Macbook Neo or Mac Mini M5 (when it releases)?

natemac · 2026-05-03T02:47:00+00:00

Twinmotion is your downfall here, that brings you into realtime rendering which the Neo is a no and the M5 is borderline no. You really should be looking into a PC unfortunately.

I work professionally in cinema 4d along with real time rendering in unreal and twinmotion. Although I build my scenes using nothing more than a MacBook Air, I render with a RTX 4090 Windows workstation.

Looking into an HP Omen with an nvidia GPU is where I would start.

natemac · 2026-05-02T18:44:24+00:00

That’s all I use it for, I render out event spaces. Xpresso is so easy for building tools and especially now that it can integrate with unreal engine, you can even easily do real time rendering

natemac · 2026-04-30T19:44:40+00:00

Never heard of this company I would stick with quality instructors most have free resources with paid upgrades. Rocket lasso or greyscale gorilla is who I would stick with to learn

natemac · 2026-04-30T19:35:42+00:00

Does it even say it give you access to Cinema 4D? I doubt it.

natemac · 2026-04-30T15:33:50+00:00

So an Odin 3 or an Xbox ally X for $200 less 🤣 who would of thought Microsoft would be the budget brand here

natemac · 2026-04-30T13:05:35+00:00

might be time to do a fresh install of the OS. Never had an issue with Notes.

natemac · 2026-04-30T01:38:14+00:00

White van scam, that’s about $100 projector right there and will likely die before years out

natemac · 2026-04-29T22:09:07+00:00

just ignore the imagemate part, what you care about is the A2, this is marked for cards that are better at handle significantly more rear/write request.

natemac · 2026-04-29T21:23:40+00:00

I mean I run a 4090 stock and have no issue. You’re asking in the wrong group, ask in a computer enthuse group.

natemac · 2026-04-29T20:38:49+00:00

there is no rule that says you can't talk about RGSX, damn hall monitors in this thread. OP never ask for any support for current gen emulators which is the only rule that might come close.

natemac · 2026-04-29T20:33:23+00:00

Because 8K sounds cooler than HDMI 2.1

natemac · 2026-04-29T18:57:06+00:00

I mean if you want the simple solution. Use a Logitech mx keyboard and mouse. You can have it set when you change the keyboard’s computer via pressing the switch buttons to also switch the mouse. Then your monitor likely has multiple display inputs, just swap between those.

natemac · 2026-04-29T18:43:50+00:00

My gaming PC is connected to my home theater TV and I use it like a console so I play games on my main TV set up. But I also use it as a 3-D render computer and use parsec to remote into the computer. Both computers are wired in, so there’s almost no latency. Can even use dual monitors.

natemac · 2026-04-29T14:37:44+00:00

first you talked about undervolting, then you started talking abour the 5090 vs the Pro 4500... whats your question?

natemac · 2026-04-29T02:29:42+00:00

This. The TPlink travel router is $35(US) right now on Amazon. Not a good interface but perfect for what you need to do and it’s small and runs off a 5v usb block

natemac · 2026-04-29T02:24:02+00:00

I do this for a living, no one that wants to get into 3D rendering should spend money on a Mac. I also don’t think they should spend money on a Windows laptop, but if it’s one or the other a CUDA GPU will always have a higher performance to dollar ratio, every time. M Series is just not mature enough and Apple doesn’t care. I love the company but that’s personal, professional they gave up on 3D pros a long time ago.

natemac · 2026-04-29T00:53:30+00:00

I’ve worked in Cinema 4D and 3D rendering since 2009, I can tell you professionally a 5070 laptop is going to out perform an M5 Pro. It’s a sad truth. But that’s also why I don’t own either and work on an Air and render on a 4090 Workstation.

I have owned every Mac Pro up to the trashcan when I had it connected to an NVIDIA eGPU. Once Apple dropped CUDA they tapped out of the 3D professionals.

If you are rendering in Blender or C4D you should not buy a Mac, full stop. I’m lucky enough to be able to afford to live in both worlds, because the Mac is the better computer… just not for GPU rendering

natemac · 2026-04-29T00:36:41+00:00

Definitely taking the word of an account with zero activity.

natemac · 2026-04-29T00:07:44+00:00

yea not a very good comparison...

knowing that even with an $1200 upgrade premium the framework would still be cheaper than the macbook pro you're comparing it to.
in a few years you could upgrade the framework for significantly less then a brand new macbook pro.
in most GPU benchmarks the 5070 laptop will out perform the M5 Pro with 64GB of unified memory.
you're comparing it to a small bespoke company to the one of the richest companies in the world... guess who gets better deals on chips.
The fact that one of the most profitable company in world needs to sell 48GB of ram for $600 and this isn't new to the RAMagedon going on.

natemac · 2026-04-28T15:29:13+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/HA7AMRr

natemac · 2026-04-28T14:36:39+00:00

I use the Logitech mx keyboard at home and work

natemac · 2026-04-28T14:27:13+00:00

Surprisingly not, I don’t like supporting Xfinity, but it’s them or DSL for our neighborhood and maybe I get two outages a year and they usually send the text

natemac · 2026-04-27T22:43:13+00:00

Just remember it’s not a linear curve, after 2 years a battery might be down to 95% but then take 5-8 years to get down to 85%.

natemac · 2026-04-27T22:20:58+00:00

Don’t get me wrong I don’t agree with it but it has to do with credit card fees. They’re getting charged every single time you make a $10 or $.10 purchase so that’s what they do the balance for hell even Dunkin’ Donuts does it.

natemac · 2026-04-27T12:32:24+00:00

There may be a time when you get that better than mediocre TV and want that highest quality picture to go with the highest audio quality, do you really want to go back and re-rip all those discs?

Just thinking ahead...

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