Seeking feedback from M2 Mac Mini base model users

Hello,

I'm looking to hear feedback from folks that actually use the new base-model M2 Mac Mini (8GB, 256SSD) with Unity.

I use both Mac and Windows but my daily driver for most computing, as well as Unity dev, is a 2014 desktop Intel Core i7-4770 3.4Ghz CPU with 32GB RAM and a 500GB SSD HD.

Outside of regular web browsing, email, etc. I use my computer for...

• Unity dev - mostly board game or more 2D based games, with occasional light 3D, (nothing too intense)
• Prefer Visual Studio as my IDE / I could use VS Code but had issues connecting Unity to VS Code on Windows
• Blender for 3D modeling - light sculpting, some 3D Modeling
• Photoshop for graphic design work and illustration, painting
• Light Gaming (I don't need all the graphics settings cranked up)

Has your workflow been slow? Do you often get the spinning beach ball? How is it when making code changes in your IDE and then switching back to Unity? For me, it's painfully slow sometimes - the recompiling. What can you tell me?

From what I'm coming from... (a 2014 PC), and what I've seen about the M1 Macs, I would expect a large speed bump, however, I'm a bit hesitant as my current PC is an i7, and has 32GB RAM, even though it's almost 10 years old.

*I should also note, if I went this route, I would eventually get one of those hubs where you can insert a larger SSD in it to expand space.

While I appreciate folks' input, I am looking to only hear from users with this Mac or the M1 Mac Mini with 8GB so I can get some real anecdotal evidence.

Thanks.

 

Last few years Unity LTD wił experience regression in terms of how fast things work.

There are various improvements. But if you had like Unity 5 vs Unity 2021, you will see Unity 5 is much faster.

Devs been reporting results, of speed regression even between consecutive LTS past recent years.

Your major speed up should be based on drive. If you still have HDD, replace it to Ssd, preferably 1000 R/W. That massive jump. If upgrading machine, as I did past few mints, consider build, with mve2 drives, which motherboard supports (not the PCie one) . You can get 5000k R/W speed in reseanable price, or cranking up even to 7000 R/W speed.

This is where you will see significant improvement of your work flow. Not only for Unity, but any application. Of course having matching CPU and memory is important too. But your i7 for example would suffice in terms of seed.

Question is. What speeds of drives Macs offer. And question is, is it really worth it forcing your self to mac for game dev.

 

If you're going to Mac M1/M2, with that little RAM, you'll have issues with having Visual Studio. it's too big.

Use Rider. Still big, but not so big. And vastly better than VS Code.

Just Unity, Rider and the OS and you're at that 8GB in RAM, or thereabouts. Swap is a LOT faster with modern SSD, and the Mac mini has quite fast SSD, but you'll still feel it if you have a big browser open with a lot of tabs and Photoshop + Unity and a code editor.

So you'll have to work in sessions to get the best performance with that little RAM. Only Unity and Rider, or only Photoshop + Blender (especially if you're editing symbols) for your Blender textures, and preferably use your phone or something else to look up docs in a browser.

Also the "optimisation" of Unity for M1/M2 is ... how should I say this nicely... not quite optimal?

 

My main development machine is a 5950X w/ 64GB RAM. I have an M1 w/ 16GB RAM as a secondary machine primarily for making builds but I have performed some tasks like programming on it. My latest work project is a mobile-focused game in the prototyping stages.

Working on the M1 is definitely slower than working on my 5950X. If I were planning on making one of these my primary development machines I'd have likely returned it almost immediately in favor of a higher tier model (Pro, Max, Ultra, etc). I frequently see the beach ball while using it.

Compiling code on my PC takes around 3 to 4 seconds while my M1 takes around 6 to 8 seconds. Everything else feels similarly slow. I don't even want to think what my last project would take to perform tasks with as that project could take as long as 45 minutes to import on my PC.

Originally my plan was to buy a base model too but I'm very glad that I didn't make that mistake. With this project and a blank scene Unity is eating up 4 to 5GB. Activity monitor reports that with everything else needed to make the system function memory usage is sitting at 8GB.

I believe 256GB of storage would have been a mistake too. I have very little installed on this system aside from what is necessary for work (Unity, Rider, Chrome, Discord), only a single installed release of Unity, and my work project is 4GB. Current usage with only that is 100GB.

A couple of things to be aware of with SSDs if you're not familiar with the technicals:

1. SSDs normally keep a section of the drive configured to run as fast as possible to increase performance but when you go beyond about 90% usage that cache section is instead treated as normal storage losing a great deal of the performance of your SSD.
2. SSDs have a limited lifespan. Ideally you should purchase an SSD with the expectation that you will only be able to use 90% of the capacity. Using almost all of the drive will greatly shorten the lifespan versus using up to 90%. Last I checked it wasn't possible to replace it either. Once it's dead that's it. New system.

Alternatively if you don't mind far fewer features Script Inspector 3 has very little overhead and loads instantly.

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/visual-scripting/script-inspector-3-3535

 

I do use Rider for my day job. I like it.

As far as base model mac, it's pretty clear from what I hear here and with more research I've been doing that it would be a mistake for any dev work.

 

8 GB ram is like the OS + 1 tab in safari. From there on you're in swap territory. I know memory is expensive on the Mac side, but nothing really cripples a system like runing out. You'll be in for a sluggish experience.
As @Ryiah mentioned, filling a ssd is not ideal - adding to that, swap usage will result in writing to the disk all the time. People been posting "impressive" numbers written, even in a short amount of time due to this. Doesn't mean the ssd will die, but it does make it more likely.

 

It's reasons like this I haven't stepped up to the M1 or M2 hardware. My ancient i7 iMac has 64GB RAM because it's cheap to upgrade myself. Every generation makes it harder to have big RAM.

 

Is it really worth paying for Rider and why? ...I have never touched Rider.

 

For one, it has Unity-specific debugging tools which are pretty darn handy. It also does a bunch of code analysis which can be pretty useful. For me the kicker was that it worked for stuff I needed where VS + Unity just locked up.

They've a trial you can check out, so ignore me and take it for a spin if you're interested.

 

I believe so, for a lot of reasons that aren't even their main selling points.

I love

the font layout options, as I can get it to look and act exactly as I want.

the ways the suggestions suit Unity usage and are configured specifically to it

the localised version control, so that I can skim through changes I've made without troubling a server of any sort

the speed of inspecting Unity's own classes through the decompiler

How shaders are handled

The way I can customise the layout of the editor tabs and panels

The shift+shift instant search functions for all manner of features

-----------
Headliners that make it worth the purchase: the debugging is live and very good

It handles hierarchy navigation to the various customisations very well

It's much lighter than Visual Studio and far faster the VSCode

 

Yes. It's integration is much more advanced than other IDEs.

https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/dotnet-unity/

 

Now I know who's responsible for invention of this annoying feature.

 

Think they copied it from old Atari ST creative software, where lots of sticky key combos existed.

 

How would you summarize why it's not good for dev work? I'm looking to update either my macBook Pro or get a Mini since I don't anticipate needing a laptop for travel.

I've always maxed out my RAM, currently at 64GB on a 2019 Macbook pro so I don't even know what it's like to have less RAM. I do sometimes feel limited by the laptop graphics card, but I don't imagine a Mini will be better in that regard.

 

Base models of the processor (ie the M1 and M2 without the Pro/Max/Ultra moniker) are sluggish. I don't think it'd have been a problem if I had chosen a higher tier processor (ie Pro) but as it stands it's easily half the speed of my last generation AMD CPU (which to be fair has 16 cores/32 threads).

If you're constantly maxing out 64 GB you're not going to want the base tier either regardless of whether you need the performance as the base M1 caps out at 16 GB and the base M2 at 24 GB. My workflow on Apple hardware is just making builds and I'm constantly seeing 16 GB maxed out on my M1 Mini.

 

Hmmm I will try it, thanks.

 

Little late, but as most replies focused on the RAM/CPU aspects, figured I'd speak to the development experience. I'm an enterprise Android & iOS dev by trade, and had the job send me a 2020 M1 Mac Mini once my old 2014 Mini could no longer get the latest XCode*.

The main development issue with the M1 is that the toolchain support for ARM64 is just not 100%. Even when working with iOS-specific tooling (e.g. Cocoapods), I've had to do a lot of tinkering under-the-hood to get 3rd party libraries/tools working cleanly. In my case, there were times I could get a project running in XCode, or on devices, but not on the Simulator, or for a Store build.

That's with general app-dev - have not tried shader/graphics dev on the M1 yet, and I don't work in C++, but I hear there are challenges there as well (no GNU GCC toolchain support on M1 now, or planned, Blender tends to lag in its M-series Metal support).

I was looking myself at upgrading to an M2 Mini for non-work iOS dev, but I'll likely hold off until the M2 chips have been out in the wild for at least a full year. My take is that you've got to give vendors/open-source libraries time to support the new architecture, otherwise you're just asking for a painful transition.

 

Quick note: XCode version support is another key consideration, if you're planning to develop iOS games/apps. Apple has gotten a lot less generous with supporting older OS & XCode versions, restricting access to newer iOS SDKs to the latest XCode.

In-turn, the App Store is increasingly limited to app-updates targeting/building with the latest iOS SDKs.

Since Minis are not upgradable (are any Macs these days?), keep in mind that whatever you get may have an even shorter usable lifespan than what the hardware, or the MacOS support timeline, implies.

 

I see there's some recent posts on my thread here.

I actually ended up going with a 2023 Mini M2 with 512SSD and 16GB RAM. So far no major problems; runs extremely smooth and fast. Now, I haven't actually attempted to run the game I'm working on in the simulator so I can't give feedback on the Xcode side of things but so far it's been real smooth.

 

Good choice. Hopefully you don't get as many crashes as I'm having with the m2.

 

I’m still on the 2018 Mac mini i7 with 32 GB. Working with HDRP even for the simplest tasks is really painful. Turning on the eGPU with a Radeon RX 570 makes working with HDRP dramatically better but the power consumption is much higher then. Power is really expensive here 40 cent per kw/h.

I wonder what makes more sense, switching to a mini M2 Pro with 16GB or wait and get a better graphics card for my eGPU case in the meanwhile and switch to a much more powerful future Mac mini when Apple forces me ony day when I can’t run the newest Xcode anymore.

How good handles the M2 HDRP? Could you please do me a favor and make a quick test when you find time? How much fps do you get when you just create a new project with OutdoorsScene in the newest 2021 LTS version?

To test this please set your screen resolution to 2560x1440 open Unity in full screen mode, don’t touch the project layout and HDRP settings and press play.

Internal graphics:
play mode: 103 watts – 13-14 fps
edit mode: 83 watts

eGPU:
play mode: 220 watts – 130-135 fps
edit mode: 90 watts

Power consumption results is from my whole desktop. The good news is that Unity’s power consumption is really optimized when not in play mode. I had no idea before I tested this today.

 

Let me see if I correctly set it up. I created an HDRP project, created a new basic outdoor scene, set the editor to fullscreen (my monitor is 2560 by 1440), edit mode is configured for ~60% game view size, and play mode has the game view set to maximize on play. I'm on an M1 MacMini (16GB RAM/1TB SSD).

Internal graphics (there is no option for eGPU):
Play mode game view (stats window): 30 FPS
Edit mode game view (stats window): 57 FPS
Edit mode scene view (edit mode profile): 68 FPS

I don't know how to measure the wattage of the device without a watt meter which is troublesome to set up, but the official statement is that my base model M1 caps out at 39W (M2 base hits 50W and Pro hits 100W).

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201897

 

No, I made my test without maximize on play. Just the default settings.

 

OK, when I use "Play maximized“ then I get 55 fps. So my eGPU still runs better than the M1. But a used M1 would be good enough to work with and much better than my setup without eGPU. Would be interesting what the results of the M2 are.

EDIT: Metal Geekbench shows M2 should be roughly equal to the RX 570. So I searched for a newer, cheap (220 EUR) GPU with low power consumption but good perfomance and found the RX 6600 which is supported by Apple, has an extreme low idle power consumption of just 3 watts, is twice as fast as the GPU of the M2, faster than the M2 Pro and has a good power consumption 132 watts max. Is almost as fast as the M1 Max or faster as 6600 XT version.
So this one will be the smartest upgrade for me. I’ll wait a few years more.

 

OK I must admit, where/how do you add Outdoor scene? My workflow has been largely confined to what I'm working on. However I don't mind checking this out for you.

I did go to the asset store and grabbed some HDRP project but it didn't import from the unity asset store when I clicked, open in unity.

If you can give me a little more detail on how to grab what I need (not even sure if the above would work or what you wanted anyways), that would be great. Also, excuse my ignorance, how are you getting the wattage and FPS stats while the project is running? I never have needed to do this.

Thanks.

 

Just create a new project with the current Unity 2021 LTS version. Select the "3D (HDRP)“ template while creating it.



Usually it should open as OutdoorScene then.

Click on the right one of the 3 tiny dots in the upper left corner of the Unity project window to open it full screen "Make window full screen“



Press play. Unity switches from Scene view window to Game view window. Press on "Stats“ in the upper left corner above the game view window. Do nothing, wait a few seconds and watch the shown fps in the Stats window. Background activity might affect them. Peaks and drops might occure but after a while it will be clear for you what the usual average fps is.



Watt usage.
You can’t measure that with a tool on new Macs. On Intel Macs you could use the Intel Power Gadget. I used a pretty accurate Voltcraft Plug-in watt meter (physical device) to measure power consumption of my entire desktop including all devices like external drives. Ryiha linked to Apples document about the power consumption of Mac minis. It says mexed out the M2 has a power consumption of 50 W, the M2 Pro 100 W (which must be wrong because the listed 358 BTU/h divided by 3,41 equals a power consumption of 104,98 W)

Although it would be interesting to know if it is maxed out in play mode, 50 W or 100 W max is ridiculous low in comparison anyway because the Mac Mini 2018 i7 with intel graphics has a max power consumption of 122 W plus eGPU (another 120 Watt for the RX 570) if I want an acceptable perfomance.

 

Floats around the 37-38 range. But mostly stays around here.

 

Have you set the resolution of your system to 2560x1440? Your result is for full screen of the play window. Do you have a separated play window open? With default settings the play window should be inside the project window at a resolution of 1460x782.

 

I don't even have that resolution as an option unfortunately. I have 2 non-4k screens - running 1920 x 1080 dual monitor (1 extended)

 

I see you have set the resolution of the play window to QHD instead of free aspect. This way you unnecessary waste performance for nothing. Please set it to free aspect. I will set my monitor to 1920x1080 for comparison.

 

I've seen a split second drop to 153, maybe when apple mail was doing something, and I saw a high of 180+. But seems to center around 173.

Actually, it's been ticking higher now, 178-180+, more consistently.

 

I finally located my watt meter and the extension cord that was necessary to hook it up to power while still being able to read it.

Idle power consumption
MacOS only: 4 watts

Under load
Creating the project: 12 watts

Outdoor Scene
Scene view: 14-21 watts
Play mode (60% sized): 14-21 watts (60 FPS)
Play mode (maximized): 14-21 watts (31 FPS)

Sample Scene
Scene view: 14-21 watts
Play mode (60% sized): 14-21 watts (36 FPS)
Play mode (maximized): 14-21 watts (14 FPS)

Initially power consumption for the scenes started off around 21 watts (fluctuating by a watt) but after a minute of just sitting there the power consumption dropped to 17 watts and then to 14 watts and nothing I did made it jump back up to 21 watts. Baking lighting only brought it up to 15 watts.

 

The power consumption of the M1 is awesome.

Did tests with 1920x1080 play window set to free aspect and also with the minimized QHD resolution.

free aspect:
Intel: 22 fps
eGPU: 185 fps

QHD:
Intel: 5 fps
eGPU: 55 fps

So Mac mini 2018 with RX 570 eGPU has slightly better performance as a Mac Mini M2 at roughly 1/5 the max power consumption. (Official max TDP for Mac mini M2 ist 50W, for Mac mini i7 it is 122 W, for the RX 750 it is 120 W so my systems max TDP is 242 W. 242 W - 50W = 192 W)

I use a thunderbolt SSD anyway so if I would buy one I would take the one with a small SSD and 16 GB for roughly 900 EUR.
Average price for a kw/h is currently 34,4 Cent. For 900 EUR I get 2616 kw/h. 2612 kWh / 0.192 kWh = 13625 hours. Maximum usage per day is 12 hours. 13652/12=1135 days = Would have paid for itself after three years by reducing electricity consumption if it would be used maxed out 12 hours per day. Not worth switching.

Idle (with eGPU) I would save 21 W/h. That’s 124,380 hours / 12 = 10,365 days = 28 years

Idle (and without eGPU which can be turned on and off quickly) I would save 12,9 W/h. That's 200,790 hours / 12 = 16,899 days = 46 years.

Not worth switching yet. I should really wait and get the RX 6600 instead which is twice as fast at same power consumption.

 

Tried this with my Mini M2 Pro 16GB / 1TB and it was around 65-70 FPS maximized play mode on QHD monitor.



Play mode maximized: