Is 2018 mac mini fast enough for lightroom?

As a long time user of Lightroom and Photoshop, they are both

extreme resource hogs!

You need as much RAM as you can afford. In addition,

discrete grahics card speed things up tremendously (all

current Mac Minis utilize Intel Integrated graphics.) The

higher the performance the GPU card and higher GDRAM

models are highly desirable. Quaud for processors are also

highly desirable as well.

If you only have a passing interest in photography, the I guess a

Mac Mini will be just okay.

As a matter of fact, if you have a base 2011 27" iMac Geekbench scores

show that that new Mini won't perform much better than what you have now.

I suggest looking at a later model iMac. Refurbs through Apple have some

nice pricing plus you get full Apple warranty as well as the ability to get Applecare extended.

That model you mention is reasonably powerful, but with the proviso that all the Mac minis are getting long in the tooth and Apple has not offered up a Server model for a while. The better Mac minis don't really make economic sense to me, but I would pick up a cheap second hand model so long as it has Thunderbolt and USB 3.0. The fact that it is older makes little difference because what Apple is selling is old anyway, just very expensive as if it were current.

Lightroom benefits from large fast hard drive space so a Fusion drive is usually your best value.

To see where your choice of Mac fits relatively:

https://browser.geekbench.com/mac-benchmarks

Peter

There is no 2018 Mac Mini.... The latest Mac Mini is actually a 2014 model and the base models are pathetic.

Honestly if your thinking Mac Mini, you should pull out all the stops and go with the 512GB or 1T PCIe upgrade.

I feel the same about the all-in-one's and currently have 3 souped-up Mac Mini's...

(a 2010 with SSD and 8GB of RAM and two 2012's with SSD's and 16GB of RAM)

I concur with den.thed.

my imac 2011 is still going strong

Hard drives are tried party devices and being mechanical, they can

die a few days from first power or last a decade or more. Just the

nature of a mechanical device.

As for Apple electronics, I still have an old Power Mac Dual G5 tower

that is still working just fine. My other Intel Macs (4) seem fine so far.

BTW, if Apple refurbs seem a bit out of range, check out OWC for reforms.

They test every Mac they sell and have a 15 day no-questions asked return policy

and a 90 day repair warranty.

Refurbished Apple Laptops, Desktops, Tablets, and More