Mac Mini 2018 gpu performance in music production
Hi everyone,
recently I've been going nuts with my new mac mini 2018 and it's crackling and popping audio and high cpu load when using Ableton Live 10 Suite. I was thinking my RME UFX II was faulty or there was something else weird going on.
I have 3.2GHz 6-core Core i7 with 32gb of RAM with latest OS updates before catalina. I have also older MPB 2014 which I used to test same projects.
In a nutshell I have found that using gpu "heavy" programs and plugins (such ableton itself and vst's from fabfilter) causes high cpu and makes the audio crackle when the buffer is lower such as 64 samples when using my Samsung ultrawide monitor with 3440x1440 resolution. If I raise the buffer to 256 or higher the pops go away but come back if I add more plugins. This is crazy as with those specs I should be able to run quite large amount of plugins with low buffer without any glitches.
I'm stunned to realise that the gpu in mac mini 2018 is not suitable even for basic programs which is disappointing. apparently one needs to buy egpu and it will solve the issue but this is an extra 500-1000 euros.
I doubt there is anything ableton or plugin creators can do about this other than make their software lighter for gpu's but I doubt it's going to happen in future.
have anyone else have similar issues? This fella has made same finding when using logic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTFRhte4Ng
For me using 1080p resolution is not not an option as the ultrawide monitor does not scale the screen in correct manner.
Mac mini 2018 or later