Q: Which mac mini can run 4k without fan noise?
just got the 2018 Mac mini: 3.0ghz i5 8gb, 256gb ssd
The fan is on often and constant when viewing 4k 60fps on youtube.
I need something that can support 4k 60fps with split screen browsing.
Would i7 / more ram solve this issue? or do I need an external graphics card?
Or no apple...?
Comments
When I set the display to 4k and watch 4k videos I never hear the fans. this is the quietest Mac I have ever owned.
I don’t know where it is at today, but I thought YouTube 4K video uses WebM or Google V9 codec, which Apple does not support. So, depending on video codec, the Mac mini might be using the CPU to decode or Intel fixed function hardware to decode.
The latter will will be much less power intensive.
You can can do a test of 4K HEVC on the Mac mini. If the mini is whisper quiet doing that, it could be decoding schemas. Using a Chrome may fix this.