[Qgis-user] Mac computer configuration

Wed Sep 9 15:58:28 PDT 2020

Thanks, Maria,

Thanks for your suggestions. Everything you are saying makes sense. The
main problem is that I can't upgrade the RAM of this Macbook Pro. I am
leaning towards a Mac mini with 3.2GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7,
but let me try what you suggest before investing (removing non-GIS stuff
off the SSD. Part of the problem may be that all the GIS data are in a
non-SSD external drive). And of course, I will wait until the Sept. 15th
event for their announcement about anything new.

Best wishes,

Reiko Matsuda Goodwin
Comoé Monkey Project <https://www.facebook.com/ComoeMonkeyProject/>
Guenon Conservation Community
<http://facebook.com/GuenonConservationCommunity/>

On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 6:36 PM Priv.-Doz. Dr. Maria Shinoto <
maria.shinoto at zaw.uni-heidelberg.de> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I can only add to Donal's suggestions, which seem reasonable from my
> experience as well.
>
> Until last year, I have been working on a 13 inch MacBook Pro from 2011. I
> changed the HD to a 500GB SSD and the 8GB RAM to 16GB RAM a few years ago,
> and there was a jump in performance with all my software, I could have used
> it some more years. But QGIS got slow though with LiDAR data last year, so
> I bought a new MacBook Pro with 2GB SSD and 32GB RAM, now everything works
> smoothly; thanks to large storage and RAM in the first place, I assume.
>
> At the moment, I would hesitate to either buy a new machine with ARM or
> Intel processor but rather wait another year or a few months.
>
> In your case, I would try to boost RAM to 32GB in the first place (if 32
> is possible, otherwise 16GB). If things are still slow, I would delete
> everything not needed on a daily basis from the main SSD and get the GIS
> data on the SSD. And then wait for the AMD Macs and look how the reviews
> are. It seems that everything just gets better then and cheaper. And paying
> for RAM now is not such a large investment.
>
> Best,
> Maria
>
>
> > Am 10.09.2020 um 06:26 schrieb Donal Hunt <donal.hunt at gmail.com>:
> >
> > You can compare the CPU ratings of your current machine vs the ratings
> for the currently available i5 and i7 models of the mac mini here:
> https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i5-5287U-vs-Intel-i5-8500B-vs-Intel-i7-8700B/2575vs3382vs3388
> >
> > Additional memory (16gb or 32gb) may also help. You could potentially
> attach a fast nvme drive to the thunderbolt 3 port (you can't upgrade the
> SSD on the latest generation of mac minis as they are soldered to the logic
> board).
> >
> > I would highly recommend profiling where the bottleneck / performance
> issues are occurring. Tools such as activity monitor, instruments and
> sample can provide more insight. See
> https://gist.github.com/loderunner/36724cc9ee8db66db305 for some
> suggestions.
> >
> > Hope that helps.
> >
> > Donal
> >
> > On Wed, 9 Sep 2020 at 15:04, RMG <reikogoodwin at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello Donal and list,
> >
> > Many thanks for asking. Below is the info:
> >
> > Model Name: MacBook Pro
> >       Model Identifier: MacBookPro12,1
> >       Processor Name: Intel Core i5
> >       Processor Speed: 2.9 GHz
> >       Number of Processors: 1
> >       Total Number of Cores: 2
> >       L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
> >       L3 Cache: 3 MB
> >       Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
> >       Memory: 8 GB
> >       Boot ROM Version: 192.0.0.0.0
> >       SMC Version (system): 2.28f7
> >
> > Apple SSD Controller:
> >
> >       Vendor: Apple
> >       Product: SSD Controller
> >       Physical Interconnect: PCI
> >       Link Width: x4
> >       Link Speed: 5.0 GT/s
> >       Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported
> >
> > APPLE SSD SM0512G:
> >
> >       Capacity: 500.28 GB (500,277,790,720 bytes)
> >       Model: APPLE SSD SM0512G
> >       Revision: BXW1SA0Q
> >       Native Command Queuing: Yes
> >       Queue Depth: 32
> >       Removable Media: No
> >       Detachable Drive: No
> >       BSD Name: disk0
> >       Medium Type: Solid State
> >       TRIM Support: Yes
> >       Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
> >       S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
> >
> > Best wishes,
> >
> > Reiko Matsuda Goodwin
> > Comoé Monkey Project
> > Guenon Conservation Community
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 5:05 AM Donal Hunt <donal.hunt at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Can you provide the following information from the command line (run
> these commands and paste the output):
> >
> > $ system_profiler SPHardwareDataType
> >
> > $ system_profiler -detailLevel mini SPSerialATADataType
> SPParallelATADataType
> >
> > * you may want to remove/redact the "Serial Number (system)" and
> "Hardware UUID" values before emailing.
> >
> > That will provide some information on your existing system and disks
> which will make it easier to determine what appropriate replacements are
> needed. Normally, I would look at CPU performance, amount of RAM and disk
> speeds (HDD vs SSD vs NVMe makes a huge difference).
> >
> > Hope that helps!
> >
> > Donal
> >
> > On Wed, 9 Sep 2020 at 02:00, RMG <reikogoodwin at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  Hello QGIS users on Macs,
> >
> > I would like advice on purchasing a new Mac. My Mac is 5 years old and
> cannot handle heavy-duty QGIS procedures. I process many satellite images
> and some vector files with 30 m grids have millions of features, for
> example. To process anything is taking too long. I know there has been a
> discussion on ARMS hardware, but that seems a few years away. So right now,
> what would you recommend? I plan to partition the hard drive to handle
> ArcGIS as well. I do not think I can afford a dream machine like Mac Pro,
> though. Is a Mac mini something that you guys use and recommend?
> >
> > Best wishes,
> >
> > Reiko Matsuda Goodwin
> > Comoé Monkey Project
> > Guenon Conservation Community
> >
> >
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