M1 base Mac mini, considering upgrade to M2 Pro or eventually M3 Pro/Max?

nicholfd
nicholfd
edited December 2023 in SecuritySpy

Hello,

For about 3 years I've been running Security Spy (16 camera license, with 11 or 12 active cameras - H.264 & H.265) on a base (8GB RAM, 512GB RAM) M1 Mac mini. I have a TB3 external RAID chassis with 8TB of storage. The same Mac mini is also acting as an Apple caching server, DVR for a Silicon Dust ATSC 3.0 (4k) OTA network tuner, and a Plex server (Plex storage is a separate FreeBSD server). DVR usage is minimal, and seems to be pure streaming (no encode/decode) to clients (not very often). Plex decode/encode is once or twice a week to my family, remotely via the internet, at most.

I also have another base M1 Mac mini running Indigo for home automation & other home automation tasks - none using GPU or AV (Indigo/Z-Wave, Bridge for HomeKit, Web server, etc.)

I'm considering consolidating these two.

I'm asking for opinions regarding my upgrade choices: M2 Pro Mac mini, near future M3 Pro Mac mini, or M3 Max MacBook Pro. The M3 series are obviously faster. The M3 offers AV1 hardware decoder (does any camera provide AV1 video?). The M3 Max offers 2 x decode engines verses the M2/M3 Pro 1 x decode engine. I realize that if the M2/M3 max is the best option for my use case I'd have to purchase a 14" MacBook Pro vs. a Mac mini.

Do any of the M2/M3 features (other than raw performance) benefit Security Spy (AV1?) Any advantage to the Max vs. Pro version of either of the M2/M3 chips benefit Security Spy? Does GPU core count benefit Security Spy or my Plex decode/encode?

Thanks,

Frank

Comments

  • Ben
    Ben
    edited December 2023

    The capabilities of many different hardware modules can affect SecuritySpy's performance:

    • Media Engine: used for encoding and decoding video streams. For most systems, it's the capability of this module that determines how many cameras can be used on a given Mac.
    • GPU: important if you're running a high-res multi-monitor setup with many video feeds being continuously displayed (a "video wall").
    • Neural Engine: SecuritySpy's object detection uses neural networks, and these run on the Neural Engine. Therefore, the speed of this module becomes important if this feature is enabled for many cameras.
    • CPU: of course, like any application that does a significant amount of data processing, a faster CPU will improve SecuritySpy's performance.
    • RAM: each camera uses a certain amount of memory, so on larger systems with many cameras, it's important to budget for enough RAM to keep everything running smoothly.

    Our system requirements calculator is the tool to use to determine which Mac is suitable for your system. I know it's currently missing some of the newer Mac models at the moment, so we'll try to add these in the near future.

    AV1 is some time away in the CCTV world - as far as I know, no IP camera currently supports it, and the RTP specification for its transport over IP network is not yet finalised. It has significantly advantages over H.265 and could be the dominant format at some point, but not for a while.

    A Mac mini with M2 Pro should give you all the power you need to run everything. Perhaps go for the 32 GB RAM option. Waiting for the M3 Pro mini would also be a reasonable decision, if everything is running smoothly with your current setup and you're in no hurry to upgrade.

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