M2 Pro Mac Mini Blender & After Effects Performance! - Vs Mac Studio & PC

[@satysin630]

Truly excellent comparison video. I honestly cannot stand when people just fire up some benchmarking tool and all repeat the same numbers that are essentially useless. I appreciate the time, effort and expertise you put into making this video. Really a huge time investment from you. And your conclusion is fair and balanced. No trying to hide the limitations of one system or another for "reasons".

[@deeperlayer]

i mean yea it is good but the hardware choice is horrible for 1300$ easily can get him 13700k and a 12GB 3060 which wouod easily beat them in all tests .. a while back he was comparing them to 4year old hardware

[@jaytonkin8182]

@@deeperlayer The 12gb 3060 is a bad bad choice for 3D stuff and even gaming. it's slow as 🐢 💩 It a money grab by greedy nvidia only.

[@satysin630]

@@deeperlayer A fair point but like with all comparisons you gotta look at the bigger picture and use it as a data point to compare to other component choices. In two months the PC part prices will be different again whereas the Mac will be the same price. You can work from the data here to decide what is best for you overall. You will never get perfect comparisons and I feel trying to find the "perfect" PC price/performance for comparison is a bit of wasted effort as by the time the video is a month old there will other new PC hardware. I would take this kind of actual real work on different machines vs just running geekbench and telling me the same numbers every other KZbinr tells me. That is meaningless as those benchmarking tools are highly optimised for one single task. It doesn't tell me anything about how a bunch of different applications actually run, if they have good overall performance but absolutely suck in one specific area, etc.

[@deeperlayer]

@@jaytonkin8182 i know but for the sake of this video it wpuld still smoke the Macs and doesnt give out of memory error in resolve due to 12B vram.but for use yea inwouldnt touch anything less than a 3080

[@deeperlayer]

@@satysin630 yea but at least if you ars using latest apple hardware you should use latest PC hardware even if you are trying to match the price you can still get better hardware than an i5 and a 8GB 3060ti.

[@beatallmighty58]

As a modeler in the gaming industry I disagree with you, I use a Mac Mini M1 (8 gigs) for modeling, texturing (using Substance Painter), lighting, sculpting in Zbrush/Blender with no problems at all but everything else you said in your valuation I agree with you 100%.

[@ElevatedSystems]

I covered this in my M1 Mac Mini and M1 iMac Series', and touched on it here. The good single-core speeds of the Apple SOC's are great for modeling, rigging, and animating, but you're limited to single high poly assets or low poly environments with just 8 GB of memory.

[@angelsaid9103]

any tips for using blender on mac? i have the m2 and in theory if you use it for "heavy" things it should work for small projects. thxx a lott

[@RenzW]

I recent got the m2 pro 32gb 19 core and is going smooth so far with after effect / illustrator / photoshop and cinema 4d

[@captureinsidethesound]

Those applications are nowhere near what requires for path tracing in Blender. Also, I think you are good for awhile with those specs and its likely overkill and underutilized with those applications.

[@RenzW]

@@captureinsidethesound I use my Mac mini for design and those application above and use my PC with a 3080ti for 3D design.

[@captureinsidethesound]

​@@RenzW ....or you could just used one PC. But, i totally understand why you would want to keep within the MacOs environment. Personally, i would too but I use Davinci Resolve, Unreal Engine 5 and Blender for basically everything. Adobe's "Creative Suites" got old and the fact you need an Adobe host just to have all the application work in sync is primitive because Resolve and even Blender do most of the same things all in one application. Adobe is clearly greedy. Otherwise, they would create an all-in-one application of their most widely used apps instead of charging for them individually.

[@RenzW]

@@captureinsidethesound Yeah for me Mac is a lot snappier even on my high end PC it's not as smooth. Also Adobe doesn't charge indivually i pay £16 a month on an educational discount for every program in the suit.

[@captureinsidethesound]

@@RenzW , Logic Pro X is the only thing that keeps me on MacOS. Adobe has its place for sure but for 3D modeling its just not a great investment and this is odd considering they have Lidar in the iPhone Pro's for 3D scanning. They could potential program an application specifically for the M-Series that would greatly improve real-time and rendering speeds in the same way NVIDIA does for CUDA but its like they dont care.

[@KoenKooi]

In the past few weeks blender integrated metal acceleration for the viewport, which increases the fps when modeling 2-3x in some cases. I think the compositor has gained metal acceleration just after you published this video. I’d be interested in a comparison of how various bit of software has improved over time, say 3 months from now. It’s too bad that you have to patch and compile UE5.x yourself to get apple silicon support, it makes things a lot faster, but you have to get lucky when picking the commit.

[@JoseFlores-hk1xd]

This is the review I’ve been waiting for! Thank you! Went with a Mac Studio for heavy motion graphics and maaaaybe some light 3D. I mainly work with 2D and just plan to dabble with 3D.

[@bryans8656]

That intro was terrific, and I really enjoyed how you detailed the process of building it while comparing machines. I too have the base Studio Max and while I think the M2 Pro mini is an amazing mid-tier computer I happy to know my Studio still has some legs.

[@chaitu4vfx]

Very purposeful review. I've gone through lot of videos that show benchmark results which finally confuse us on the deciding factor. You simplified it by considering the right models (M2 Pro, Max Studio and RTX3060) and right tools (AE, Premier, Blender) for comparison. In my opinion, you helped a lot of designers who work on 3D, After Effects, video editing to decide upon the kind of system they should prefer as per their requirement. Thanks a lot!!

[@mullinsmediaLLC]

Is After Effects primarily CPU based for M2 Max? i.e.,will it make any difference upgrading the 32GB unified memory to 96GB unified memory for performance in After Effects? Thank you

[@purplecorpse4230]

I’m wondering if the 96gb ram will make a difference as well

[@SaidaProps]

This is excellent. I never see reviewers delve into what blender is like to actually use on a platform. Appreciate the attention to detail.

[@alexshdvideo]

Thank you for posting. I’m on a Mac platform, M1 currently and thinking of new Mac Mini M2 Pro or Mac Studio Max. However I do 3d rendering as well, and plan on larger projects in the future. That makes a dedicated 3d animation station probably in PC/windows world. I’ll look at your other videos, but do you have a couple different suggested PC 3d animation work station systems? $1,000 then add one of different GPU’s and why? Then a $3,000 system etc.

[@elingrome5853]

Ive been wanting people to do these videos for years - thanks for answering my prayers :)

[@ChrisSh1984]

Wow what a great review. I think the comment about power efficiency vs time and cost was incredibly helpful. Yes, a beefy PC with multiple GPUs might cost more to run but if it's faster than you can save money that way. Amazing work :)

[@BarKeegan]

For someone who does mostly 2D work but occasionally dips into 3D modelling, would you recommend the base model Mac mini?

[@JayYoung-b6p]

No, not for 3D rendering

[@AR-bj5et]

Funny thing about the M2 Pro Mini and the M1 Max Studio is you can get a (mostly) better spec Studio for the exact same price. Both maxed out chips in their range, both 32Gb Memory, both same storage capacity (leaving at 512Gb for reference), and 10Gb Ethernet, both Macs come up to a price of £2,199 exactly. That's a Mac Studio with a negligibly worse CPU with the 10 core M1 but a substantially better 32 core M1 GPU vs the 19 core M2 GPU of the Studio. For exactly the same price. The Mini can cut costs over the M1 Max Studio if you drop them both to the lowest level processors in their range, the 16 core M2 GPU saves you £100, you can also save another £100 by ditching the 10Gb Ethernet which is fixed in the Studio but optional on the Pro so best case at lowest system specs you're looking at £1,799 vs £1,999, though there is still the performance disparity and less features to consider... Idk, I really feel like the Studio is the better deal when you really get to the spec options.

[@ghost-user559]

The studio is a better deal if you are looking to spend 500-600$ more. Obviously for a base model Mac mini Pro, you are going to spend significantly less for a very competent machine. But yeah, once you start adding upgrades, the Studio is actually a much better price for Ethernet and Ports and Ram. But use case and budget matters here. Obviously if someone was working with more than 3 displays, the Studio is the only option. And if someone wanted an 6-8k TV over HDMI, the Mini Pro is the only option.

[@deeperlayer]

Dunno dude... for 1300$ you can easily get a 13700k paired woth the 12GB 3060 not 8GB one which would smoke them in every test possible am not sure how you ended up with an i5 amd the 8GB for this kinda work... bad choice unless you wasted the money on the RGB lol

[@ElevatedSystems]

The memory bus on the 3060 12gb is cut in half plus the smaller GA106 GPU makes it a much worse card in 3D workflows. Due to it's higher bandwidth the 3060 TI actually has more memory available to the GPU under VRAM-intensive workloads. Plus the RTX 3060 TI has 1300 more CUDA cores. The RTX 3060 12GB is a mobile GPU Nvidia stuck on a desktop card and then cut it down.

[@deeperlayer]

@@ElevatedSystems if you are on a budget or trying to match the mac mini price at least it wouldn't give you the resolve out of memory error plus it would still be way faster than the Macs in GPU performance and the test results would all be in PCs favor.. heck a 1080ti with 12GB Vram will still smoke them both for like 100$ paired with the 13700k for even less price than 1300$ but you opted for an i5 and an 8GB video card against latest apple hardware, your reviews are of great quality but there is bad choice of PC hardware in all your vids.. and its good to mention than 99% of windows software arent available on arm macs without translatuon and no backward compatability with anything. i wouodnt call it a comouter at this piint but a video editing, internet browsing device

[@johnpereira6934]

Great review. I have always wanted an honest opinion regarding an Apple and PC comparison.

[@Adrian-wd4rn]

sooo if I want to do more work than producing music and shitty youtube videos, I should avoid mac products? Got it. Good to know.

[@Guairenito]

Very nice video. It is obvious that for a heavy 3D workflow user, a Windows PC with a dedicated graphic card is the way to go. I want to get a M2 Pro Mac Mini myself because I want to start working more seriously with photo and video editing, maybe with a little bit of After Effects. I also use some InDesign and Illustrator. I think that for that kind of workflow the Mac Mini will be more than sufficient for me.

[@joebartglazer]

I want to buy a regular mac mini with the m2 chip and want to use it only for after effects to make edits is this good idea or do you recommend something else

[@pinoygauta]

Thanks for the video! Did you mention you can manually upgrade the ram on the m2 Mac mini to 64gb ram? Would love more info on that!

[@tongtong1566]

Nice comparison. Do you think if your m1 max mac studio has 64gb of ram it would greatly increased the performance with your workflow? Or its just overkill?

[@Falgor]

Thanks for a great realworld example! 🏆 Your previous videos helped me make the right choice and get a pc. I got a Legion T5 (the glass side & sufficient RGB cpu cooler) and it’s also quiet. As much as I like macs, I really would’ve regretted the 3D speed. 3D previewing stuff in Blender isn’t that fast, even with a RTX 3070. Perhaps M3 or M4 will have more gpu power.

[@ordinarygg]

Blender and mac is probably worst software to use((

[@safarirat]

can you publish blender project? I want to test it on my new mini pc (amd 6800H)

[@ElevatedSystems]

Sure, I'm out of the office today, but I'll upload it to my github when I get a chance.

[@safarirat]

@@ElevatedSystems i cannot find yours github .-.

[@AmpleWarning]

This video is the best of its kind, great work👍🏼

[@purplecorpse4230]

Great video! Do you think the new M2 max’s 96GB ram would make a difference in 3D modelling? Would love to hear your answer on this!

[@ElevatedSystems]

Yes, if all you do is model, the system will be able to physically handle more polygons with more memory.

[@purplecorpse4230]

@@ElevatedSystems Ah I see. Do you think I should invest in the 96gb or would the 64gb be enough at handling a large file without lagging while working on it? (Not render speed) Thank you for your response!

[@ElevatedSystems]

@@purplecorpse4230 TBH I don't think you should invest in a mac at all for 3D work. No matter what you buy if your workflow outpaces the system, you're stuck with it. But if you check out my 3D iMac video you'll see how many polygons I was able to easily handle with just 16GB of memory.

[@captureinsidethesound]

Mac's are simply not great with 3D modeling period because regardless if it runs "smooth" in view-port, the render is going to test your patience. Also, if you have that kind of money then its not smart at all to invest into any Mac over $1000 if you are looking to get into any future productivity that requires WAY more GPU power than CPU and RAM . Once you go over $1000 then you are just throwing money away considering a +$1000 PC build will literally run multiple laps around any Mac M-Series. Again, this is assuming you are focused on GPU demanding application for acceleration.

[@purplecorpse4230]

@@captureinsidethesound Yeah I agree, you are both right. My reason behind asking if the most powerful MacBook present right now could efficiently handle 3D work is because I’ve been using windows my whole life and I hate it. I tried Mac a few days ago and loved it so I would like to move to that. Apple ecosystem and all as well. So yea, I was wondering how much of a sacrifice is it really and if it’s worth switching to mac

[@MindDrip]

9:15, you said hours, was that a mistake? It really takes hours to render such a short animation?

[@4115steve]

As someone who plans to live off green solar energy and is a creator, I can apperciate the power efficiency, I'm looking forward to seeing how the m1 and m2 hold up to Intel chips and threadrippers using sub 5 nanometer

[@dennis_tm]

Can you do such a comparison with the MacBook Pro with the M2 Max chip? it's more advanced than the M2 Pro chip and would be really interesting

[@beyondbased]

Honestly, it'd be an unnecessary comparison and not worth the extra effort of shooting another video. None of the latest Apple chips will come close to the performance of the latest Nvidia desktop GPUs.

[@Shiz73245]

thank you for this great video.Could you please suggest a laptop in the price range of $1500-$2000 best for After effects and blender.? i was about to buy an M2 PRO mac book pro ,this video gave me more details.

[@nino1996ify]

I just bought the mac mini m2 pro 16gb a week ago and am really impressed by it super happy

[@bovineox1111]

Rendering in Blender on a mac isn't practicable but modeling and texturing in Blender on a mac is just fine

[@RSV9]

Result, better buy a pc or laptop with Nvidia graphics. The Mac M2 mini is very expensive for that power

[@altar7885]

Nice video, thanks, I was wondering about the Mac Mini for Blender. After a big scare with a MacBook Air I was using to do rendering with Blender (worked really well until it suddenly wouldn't turn on - but it was just "a bug"), now I'm looking to get a proper pc desktop to use for Blender, and your RTX 3060 TI seems to be performing well. Your PC setup seems to be just under $1000, am I right?

[@teahousereloaded]

I so much want a Mac that I built my workstation in a Powermac g5 case. 😂

[@bluzenkk]

good info. i was thinking buying a mac mini to work on my blender projects.. so...thanks for the heads up... i guess i'll wait till the problems are fixed instead.

[@rohanstevenson553]

This was a truly fantastic review and analyses. The detail and the workflow covering everything. I am a composer dabbling in 3D to support some of my work. So I am primarily Mac based for Logic etc, but I have a PC for large templates and now some 3D and a dedicated Risen 3950X plus RTX3070 for my 3D stuff. What I am interested to know is why you didn't have disk cache on from the outside. I am guessing at your level of knowledge, you know that the GPU and CPU is now integrated, so you don't NEED as much physical RAM and the M.2 SSDs are so damn fast it's almost as fast as dedicated RAM. No question the PC/NVIDIA solution is where its at now if you want to render 3d. But what about others renderers such as luxcore or Redshift or even Radeon Prorender? How do they compare to Cycles - time vs quality etc. I have only dabbled with the other renderers. I've subscribed...this was truly a fantastic review going through all the hoops and problems I encounter.

[@davidcapuzzo]

for that scene you could have used EEVE and saved hours of time

[@GigachudBDE]

Actually have a question if anybody thinks they're up for it.Would using a M2 Mac Mini just at my office be suitable enough for modeling and whatnot? I'm just looking for a super cost effective option for like 80% of the work. I already have an M1 iPad Pro and a 3090 gaming PC at home. I figure I could easily connect my iPad as a secondary monitor with the M1 at my workplace (with touch and stylus support) and use the rig at home to finish off the heavy lifting and rendering.

[@Watchandlearn91]

I always appreciate the attention to detail and the amount of time you put into your videos that other reviewers do not. How about pitting the three machines against each other for software engineering next. 100 chrome tabs (I don't do this but everyone I work with does), several docker containers running (DB, back-end services, etc...), compiling a large code base repeatedly, and all the other fun stuff that comes along with it. I'd be interested in fan noise, compile times, and whether the application runs as smooth on each system.

[@wafflewafflewaffle]

Does anyone know if the M2 Mini Pro 12core 32gb is powerful enough to run Unreal Engine 5 well? Thanks

[@ElevatedSystems]

Unreal 5 has experimental Apple Silicon support but not all of the features work yet, and the M2 Pro GPU lacks the power needed to do much more than very basic work in Unreal.

[@sidsss2036]

Hope you will make a video on connecting the new Mac mini display to iPad

[@ElitePortraits]

you better get a macbook pro 2020

[@zhenghuanyu9882]

cuda is the god ? macos graphic shit!

[@sddrx6000]

My dude looks like Ben Affleck

[@John-bt3fo]

I found this very helpful for myself. Thanks so much!

[@alisheikh1582]

So which one do you suggest for after effects and blender, desktop or mac??

[@stevedeitry4644]

He literally spent the entire end of the video answering this.

[@alisheikh1582]

@@stevedeitry4644do you think for after effects we should prefer pc over Mac?

[@ElevatedSystems]

I said it depends on your use case.

[@alisheikh1582]

​@@ElevatedSystems I have to say you content is awesome. Would love to see M2 max laptop vs rtx 4090 laptop in same applications.

[@ElevatedSystems]

@@alisheikh1582 I can't afford either if those laptops but in any 3D work the rtx 4090 would slaughter the Apple GPU.

[@entrealist]

WOW, this is valuable! Thx

[@andbia77]

Finally a clear, meaningful comparison!

[@amoeba23]

Cheers for real world blender after effects and m2 exactly what we need.

[@krishnansrinivasan830]

Awesome & Thanks :)

[@Guironey]

thxxxxx

[@toonomni]

Thx

[@Bienbien-ft3yn]

Incredible review 😮

[@fashubh4277]

Hi I also have a M2 pro mac mini base model and i dont have any problems with even playing 8k footage on and the issue of viewport in blender rendering slow was due to wrong settings it could have been fixed easily and be 10x faster

[@fashubh4277]

And you were also screen recording

[@ElevatedSystems]

Can you elaborate on what settings were "wrong"? And I was capturing the video externally on another computer so there was no extra load on the Mac.

[@fashubh4277]

@@ElevatedSystems You put the viewport denoising to default which uses the openimage denoiser but it the most accurate but is also very slow so it was slowing it down you had to change denoising to start from 50 samples and this wasnt a problem for nvidia gpu cause it has optix denoiser which is significantly faster and worse and openimagedenoiser on mac

[@fashubh4277]

when i first got the mac it was a problem for me too but this fixed it.

[@ElevatedSystems]

@@fashubh4277 I just double checked I had the viewport denoising mode on Automatic and set to start on frame 25. I also played with the noise tolerance level to speed things up. This worked fine for mesh objects with basic materials, however it had little to no effect on particle simulations with more advanced. density based shaders.

[@stevedeitry4644]

You got me to jump a little with that intro Bro 👍

[@ElevatedSystems]

😁

[@alenkur55]

If I get Mac mini M2 8gb 256gb is it good for blender performance, for rendering and processing is faster? Can someone help me

[@fila1445]

this is a comparison i didn't know i needed :)

[@yourmomsfat9918]

I was thinking of making sus 3d videos and i am very confused now, i have budget of $1300 , so should I build a pc or buy a mac?