait for more powerful Mx chip. Next one may cover 4K needs fairly well ( not as well as some dedicated workstation, but well enough).
If you do just HD projects (regardless of source assets resolution) then you should be fine even with M1 I assume.

No, this is just an answer from someone who tries to be logical but didn't try the machine.
NOW, the mini M1 handles Resolve projects greatly, up to 4k ones, better than any Intel computers, up to a 1080 ti GPU included to give an example... Now, today...
Normally, one can give this kind of answer (yeah, it's ok for internet and crappy jobs) when the computer is under the minimal config requested, and this also what I would ever answer about any macbook (and personally also MBP) when talking about Resolve projects...

But here, things are really not the same, and I understand it's really hard to believe. It took me lots of checkings to admit (remember : I didn't ever consider - even a beefy - MBP for Resolve up to now).

But yes, of course it's just the beginning and no, I'll never write it's going to be ok for years, it's not at all an ultimate goal. This is the reason why I wrote about "transition" (who talked about "few years proof machine and planing to do 4K projects with fairly complex timelines" ? not me for sure)
As an example, I consider buying a M1 mini for tests, upgrades, BMD M1 specific tests, small projects. I'll sell it around 1 year later maybe, et voilà...

How well it handles noise reduction on 4K timeline?
I did not say it won't work for 4K, but if you want system which handles about any typical real world 4K project then it's definitely not there.

I said it's really really impressive how much it can handle things you didn't think it would... And I wrote too that your comments show that you write about it thinking about the average of what you would think about this kind of computers anyway, because actually you clearly don't know a **** about it
You actually don't want to consider it's not like what's usually out there, but no problem. Anyway, I say its performance aren't like anything else ever released in this form factor...

And yes, ok, noise reduction on 4K TL ... Like "haha, look, I know how to put it on its knees"...

Take 4K/6K BRAW, go to Preference/User tab and Playback Setting. Set performance mode to 'Disable'. Create 4K timeline, apply some grading, noise reduction and hit play. 5fps ?

People who load 12K BRAW (or RED) into HD timeline with default Resolve setting have no clue that all what they are seeing (decoding/debayering) is basically 2K. No wonder it works- it works on my MacBookPro as well.
Nothing wrong with such an approach (BM added auto performance mode exactly for this reason), but once you get to export (and then you probably want to export eg. 4K) your render times will be waaaay above realtime (even if you were playing it in rt during grading) as then it switches to full quality (or more precisely your settings in RAW section).

Spare your examples and time, I was not talking about guys trying to fool us putting big RAW 6k on HD TLs, to demonstrate fake realtime on hd timelines... More, I already wrote that the deliver would not make magic.

Overall, this M1 is hugely impressive, and even more, shows a lot of room for improvement. That's all I personally know, no matter whatever killjoys would argue.
You don't want me to write good about it and prefer loads of stuff I didn't even write about, no problem... Enjoy your Christmas time anyway.

I wrote a lot of good about it (I think it's great chip), so I'm on your side
Juts don't promise people impossible:
M1 is not a workstation replacement even if you can do quite a lot with it.

You saw "workstation replacement" ? Man, you got visions ?
Come on, I wrote about transitioning, I wrote no laptop could make it anyway etc etc...
Buy (new) glasses my friend

I said it's really really impressive how much it can handle things you didn't think it would... And I wrote too that your comments show that you write about it thinking about the average of what you would think about this kind of computers anyway, because actually you clearly don't know a **** about it
You actually don't want to consider it's not like what's usually out there, but no problem. Anyway, I say its performance aren't like anything else ever released in this form factor...

And yes, ok, noise reduction on 4K TL ... Like "haha, look, I know how to put it on its knees"...

If someone would jump and read this then they would expect a lot (way too much than M1 can deliver).

I also think Apple oversold it somewhat. It's impressive, it's not power hungry. But they never spoke about rendering, that says a lot. Normal ProRes is also decoded at a lower resolution by default when needed for playback in DaVinci Resolve (and FCPX), so it's not just raw codecs. In terms of video processing, you can do that stuff on Intel/AMD laptops today without issues.

Future iterations of the chip will be interesting though.

If someone would jump and read this then they would expect a lot (way too much than M1 can deliver).

No one is to expect more than what"s written. I tested it, it's the more impressive I've ever seen in this small form factor (that I generally skip anyway).
I'm no noob you think I am like "I would be impressed but in the end it's a HD TL" or things you used to patronize me; I'm no schmock or apple fanboy even less. I tested it. Its impressive. Full stop.

I don't think the Mac Mini M1 is a workstation replacement so I have decided to still upgrade my workstation gpu with a 3080 or 3090 when it is available on the market. I think that will take a while which is fine because I'm not in a rush. By next year, there's the 3080Ti which is what I am eyeing on.
However, the M1 (and if the Mx comes about sooner, then great - Mx on a Mac Mini will be my preferred choice) for folks who has 4K/6K BRAW and will edit using optimize media and grade all this being on a HD timeline, then render to 4K where they can wait for the [slower] rendering to complete should be a potential scenario for it. If you are hang-up to do everything on a 4K timeline, then don't do it on an M1 today (at least before any Mx result - TBD). That's my two cents. So my personal conclusion to this is that I will upgrade my workstation over time since I already have that, and likely invest in a Mac Mini M1 (or a Mx when it shows up).

does anyone know what are the best settings for a Mac mini m1 chip for better performance?

Don't think there are any. You want to run native apps for sure every time possible.

! wanted to see how people who have the new Mac Mini M1 edition are feeling after editing a project.

Like you, I have an old PC and was just about to upgrade when the Mac Mini M1 appeared. So I took a look at getting the new M1 Mac Mini instead of a new PC. The advantage of PC upgradeability is vastly oversold in my view. The truth is that once a PC is more than about 2 years old, you generally need to upgrade all of it. Modern CPUs, RAM, NVME cards etc. are not compatible with my current motherboard, and my PSU cannot power a modern GPU. So I would now need to build a whole new machine to get it up to date. I reckoned the cost of this here in UK would be around £2k or so to get something modern enough to last another 4-5 years.

So I was soon persuaded on the grounds of cost that I could spend about half what it would cost me to get a new PC and get a 16GB Mini M1 instead. Plus I could then sell an old 2012 Mini I had (used solely for phone dev work) for a decent amount - imagine being able to sell a 9-year-old PC!

My old PC would crash several times a session in Resolve, particularly if working with H264 & H265 footage. In the end, I got fed up with the endless NVidia driver dance and unreliability of Resolve Studio (16 & 17) on my PC. It was the only application which ever crashed on my PC, so I’m not convinced my machine was faulty, other than being at the low end of the current required spec (i5-4960 4 core CPU, 16GB RAM, 1080Ti GPU)

I’ve since found the Mini M1 to be a solid and reliable workhorse for up to 4K work in Resolve Studio 17.1, but I’m a hobbyist so am not too bothered about Fusion, speed and render time. I can say that so far it has been considerably more stable than my old PC and has not crashed once yet. This makes it considerably less stressful to work with. However, it can be very slow in some circumstances, e.g. the new Magic Mask feature is barely useable currently.

So is the M1 suitable for professional Resolve use? I suspect not. If time is money to you then I think I would wait until the next gen M2 arrives and simply upgrade your PC for now. The M1 is a really great general-purpose machine and is fast as hell for everything else. I have surprised myself by actually using it for general purpose work now much more than my old PC, as it’s so pleasant and totally silent to use (I have no axe to grind in the eternal Mac/PC debate, I'm happy to use either).