Mini Macs?

[the2bears]

Are pretty cool... anyone know about the graphics card in them?  I can certainly justify buying one as a test/development box.

Bill

[Chman]

Oh yes I know about this graphic card, I have the same on my home server. Radeon 9200 is a bit slower than a Geforce 4 MX. Don't expect shaders or fancy extensions. It's good to make small games, not to make heavy OpenGL.

Oh, its fillrate is very *very* limited.

About the minimac, it's a wonderful thing, expect that it's a bit too expensive at this time (only 256Mo RAM, HD 40 Go ) for the 1,25Ghz' one. You should wait for a next release that could use a G5 processor
Another important thing is that this thing doesn't make any noise (that's great) but has a thermal problem (do know how to say that in english :?), so be careful.

Chman

[Chman]

To give you some numbers about the 9200, I can run Doom 3 (640x480, no effect at all) at about 7 fps. That's for the 9200 with 64 Mo. The one in the mini mac is a 32 Mo.

Don't forget this

Chman

PS: Go for a G5 (although it's very expensive...)

[Matzon]

my biggest issues with the mini mac:
- It's 10.3, and 10.4 is comming up "shortly".
- The 9200 graphics card is not supported by CoreImage in 10.4.
- It draws 85W
- I don't need one, but would still like one

[gregorypierce]

The second point is key. While the machine will work it will be using the CPU for much of the 10.4 graphics pipeline and since these are slower G4s that's not a good thing. I'd wait until the summer or fall refresh so that they can add:

* x300 or 9600 video
* SPDIF or other optical audio out
* front mounted ports for it more likely use as a living room PC

[the2bears]

... but has a thermal problem (do know how to say that in english :?), so be careful...

"The computer, she runs hot":)

Thank-you everyone for the feedback.  I think you're right, let's wait until the next iteration and things are improved.  I did think 32M was pretty small for the graphics card.  Sure is a nice little design though.

Bill