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Any chance for a future 8 core mini
- Thread starter Acorn
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Yes. And I'm confident it'll happen. In the 2012 models of minis, they used the same type of chips used in 15" MacBooks Pros. You can get that sort of chip in an 8 core variant. The latest minis run desktop type CPUs, and within the TDP (that's how much heat it'll generate) 8 cores is definitely possible. AMD even has a 65W 8 core part now.
Buy a MacBook Air. I’m sure in 57 years apple will still be using duel core in this device.
Right now Apple wants the TOTL iMac to be the desktop prosumer speed king. I’m sure the Mac Mini will eventually get a processor upgrade but the next generation iMac will probably still be faster and the current i9, if it ends up in the Mac Mini, will lose some of it’s shine. But that might still be all you need.
I am wondering if the Mac mini could handle the i9. If so, it seems a natural option for racked minis.
The Core i7-9700 8c/8t (65w TDP) runs at a slightly lower clock rate of 3.0GHz, but also has no hyperthreading. This is the direct one to one replacement once Intel releases a “B” variant. So the lineup would most likely look like this:
Core i3-9100 4c/4t 3.6GHz
Core i5-9500 6c/6t 3.0GHz
Core i7-9700 8c/8t 3.0GHz
Core i9-9900 8c/16t 3.1GHz
What Apple could do is to move to the 9th Gen and give users the top 3 choices, which would be the direct one for one replacements to protect the Core i9-9900K in the 27” iMac as the top of the consumer line. How well that would go over with users is another matter and some would be happier with 6c/12t and some would rather have 8c/8t. Since there are no more 6c/12t CPUs in Intel’s 9th Gen lineup, this create a conundrum for Apple. Leave the CPUs as-is and listen to complaints about outdated, update the CPUs one for one and be done with it or add the i9-9900 as an additional BTO option...the question would be, can the mini chassis handle 8c/16t at 3.1GHz plus Turbo Boost speeds to the average user’s satisfaction. We know that they cannot for those who believe Turbo Boost should be an infinite add-on, so its a quarter toss, IMHO.