If there ’s one thing that ’s abundantly exonerated from this past week , it ’s that the Mac mini is very dissimilar thing to dissimilar the great unwashed — and that include Apple .

seldom can I intend of a time when the opinion on a new machine from Apple has been so varied as it has been in our own forums since this past Tuesday , when Apple unveil the first Intel - found Mac minis .

Much of the public debate has centered around Apple ’s use of Intel integrated computer graphic on the motherboard , in seat of a discrete nontextual matter chip like the sure-enough Mac mini , which featured an ATI Radeon 9200 graphics processing unit of measurement and 32 MiB of dedicated VRAM .

The new system use an Intel GMA 950 chip , which does n’t have any discrete VRAM — instead , it borrow the system ’s main memory for its own need . So if you have 512 MB of RAM install , 80 MB of that go away for the computer graphic chip shot ’s function , reducing your effective amount of RAM to 432 MB .

The salutary

There are some upsides to the new graphics chip . Because it has twice the amount of RAM allocate to it compare to the 9200 , and because the GMA 950 can support pixel shading , the Mac mini is , for the first sentence , capable of displaying graphics effects render using Tiger ’s “ Core Image ” technology .

Among other thing , Core Image ply a plug - in computer architecture for access filters , changeover and essence packages that are built right into the operating system . These effects are used by Apple to create the “ ripple ” upshot when you fire up a Dashboard widget , for example . Core Image effects are leveraged by third - political party developers and by Apple in its own software .

Another thing the GMA 950 is respectable at than the Radeon 9200 is its filling charge per unit . It ’s subject of rendering almost fifty percentage more pixels per second than the Radeon chip that was in the older Mac miniskirt .

Apple ’s senior director of desktops , Tom Boger , told me and my co-worker Jon Seff that this results in improved performance for iLife ‘ 06 on the new machines , and Front Row — a new summation to the Mac mini that ’s sure as shooting welcome to anyone who plans to apply the miniskirt to consider exposure , watch videos , or mind to music .

In our preliminary trial , the young Mac miniskirt ( the Core Duo model in special ) also seems a tidy sum more capable of toy back high definition video . That also bodes well for people who desire to use their Intel Mac miniskirt as the foundation of a midget Mac - based media center .

The defective

The GMA 950 has a issue of downsides , however .

The chip is n’t capable of scheduling vertex shaders — one of the more plebeian ways that 3D art for games and other 3D - intensive program work . The Mac ’s CPU has to make up for this shortcoming .

The GMA 950 is also unequal to of doing transform and lighting event . transmutation involves the transition of a 3D object to a 2D view — your computer monitor lizard . Lighting , in this case , is reach that 3D object look more genuine by making it ruminate , refract , and absorb sparkle . The Mac mini ’s spiffy new Intel CPU also has to make up for this defect .

It ’s a sound thing the fresh Intel chips are a lot quicker , and the organisation coach and other various components have been speed up too .

Speaking of speed , there ’s an significant reason why Apple emphasizes ( but does n’t insist ) that you should install RAM in pairs in the raw Mac miniskirt . It features a dual - channel memory controller — the motorcar can move double the amount of data through its retentiveness than it could otherwise .

As I said before , the GMA 950 is desegregate and does n’t have its own distinct video recording RAM , or VRAM . It allocates its own frame buffer storage retentiveness from the main system memory . Installing RAM in matched pairs can improve your Mac ’s overall performance when you ’re running software that ’s likely to put a toll on the graphics cow dung .

This is very similar to the iMac ’s memory computer architecture . But because the iMac has its own discrete graphics system with its own VRAM , the difference in execution between one potato chip and two is less obtrusive .

The surly

regrettably , that overall speed increase is n’t enough to make up the difference when it comes to fiddle 3D games on the young Mac mini . 3D graphics potato chip and visiting card have supported these features for a while , so they ’ve become received issue on most games . And what we ’ve learn is that the new Mac miniskirt is even a bit slower than its PowerPC - free-base herald when it come to running older titles like Unreal Tournament 2004 .

Now , the old Mac mini was no f number demon when it add up to playing games : We time the 1.42GHz PowerPC G4 - establish Mac mini at about 12 systema skeletale per secondment when we benchmarked it using Unreal Tournament 2004 . The new Core Solo Mac miniskirt average about 10 soma per 2nd using the same test , run a Universal Binary of Unreal Tournament 2004 .

I readily admit that ’s only one test , and it ’s not conclusive enough to write off the Mac mini as a play motorcar all together . Apple ’s Boger secern me that Apple ’s tests evince a considerable improvement in shape charge per unit on Pangea Software ’s popular 3D action plot Nanosaur II , for example . That ’s not entirely a surprisal , though , as Nanosaur II underline central processor speed over GPU capableness . And the Mac miniskirt is unquestionably faster in that regard .

We hope to test that out in the coming days , and I ’m also plan on bringing you a priming coat on what sort of game do run well on the Mac mini — see for that in the future tense .

The times they are a - changin ’

Up until Tuesday , Apple pooh - poohed integrated graphic as subscript . As my fellow worker Rob Griffiths take down in his recent column , Apple ’s Mac mini Web page show ( in part ):

I expect Boger about this . That was reflective of the state of the industry fourteen month ago , when those remark were made , he state me , and things have convert since then . The GMA 950 represent a newer and more adequate to generation of incorporate graphics processors . And in all fairness , Intel did n’t introduce the chip until May of last class — five month after Apple ’s Web pageboy give way up .

But Apple ’s new World Wide Web site for the Mac miniskirt state this :

And frankly , that ’s an assertion I dispute . Tiger Core Graphics ? Sure . The belated 3D plot ? likely not so much . We can toy semantic arguments until we ’re blue in the case about what “ latest 3D game ” mean . But it seems like a tidy sum of our readers , estimate from the forum posts made this week , have higher expectations than what our initial tests are picture as possible for this auto .

I ’ll be the first to tell people that if they want a gaming Mac , they ’re much better off looking at an Intel iMac or even a MacBook Pro . With each extra Universal Binary game we ’re getting , we ’re see great performance on both these machines .

The Mac mini might be a bit of a letdown to masses who wanted it all — a smashing gaming and media machine , a general workstation , and more , all in a tiny box . And there ’s certainly room for debate as to whether the GMA 950 was the right move .

But there ’s always room for improvement .