Mac computer issues/advice requested!
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Hello!
Looking for advice/opinions/experiences with Apple Desktops/Mini M# for a university computer lab. I am the Digital and Intermedia Dance Lecturer in the Department of Dance at Ohio State University and we have a dance media lab for classes and student work where the students do basic computing but also heavy video editing/processing and Isadora patching and we are having LOTS of issues. Half of the lab has 2017 iMac (6-core, radeon pro 570x graphics, 16 gb memory) and the other half have 2021 iMac (M1 chip, 8 core, 16bg memory) and the new Mac M1's work more poorly (freezing, lagging, etc.) than the old desktops. We replace the computers in this lab in waves due to budget constraints and I was not around when the new M1 batch was ordered previously as I am newer to this role.
We are due to replace the other half of the lab computers and I do not want to have a lab full of iMacM1’s with all the issues we are facing- has anyone had similar problems? I would love to outfit the lab with Mac Studios but that is not in the budget. Any suggestions on what we should be getting for this usage? Thinking about the Mac mini m2 pro but don’t have experience with it. We are a Mac lab so have to stay in that lane.
Thank you izzy community!
Lexi Clark-Stilianos (she/her)
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Hi there Lexi!
Could you tell us a bit more about the Freezing / lagging that you see on the those Mac M1's. Since we test our releases on those machines, so is this with Isadora that you see the freezing? Or are you talking about other programs? Since you are also referring to heavy video editing / processing.
And what is 'heavy'. Are we talking 4K resolutions? Are we talking multiple screens out from these machines?
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@juriaan I'll have to gather some more specific info/instances from my students about what is happening but freezing/lagging is happening with both Isadora and other programs (Final Cut Pro X). I was thinking it was the graphics card that was the issue but perhaps I'm on the wrong track. They have no outputs and for my class specifically it doesn't matter too much if the resolution is 4k or much less, still having slowness issues on FCPX and Isadora (the two programs we use the most).
I had our tech person take one of the computers to do some diagnostics see if got a couple bad apples. We are in between tech help right now so also might be potentially some of the software on it? We are a university student focused lab so lots of constraints. Have you seen performance issues on the M1? Are the M2 minis more reliable? They are mostly learning to program on these computers and then take the work into our multi-media, multi-disciplinary space or theatre later.
