Just got my Mac mini M4 and I'm a bit disappointed

If you are using Lightroom with 16GB of RAM on any machine you are already hampering its performance. From my experience you really need a machine with 32GB for Lightroom to be smooth and responsive regardless of what Adobe may say. So, I am not surprised that a new 16GB machine is not faster than the previous generation 16GB machines with Lightroom.

If it's 22 Studio Max, that means that it's Intel-only – and you would incur translation delay the first time that you ran it. Did launch times improve the second or third time that you ran it?

Did you get a Mac mini with a plain M4 chip, or with a M4 Pro chip?

I would expect M4-family processors to have higher per-core speeds than M1-family ones. But for tasks that can take advantage of multiple CPU cores or multiple GPU cores, you also need to consider core counts. That might allow a M1 Pro chip to match, or even exceed, the performance of a plain M4 chip at some tasks.

A lot of performance issues can be tied to how the app is coded. If it's not coded to properly use additional processor or GPU cores, then you're not going to see much increase in performance over an M1-based Mac. So Anthropics may need to update their app to take full advantage of the new M4 processors. As to the slow loading time, perhaps your app had to set up caches and other background files on first launch. If it's doing this consistently and nothing else on your mini is having that problem, then I'd suggest you take up the issue with Anthropics support.

If you are completely unsatisfied, though, you have fourteen days to return the Mac mini if you purchased it directly from Apple.

Regards.

You should be seeing improved performance on the M4 vs. the M1. Two questions come to mind ... what are the differences between your two Mac minis (especially OS & software) and what may be hidden that could cause such a difference in performance.

I suggest downloading & running Etrecheck on both machines. Post copies of the 2 reports here - be sure to clearly identify which report is which. (Use the "Additional Text" button to paste the reports into your posts.)

And ... since your M4 must be running Sequoia at this point, did you update all your apps to their latest releases?

Texabama wrote:

I just tried to run my Portrait Pro app and it took a LONG time to load up. The icon just bounced so long I thought it wasn't going to load.

Do you have Portrait Pro version 23 or later?

I ask because if you are running an Intel application using Rosetta 2 translation, there will be a delay the first time that you run the application, while Rosetta 2 translates Intel machine code to ARM machine code. The Mac saves the translation, so that you don't see that delay on subsequent launches of the application.

Assuming that this is the Portrait Pro in question, it first gained Apple Silicon support in version 23.

https://www.anthropics.com/portraitpro/pressroom/PP23PressRelease.pdf

Also, Anthropics claims that for version 23, "Native support for Apple M1/M2 chips makes PortraitPro v23 up to 60% faster."

If you're running an Apple-Silicon-native version on the M1 Pro, and an Intel version (using Rosetta 2 translation) on the M4 Pro, you're going to be handicapping the M4 Pro for the editing work even after the first run.

I just got my Mini M4 Pro maxed out but with 24GB of memory and already maxing out the memory as activity monitor is showing with relatively simple renders in Final Cut Pro which surprised me! I came from a 2017 i7 iMac and thought this was going to smoke and doesn’t quite feel that way with video editing 4K footage. I now am going to return and buy one with 64GB of memory to make sure I don’t max out. The crazy thing is yes I’m a pro drone pilot and editing for work, but not making feature films or anything….im surprised for what I do which is pretty simple at the end of the day isn’t that simple for this brand new Mini4 Pro I just spent $2300 on. That base model may be great for the price,

[Edited by Moderator]