Is Motion compatible with Mac mini?

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Is Motion compatible with Mac mini?

Hello,

We have Motion 3, and the management is considering to buy a new Mac mini.

Here are some specs for the new Mac mini they are considering -
2.4GHz Intel Intel Core 2 Duo / 4GB DDR3 SDRAM / 320GB hard drive / SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce 320M / Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, IEEE 802.11n (draft)
Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard

With our current setup (see info below) I can't use the Light feature in Motion 3 and was told by Mark Spencer4 that,
"Motion isn't supported on a Mac Mini. In particular, lights won't work."

Will the latest Mac mini support Motion 3? How about Motion 4?
Overall, I'm dissatisfied with the performance of Motion on this Mac mini. It's very slow and I've heard that there are still memory shortages even in the latest Mac mini.

Any advice or suggestions?

Thank you

Specs for our current Mac mini -

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MM11.0055.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.3f4

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Nov 4, 2010 11:40 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 4, 2010 12:14 PM in response to Jo Mo

Overall, I'm dissatisfied with the performance of Motion on this Mac mini

As far as I know, none of the applications in Final Cut Studio have ever been supported on (or recommended for) a MacMini.

But it would seem that you've already been informed of that: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11204083#11204083

-DH

Message was edited by: David Harbsmeier

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Answer 2

FloridaJo

Level 1

114 points

Nov 4, 2010 12:19 PM in response to Jo Mo

Mark is the Guru. When he speaks we listen.

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Answer 3

Nov 4, 2010 7:50 PM in response to Jo Mo

I'm going to buck the trend, and probably good sense.

The current MacMini is more capable, in a lot of ways, than recent (not current) MacBook Pro's. I'd give it a shot if it means not having to run on the Mini with what I believe is a Intel GM950 video processor. Amazing Motion runs on it at all.

If the boss won't pop for an iMac (at least) you will certainly not be worse off than you are now. Plan on maxing out the RAM and lots of FW drives.

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Answer 4

FloridaJo

Level 1

114 points

Nov 4, 2010 8:36 PM in response to Mullet_Man

From the Motion page:
ATI or NVIDIA graphics processor (*integrated Intel graphics processors not supported*)

From the Mac Mini specs:

It gives you next-generation NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics — the fastest integrated graphics processor on the market today — and speedy DDR3 memory.

So, it's not using "Integrated Intel graphics processors.
My only question would be Motion needs 128MB of VRAM. Would 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory that the mini has, suffice.
As for the lights, I would think since the 320M uses OpenGL 3.2 that Lighting would not be a problem.
Just the memory issue would slow it down.

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Answer 5

Nov 4, 2010 9:22 PM in response to FloridaJo

Agreed with your tech review. I have to wonder, though, how would the faster clock of the 320 RAMDAC do to equilibrate the shared memory design.

I find no comparisons, but would be interested in a morbid kind of way, to see how the current Mini runs Motion compared to my aging ATI 2600HD.

Alas, in the spirit of the OP, I'd say go for it. A new Mini can't be worse than a four year old one!

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Answer 6

Jo Mo Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 9, 2010 10:55 AM in response to Jo Mo

Thank you, gentlemen!

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Answer 7

Nov 10, 2010 5:42 AM in response to Jo Mo

I´ve had during a year a Macbook with the 9400M, a C2D at 2,13 ghz and 4 gb of DDR2 800 mhz ram. It was able to run Motion 4 but it was not fast at all. Now I have a Macbook Pro i5 with the Geforce 330M and an iMac with a i3 and a Radeon 4670. The iMac is about 70-80% faster than the Macbook Pro.

Considering that I think that a Macmini will be able to run Motion but with very low performance. I think that you will be a lot better with a basic iMac as it will run motion more than the double faster (considering the differences between the two Macs I have).

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Answer 8

Nov 11, 2010 5:42 AM in response to Jo Mo

All I know is that if you want to have a good user experience you should be using the best possible graphics card for Motion and lots and lots of memory. Without these this highly resource dependent software will cripple your system.

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